itamarscomix 'Zohi Sdom' is a feature film spin-off of 'Eretz Nehederet', Israel's most successful sketch comedy show for nearly a decade now; like in a National Lampoon movie, the cast of the TV show play various roles in a kinda-linear storyline.There was a strange attempt to market 'Zohi Sdom' as a local version of Monty Python's Life of Brian. But other than the fact that it's set in biblical times, there's absolutely no similarity (other than the lead character's outfit). There's no real satire in 'Zohi Sdom'; a shame, because with a feature film the writers had the chance to make satire more biting and more universal than what they could afford to do on network television. Instead, they used that opportunity to have more sex jokes. The humor in 'Zohi Sdom' is a neverending series of gags, none of which have any bearing on the story, and most of which are anachronism gags in the level of The Flintstones (only with a lot more sex).The movie does have a few chuckles, but the humor is so local as to never have any real impact anywhere but Israel in the early 21st century, which is a waste. It does actually have a pretty decent production, and some good actors - Assi Cohen's performance is deliciously hammy (he clearly realized how dumb the script was), and local legendary satirist/journalist Mordechai Kirschenbaum as Abraham is one of the movie's few saving graces. But ultimately it's a failed attempt, which owes all its success to marketing, and will - I believe and hope - disappear into anonymity.

Turfseer Caught this Israeli Biblical spoof at the 25th Annual Israel Film Festival. It's in the tradition of Monty Python's farcical "Life of Brian" but here the focus is on an 'Old Testament' tale, the story of Lot. The story is filled with many anachronistic elements. We begin with God who is dressed like an insurance salesman carrying a briefcase which doubles as a TV monitor and a device capable of causing a nuclear -like explosion (the briefcase features an LCD timer, connoting the hours and minutes to Sodom's eventual destruction). God pays a visit to Abraham who he demands accept the offer to become the founder of the new one-God Jewish religion. Abraham bargains with God, insisting that he must save the city of Sodom's only righteous man, Lot. God sends two goofy motorcycle driving security agents to Sodom in order to extricate Lot before the city blows up.We meet Lot who's a lottery ticket vendor in the central marketplace. His goal is to sell enough tickets to open up a community center. The evil Mayor of Sodom wants to clear out all the vendors so he can have real estate developers build fancy condos at the location. When Lot is brought before the Mayor and he refuses to give up his booth, he pricks Lot's big toe and then 'tortures' him by dumping him continuously in salt water. Soon, the Mayor gets wind of God's plan and decides to switch places with Lot, hoping that when God's security people find him at Lot's house, he'll be the one who is saved when the city is destroyed.In the mix is Tal Friedman, a male actor who plays Lot's wife. She's a one joke character who wants to revive her singing career (we get to view snatches of her inept music video from her 'younger' days) and she's later set upon by Sodomites when she attempts to belt out the tune at her daughter's wedding to Prince Ninveh, the Mayor's lovestruck elder son. Ninveh's comic claim to fame is that he's lactose intolerant and he goes to great lengths to win the heart of Lot's daughter who is often seen singing mawkish Israeli pop tunes.I can't say that there are really any 'laugh out loud' moments in 'This is Sodom', but there are a few amusing bits. For example, God flips through TV shows on his briefcase, cuddled up next to a goat. One of the shows is an American Idol takeoff featuring a contest for Israel's top eunuch. Another amusing scene which features more black humor than straight out farce, is when Lot's wife attempts to select a 'human sacrifice' for her daughter's upcoming wedding. The store salesman tries to dissuade her from selecting various candidates, primarily because they either take too long or too short a time to burn to death. Lot's wife ends up selecting the God's newly imprisoned security people who are then escorted through the city encased in plastic wrap.Not all of the bits are that funny including one of the security guard's obsession in filming a documentary of their travails. In the end, 'This is Sodom' scores points not as much for the humor but its irreverence and generally being good-natured. Instead of God actually destroying Sodom, he merely causes a big fireworks display (although we're led to believe that a nuclear-like explosion has taken place). Even better is that our good guy hero Lot survives and becomes the permanent mayor of Sodom. The bad guy Mayor along with Lot's wife get to leave the city (before the mock explosion) and of course Lot's wife can't resist turning back and looking at the explosion despite being explicitly ordered not to by God. Instead of turning into a pillar of salt, a large rock formation breaks off and squishes her. The evil Mayor begs to be taken in at Abraham's door and the Patriarch tells him there's always room for more applicants in the tribe. The final exterior shot of Abraham's tent implies that the Mayor undergoes the pain of circumcision so that his wish not to be left alone in the desert, is fulfilled.The main object of 'This is Sodom's' satire is pop culture, exemplified by the TV shows and music video takeoffs interspersed throughout the narrative. Those who are enamored more with slapstick type farce and straight out black humor, 'This is Sodom' will probably be your thing. For those looking for a deeper satiric, political edge, you might come away a bit disappointed.

