Land of the Little People (3 Stars)

This is the 18th film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

Israel is a country that lives in a constant state of war, or at least in constant readiness for war. That's what inspired the director to make this film. It shows how even children are influenced by the militaristic nature of society.

Near the town where the four friends shown above live (three boys and a girl) there's a building that used to be a weapons depot. After an explosion destroyed it it's been standing in ruins, surrounded by a fence and No Trespassing signs. Nevertheless, the friends use it as their personal playground.

One day they find two soldiers in the building. They're hiding because they're deserters. The children don't like the intrusion, so they decide to wage war on the soldiers to drive them out of the building.

There's a naivety to the way the children act which is both beautiful and absurd at the same time. There are certain ambiguities in the film. When discussing the film afterwards we couldn't agree on what certain events meant. It's an interesting film, but I'm not sure I'll want to watch it again.

Lemon Popsicle 8: Summertime Blues (3½ Stars)

This is the 8th and last of the Lemon Popsicle films, a series of Israeli teen comedies made between 1977 and 1988. They tell the story of three friends, Benny, Johnny and Momo, who live in Tel Aviv in the 1950's. The first few films show them still at school, then we see them doing military service, and finally they enter the career world doing exciting jobs such as pizza delivery. Their main interests are rock'n'roll and picking up girls.

The three main characters are very sterotypical, and their personalities bounce off each other for comic effect. Benny is the quiet introspective boy who is always falling in love and getting hurt. Johnny is the fat jovial boy, the funniest of the three, but also the voice of reason when they get into trouble. Momo is the handsome casanova who heartlessly seduces girl after girl.

Worth watching? Yes, but as with most film series the first films are the best. They were filmed in Hebrew and dubbed English for the international market, but the director Boaz Davidson also remade the first film in the USA, using new actors but almost the same dialog, calling it "The Last American Virgin". The original films have never been released on DVD in America, but they are available in Germany. Significantly, the Lemon Popsicle films were adapted for the American market in the guise of the Porky's films, made in Canada from 1982 to 1985, in which many of the comedy scenes from the first three films were directly copied.