Sima Vaknin Witch (2003) Poster

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Nice concept bad execution
nevioth28 August 2003
The movie, "Sima vaknin's a witch", is basically a satyrical comedy using every paraphrase usable in any context concerning israel's mentality. Or should i say "israeli"? Probably just worst israeli mentality, and i don't really care if the last version turns me into a hyper-sensitive wimp. Yeah, you definitely have to give that one thing to the movie: every single holy cow has been slaughtered. So intensively, and so dense, that it's simply too much, and the humoristical element is practically not there. Or maybe the density of all the sarcastic and satyrical bullets just shot the humour here. Let's see: the acting of most of the characters is bad. The jokes are simply not funny, and even if they reflect reality in their own vulgar way, that just holds any "laughable" humour from developing. Additionally to the bad acting, the end of the movie stretches like a bubblegum, which gives the whole thing a taste of unprofessionality. Basically all the stereotypical ideas in this movie exist: the cursing israeli, the hate between the subcultures and ethnicities, the greedy celebrity, the non-functuality of the system. But not only they're all brought on the screen in a totally exaggerating manner - they also all come together, which boosts the exaggeration twice. At a certain point i was sitting there, telling myself "calm down, this is not what's happening, this is not reflecting anything", just waiting for the movie to come to its end. All those things you get reminded of, most of those you just want to forget - they affected me personally like a fist in an empty stomach. This was not what i wanted, needed or expected after a working day of 10 hours.

Lots of people here found that movie to be very funny, even hilarious. Some of them even went to see it more than once. Personally, i think that those who saw this movie only as one big comedy might be either mentally blocked or just plain stupid and ignorant, which goes also for people who cut the promotional clips on TV, since they served that movie simply as a "Laugh-your-a$$-off" comedy. Not for me. I had a hard time to suppress the impression given by the movie that our country is 2 by 3 inches wide (and suspended on a thread)... If that was the director intention - congratulations, well done. (except for that stretched ending part). If not - there's nothing left to say. I left that movie depressed.
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9/10
A fascinating portrait about life in Israel
netali4 July 2003
Beautiful and delicate movie, a bitter-sweet comedy like the italian commedia dolceamara... strongly narrated, good actors, lighting and locations... don't miss the movie about the nicest country in the world!
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