When we read that there has been a bombing or shooting in Jaffa, most of us skim the article to see whether it was a terror attack or what is usually described in Hebrew as an incident with a “criminal background.” If I see those words, I usually move on to the next article because those kinds of incidents are common, and because I know that these crime feuds don’t affect me.
But there is a whole world behind these criminal gangs, and the new movie Jaffa Stories, directed by Matti Harari and Arik Lubetzki, which opens in Israel on Thursday, is set among one such gang. But it’s not a realistic story, rather a comic fable in which larger-than-life heroes and antiheroes fight, love, gamble, and drink arak. While it’s certainly not intended for English-speaking audiences, much of it is funny and charming, and with its overblown, flowery narration, stereotypical characters, and schtick-filled set pieces, it’s meant simply to entertain and hearkens back in its themes and some specific references to the glory days of the sertei bourekas (Israeli comic melodramas) of the early 1970s.
The movie is an adaptation of the series of books called Jaffa Stories by the late journalist Menahem Talmi, which ran in Maariv and has just been reissued in digital editions. Each book consists of about 20 short stories, mainly about one central Jaffa crime family. The stories have to do with honor, love, lust, rivalry, revenge, and all the other elements that you would expect to be a big part of gangsters’ lives. And while the characters may act outrageously, if you understand their code, which the narrator generously explains for outsiders, it all makes a kind of crazy sense.
The cast
The movie features some of Israel’s best-loved comics and character actors, with Big Salomon (Uri Gavriel) playing the godfather of this crime clan, alongside Hazuka (Moti Ben Yishai), Babula (Yigael Adika), Laughing Samson (Israel Atias), Shabu (Orel Tsabari, a stand-up comic also known for his prank calls on Eretz Nehederet), Blind Yaakov (Shlomi Koriat), and other unique Jaffa types. They reminded me, and this is a very high compliment, of the characters in Isaac Babel’s Odessa Stories, which featured the crime family of Benya Krik. The Black Sea may be a long way from the Mediterranean, but the archetypes that underlie these kinds of criminal fables are the same all over the world.
Each character has their basic traits and plays them to the hilt. In one story, Babula and Hazuka get into a conflict and Big Salomon decrees it must be settled by them having a hot sauce (harif) eating contest, which will remind viewers of the egg-eating showdown in Charlie and a Half, one of the most famous sertei bourekas scenes of all time.
Most of the characters are men, but when the women show up, they make an impression. There’s the fierce mother (Julia Masla’wi) who completely dominates her adult son, Yaakov, and wants to prevent him from ever getting involved with a woman because no female will ever treat her son right. She keeps him under her thumb until he meets a beautiful belly dancer, who sees that Yaakov is pure at heart and not like all the other men who hit on her.
When Gentilla (Esti Zakheim) shows up at the restaurant looking for a job, Shabu is reluctant to give her a chance, but it turns out that she is stronger and more steadfast than any man in the neighborhood, and wins the heart of Shabu’s small, nervous accountant. There’s also a black widow type, whose husbands don’t last long, and when she sets her sights on Samson, the guys take bets on how long he will live.
Harari and Lubetzki, who have made dramatic movies, such as The Dinner, as well as crime films like Black Jack, adapted Jaffa Stories into a television series in the late 90s, featuring many of the same actors and characters.
The directors said in a statement: “Jaffa Stories is a literary classic that we adapted 30 years ago into a television series that became a cult hit that was taken to heart by Israeli audiences. For many years, we dreamed of a cinematic adaptation, knowing that the characters, language, flavors, and humor connect many sectors and are very relevant even today. This is a rich, entertaining selection of stories, with a philosophy of life that is great fun to create.”
I can believe that with this strong cast, it was fun to tell these stories, and it’s no easy feat to create the kind of much-needed escapism a comedy like this can provide these days. And if you like it, you can look forward to the just-completed sequel, which should be hitting theaters next year.
