The use of music – its creation, communal nature, and celebration – as a metaphor for life is far from unique; indeed, many a film has drawn attention to the correlation. Fictional features have taken great pains to compare the two, just as biopics and documentaries have employed the obvious metaphor – whether focused on a figure or a style, and whether for better and for worse.
With its allusions evident in its title, Benny Toraty’s The Ballad of the Weeping Spring (Balada le’aviv ha’bohe) again treads familiar territory, and again highlights the resonance of music in the unravelling of ordinary existence. Yet in the thoughtful offering, as in the bulk of similar efforts, the comparison remains for a reason, allowing a lyrical outlet to epitomise struggles and successes that can’t otherwise be conveyed with clarity.
The tune for which the feature is named looms large over the events of its narrative, an unavoidable presence from the moment a scroll bearing its composition is unfurled. On behalf of his ailing father Avram (Arnon Zadok, Marriage Agreement), Amram (Dudu Tassa, Lebanon) carries it to ex-musician Yosef Tawila (Uri Gavriel, The Dark Knight Rises), its passing between the two men coloured by the weight of history. Swiftly, they set off on another quest: to compile a band to play the as-yet unperformed arrangement on an assortment of exotic instruments. Unsurprisingly, their efforts are as much about the journey as the outcome.
For his second feature following 2001’s Desperado Square, writer/director Toraty styles his story as a road movie, relishing the episodic nature of the duo’s travels to pay tribute to a man of importance in their lives. The influence of westerns is equally unavoidable as they traverse barren lands in search for the next members of their group, and afford each newcomer their own quirky, redemptive subplot; so too, in the mythic quality of Yosef and Avram’s original musical troupe, Turquoise Ensemble, whose mere mention proves the fodder of whispered legend.
And yet, even with such a rich history of theme and aesthetic to guide its construction, the light-hearted film favours the standard, with nothing exceptional demonstrated in its assemblage of average mid-shots, emotive language, eccentric characters and obvious performances. Though the impact of its refreshingly non-political odyssey, particularly on the aural side, is left untarnished by the lack of imagination in the execution, the requisite spark is missing in a feature that soon becomes another treatise on tradition versus modernity.
Of course, the overt role of melodious sound ensures warmth radiates from the slight but sweet tale, in the fashion of many other music-oriented movies. That The Ballad of the Weeping Spring evokes such a wealth of other material, in its format, conventions and audio and visual content, is among its highlights, in a film best enjoyed for its embrace of the familiar.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
The Ballad of the Weeping Spring (Balada le’aviv ha’bohe)
Director: Benny Toraty
Israel, 2012, 106 mins
Sydney: 13 – 29 August
Melbourne: 14 – 28 August
Canberra: 15– 22 August
Brisbane: 20 – 26 August
Adelaide: 15 – 21 August
Perth: 21 – 28 August
Byron Bay: 22 – 28 August
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