Himmo, King of Jerusalem (Hebrew: חימו מלך ירושלים, tr. Himmo Melech Yerushalaim) is a 1987 Israeli independent underground dramatic art film directed by Amos Guttman. It was adapted by Edna Mazia from an eponymous 1966 novel by Yoram Kaniuk,
Plot The film is set in an abandoned monastery-turned-clinic (the film was shot at the Monastery of the Cross), unfolds during the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. The protagonist is the enigmatic Himmo Perach (Ofer Shikartsi), a mortally wounded soldier and former charismatic philanderer who cannot speak (except when he asks to be shot, though nobody in the monastery has the courage to do so) or move as he had most of his limbs removed without anesthesia due to severe shortages. A young and beautiful volunteer nurse, Hamutal Horowitz (Alona Kimhi), is romantically drawn to Himmo. Jealousy amongst the other patients, all in love with Hamutal though receiving only professional care, soon begins to emerge.Yosef, Raz. הפוליטיקה של הנורמלי: מין ואומה בקולנוע הומוסקסואלי ישראלי [The Politics of the Normal: Sex and Nation in Gay Israeli Cinema]. In: , Jerusalem and Tel Aviv-Yafo: Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and –, Volume 30, Spring 2007, pp. 159–187 (in Hebrew), reprinted in: Prof. Dr. , Dr. Amalia Ziv, and Raz Yosef
Production The film, financed by the and developed at Herzliya Studios, stars inter alia , Mika Rottenberg, , , , Amos Lavi, Dov Navon, , and Sivan Shavit and has cinematography by , production by Enrique Rottenberg, and music by Ilan Virtzberg (in addition to the 1946/1948 song "We Left Slowly" performed by Shoshana Damari).
Cast as Yoram as Aaron as Frangi Alona Kimhi as Hamital Amos Lavi as Marcos Dov Navon as Assa as Clara Sivan Shavit as Ivria as doctor Ada Valerie-Tal Ofer Shikartsi as Himmo Avi Gilor
Reception It was screened and won several prizes at the 1988 Toronto International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Haifa International Film Festival, and 1988 Chicago International Film Festival, despite being a commercial flop with only 21,000 tickets sold.. Israeli Cinema. In:
Journalist Meir Schnitzer dismissed the film for its "lack of plot" and "visual ugliness", and similar pontifications were voiced by other journalists such as , who dismissed its "pretentiousness" and called it a stain on the Israeli film "industry", and , who called it “miserable, tiring, heavy, a boring and slow film in which nothing happens” and complained that it utilized "too much dialogue and too little action".
Outside Israel, where the film was distributed by the National Center for Jewish Film, TV Guide also dismissed the "stagy, with a fair amount of speechmaking" approach. The film was released on DVD in Israel by as part of a boxset containing the complete filmography of Guttman Reported in: . . . Reprinted as: and an equivalent boxset was released in France by . Several nowadays notable Israeli film people, such as Rony Gruber, Samuel Maoz, Shva Salhoov, and started out as crew bit parts on this film.
References
Bibliography . Himmo, King of Jerusalem. In: Reprinted in:
External links