Nozz Even in Israel, the entertainment industry is not known for piousness; so give them a Bible story as a basis for satire and you might fear you'll get back pointless and ignorant mocking. But most of the time, the humor in ZOHI SDOME shuns nihilism and springs from a long-standing Jewish view of the Bible in which none of the heroes is considered perfect and any manifestation of God is considered a specialized metaphor. Here Abraham, famous for bargaining with God over the fate of the city of Sodom, finds in God a bargainer straight from the desk of a mobile phone company or insurance agency. Lot, the righteous man in Sodom, is another in a long line of sad sacks that Dov Navon has played in his career, but the movie takes his character seriously and finds an anchor in it among the fast-flung jokes. The movie's cast comes largely from a popular Israeli TV series of skits and jokes, and the advance publicity tried nervously to attract a crowd while cautioning that this is no wide-screen version of the TV show but something else entirely. It is, and whereas the TV show strives to keep up with the nightly or at least the weekly news, ZOHI SDOME is written to be almost as funny years from now. And it probably will be, almost.

dromasca 'Zohi Sdom' which is translation means 'That's Sodom' deliberately places itself at the intersection between the very popular Israeli TV show 'Eretz Neederet' (Wonderful Country) and the big screen British Monty Python movies of historical and Biblical inspiration. The Israeli weekly shows are a local version of 'Saturday Night Live' bringing at their best some of the sharpest political, social and typological satire in a country that provides endless sources of humor and badly needs laughs to cope with a myriad of problems and conflicts that seem to be unsolvable other than in a comical fantasy. A permanent team of actors usually play all the roles in the show, in a collection of sketchers interleaved with permanent features, which were abandoned here, as was the newsreel format in the favor of the Biblical story parody. The British show was starting with the end of the 60s the source of inspiration of all other comical and satirical TV series all over the world (including the American SNL) and also pioneered the transcription to the wide screen with anthology successes that seldom have been equaled by other similar shows world-wide.The too close following of the sources of inspiration may be the cause for which the big screen movie does not really work. Although the idea is quite cool (the TV anchor in the original show is a cynical God attracting patriarch Abraham into the trap of the Holy Contract while preparing the destruction of the sin city of Sodom) and the story works better that you would expect, there are many laughs during the screening, but none is hysterical. The TV stars do in the movie of the same that they do in the TV show, just the screen is bigger, and some of them do not look as well on the big screen as in the TV box (the otherwise beautiful and talented Alma Zack for example, or Orna Banai who gets a very insignificant role and little screen time). Best are the street scenes depicting the life in Sodom, and here the references to reality nowadays work well. However, the exaggerated respect for the Monty Python formula (including the insertion of music and dances) lead to a (maybe unintended) air of detachment and diminish the acuity of the social and political comment which make the original show be interesting for the majority of its viewers.Released at the pick of the summer season 'Zohi Sdom' will certainly be a huge hit in Israel this year. I am less convinced that it will survive as an outstanding movie beyond this summer.