We are in a residential area, but the streets are empty.
Seldom does a car drive by and precisely that is what the camera registers – Emptiness.
A car driving up the hill comes nearer and nearer to the camera and is followed by it. Then it disappears to the right. From there appears another one and follows the street downhill. Far, coming from left, a moped driver approaches up the hill and turns suddenly left into a smaller street, while a car comes out, turns right and continues up the street where a man, somewhat bored, slowly walks down along the sidewalk.
The young man perceives a shoe on the floor, picks it up and gives it to a boy sitting bored-still on a wall along the sidewalk.
The man reaches a small store and buys a milk for 4,80, while the attendant is on the telephone. He leaves, walks back up the hill, sees once more the shoe lying there and once more gives it to the boy. Having reached his house, standing at the door just about to open it, he hears the cry of a kitten. While bending down he opens the milk container, but as he is about to open the door once more, notices that the kitten does not drink. Bending again he smells the milk and realizes, it has gone bad.
The bored one returns. Finding the shoe on the street, he puts it on the boys foot himself.
The camera shows a bus stop. A person on the right, a couple of girls to the left, all wait. A lady walks by and the girls ask for the time.
Ten and something…
“Thank you!”
A man walks from the opposite direction and the girls need the time again.
“Ten…” and something, he replies.
“Thank you” say the girls once more.
“There comes another one” …they say… “Let’s bug him”
“What’s the time?”
“I do not know. I do not have a watch”
“That’s a weird one” …joke the girls back.
As he reaches the store with his milk, the attendant is still on the telephone.
“The milk is sour. I just want to change it”
From the telephone the attendant nods.
“They have all expired. Do you have no fresh ones?”
The attendant gives him the telephone and informs him:
“Tristan and Isolde. If someone comes to the phone, just say Tristan and Isolde, from Wagner” …and he goes looking for fresh milk.
A voice appears on the telephone and our bored one answers: “Tristan and Isolde”
He hears: “Can you also tell us who is the conductor?”
“mmmmmmm…. Zubin Metha”
“oh! I am sorry. That is the wrong answer”
“That boy did not leave me any milk here. I’ve got no more”
“Is the store down there open?”
“Might be. I don’t know” answers the attendant.
Just as he exits the store, a man approaches him and wishes to know if the flower shop up the road is open.
“Might be. I don’t know!” says the milk-less one.
“And do you know if the store down the road is still open?”
“It might be. I don’t know. Actually, too bad that we are strangers. Otherwise we could have called each other, you would have bought my flowers and I your milk”
They go their ways.
“Shalom”
“Happy Sabbath!”
Ilan Kazan in “Himon” walking down the street and the boy that loses his shoe.
The store is open and he takes a milk container, pays 4,60 and goes once more up the hill. Down the hill rolls an orange passed him. He looks after it for several seconds, until it disappears in the curb. As he starts to walk further, another orange rolls towards him. This time he picks it up and notices a woman trying to collect her groceries back into her shopping cart. Her two daughters await her further up the road. After he gives her the orange she asks – “Where is the other one?”
They converse all the way up the road, while the girls play joyfully around them. To say they converse is actually overblown, for she conducts her monologue and he hardly gets a single word in. Suddenly she collects the shoe from the sidewalk, without looking puts it on the boys foot and continues her walk and talk. Once at her flat, he helps her put the groceries inside and almost forgets his milk. It had fallen into one of her shopping bags.
He proceeds and as he approaches the flower shop wishes to buy some, but notices that his wallet is not in his possession. With his slowness he starts on his way back to the store down the hill and passes by the boy, picking up the shoe but taking it with him instead of being ‘kind’. As he reaches the store, this one has closed. He goes up the stairs next to the store and knocks on the door.
“I bought some milk downstairs and forgot my wallet there. Do you know where does the owner live?”
“Come inside” is the response of a young woman. “I cannot come out, but – please – take a seat. My husband should be back soon and he will get the wallet for you. On the table there is some freshly made tea. Take a seat and help yourself.”
He sits down, takes sugar into his mouth and drinks some tea. Another sugar cube, another sip of tea. He then opens his milk and pours a bit into his tea. After some minutes he hears sounds and notices that the young woman is in the restroom.
“I cannot come out” she says.
“Can I do anything for you? Are you alright? …he answers, a bit concerned.
“I am pregnant and cannot allow that you see me. It is not good if you see me for the first time in the state of pregnancy”
He suggests that she comes out, he sits facing the window and will not look at her. She sits behind him and they could converse that way, without him seeing her, until her husband arrives. She comes out and he starts the conversation…
“My day did not start well today. Thru the window I smelled some coffee and had the desire to have some. Got up to prepare one, got water, some sugar and coffee. As it was ready I went to get some milk, but had none.” At that point he interrupted himself: “Not that I desire this, but if your husband were not to return, for whatever reason, I would love to marry you and raise the child with you.” As he said that she stood up and said this would be the time to light up the candles and pray. Just as they were about to start their prayer, her husband came in. The men introduced themselves, prayed together and our man left with his milk.
Now he wanted to return the shoe to the boy, but the boy was not sitting on the wall. He put the shoe on the wall and the found orange on top of it.
* * *
“Himnon” (“Anthem”) (2008)
Short film: 36 min.
Director – Elad Keidan
Actors: Albert Cohen, Maya Gasner, Ilan Hazan, Carmit Mesilati Kaplan
