Te'alat Blaumilch (1969)

Director:

Ephraim Kishon

Writer:

Ephraim Kishon (play)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A slapstick comedy lampooning bureaucracy and the madness of everyday life in Israel centers on an escaped lunatic who digs up the streets of Tel-Aviv with a drill.

Plot Keywords:

Israel | Satire | Jewish | Based On Play

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe.

Cast

Bomba Tzur	...	Blaumilch
Nissim Azikri	...	Yehezkel Ziegler
Shraga Friedman	...	Dr. Avigdor Kooiybishevsky
Avner Hizkiyahu	...	Menahem Ze'ev Zuckerman
Oded Teomi	...	Dentist
Rina Ganor	...	Seine Frau
Zaharira Harifai	...	Fürsorgerin
Miriam Gavrieli	...	Deborah Zuckerman
Aviva Paz	...	Secretary
Gideon Singer	...	Police Chief Akiva Levkowicz
Mosko Alkalai	...	Zelig Schultheiss
Albert Cohen	...	Dr. Gilad
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gabi Amrani	...	Police Officer
Yona Atlas
Reuven Bar-Yotam	...	Foreman
Hanoch Chazon
Yehuda Efroni
Zisha Gold
Esther Greenberg	...	Mrs. Kalaniot
Zalman Hirschfeld
Arieh Itzhak		(as Arieh Itzhaki)
Ephraim Kishon	...	Driver
Oshik Levi
Amnon Meskin
Elisheva Michaeli	...	Dvora
Rivka Michaeli	...	Cleaning woman
Shaike Ophir	...	Police Officer
Abraham Ronai	...	Mr. Kosla, Asst. to the mayor
Tsippi Shavit	...	Operator in Tel-Aviv City hall (as Tzipi Shavit)
Reuven Shefer
Sami Shmueli		(as Sami Shmuel)
Shlomo Vishinsky
Nathan Wolfovich	...	Mayor
Aliza Yitzhaki
Uri Zohar	...	Orchestra Conductor

Also Known As:

Blaumilch Canal (International: English title) (literal title)
Der Blaumilchkanal (West Germany) (TV title)
The Big Dig

Runtime:

95 min | West Germany:87 min

Country:

Israel | USA | West Germany

Language:

Hebrew | German

Colour:

Colour (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Tel Aviv, Israel

Company:

Canal Film Production Ltd.

Trivia:

The character of the incompetent police officer (played by Shaike Ophir) was expanded to the protagonist in another film of Ephraim Kishon - Ha-Shoter Azulai (1970) (its Hebrew title - "The Policeman Azoulay").

Movie Connections:

Featured in Historia Shel Hakolnoah Israeli (2009)

Soundtrack:

Balada La-Ish Ha-Pashut

The best Israeli movie of all time

In a country where any halfway decent local movies can be counted on the fingers of one hand, this comedy is definitely one to watch; in my opinion, one of the funniest, most clever movies ever. Ephraim Kishon, one of Israel's (and Europe's) most popular writers, wrote this movie (originally as a sketch) when the noise from construction work in the street below got on his nerves. Ever the self-centered type, he asked himself whether the construction workers were really there for a reason, or just a bunch of freaks whose only perpose in life is to disturb his sleep.

This simple idea eventually led to a hilarious satire of administration gone berserk. Bomba Tzur plays Blaumilch, a madman who's obsessed with digging. He escapes from an asylum early one morning, steals a pneumatic drill and starts digging up one of Tel-Aviv's busiest streets! Within hours, downtown Tel Aviv is reduced to a gigantic traffic jam, the local residents go insane, and Mr. Blaumilch is having the time of his life. But when the officials of the Tel Aviv municipality get wind of this, no one (including the runty mayor) knows who to give credit for this unexpected project; nearsighted bureaucrats secretly blame each other for it. In the confusion, nobody thinks to check what started the whole thing, except our hero Ziegler, which obviously nobody believes, even when he eventually discovers the truth. Eventually, city hall sends in reinforcements (bulldozers and heavy machinery) and the dig becomes a monstrous excavation, which can only lead to disaster. Or perhaps not... This movie is terrific. Very well directed, shot, scored, cast and acted, by a who's who of Israel's best comic actors of the time. Director Kishon throws in some very clever set-pieces. Excellent 60's atmosphere, too. A winner. Not to be missed.