Reshef Levi’s Hebrew-language film, Hunting Elephants, is a non-stop exercise in farce.
Scheduled to open in Toronto theatres on June 12, it’s set in Jerusalem and revolves around a nerdy 12-year-old boy and his grumpy, tough-as-nails grandfather.
Jonathan (Gil Blank), whip smart but socially awkward, is the butt of jokes and pranks at his school. His best friend, his father, works at a bank. When he dies of a heart attack while on duty, his family is exposed to hardship.
Financially strapped after the bank refuses to take responsibility for his death, Jonathan’s mother, Dorit, turns to his estranged grandfather, Elyahu (Sasson Gabai), for assistance.
Enter Michael Simpson (Patrick Stewart), a snobbish British Jew who arrives in Israel after learning that his sister — Elyahu’s wife Rhoda — has fallen into a coma and has been admitted to hospital. Simpson, a flamboyant actor who has anglicized his name and persona, has little regard for Israel. He’s in Jerusalem for the sole purpose of claiming an inheritance, the house in which Elyahu and Rhoda lived for many years.
Simpson, Jonathan’s uncle, offers to help him, but in the meantime, Dorit has begun dating her late husband’s boss. It’s not a love match by any means. Dorit, an opportunist, seeks financial stability.
As these developments unfold, Jonathan dreams up a get-rich scheme and convinces Elyahu to come on board. The plan is to rob a bank, leaving their money problems behind. Elyahu, who brags of his days as a fighter in the pre-state struggle to achieve Jewish statehood, recruits his ornery comrade-in-arms, Nick (Nomi Moshonov), in the plot.
The film, which tends to be episodic, is rife with twists and turns and broad humour, some of which is lewd and profane.
The actors turn in crisp performances, with Gabai and Stewart acquitting themselves particularly well. Gabai is as hard-boiled as they come, while Stewart is a trooper
Levi directs the traffic with a firm hand, but sometimes the moving parts fail to function flawlessly. Nevertheless, Hunting Elephants is a romp, a pure and unadulterated exercise in old-school entertainment, Israeli style.