THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER

Israel, 2010, 103 minutes, Colour.
Mark Ivanir, Gila Almagor, Noah Silver, Guri Alfi, Irina Petrescu.
Directed by Eran Riklis.

Eran Riklis made a very moving story about Palestinian- Israeli relationships, antagonisms and a fight for justice, Lemon Tree. This time his social concern takes him farther afield.

The manager of the title works in a large bakery in Tel Aviv. As the film opens, he faces a humanitarian and public relations crisis. A receipt has been found on the body of a foreign worker who was killed in a terrorist bomb blast. However, she had not been employed by the bakery for some weeks before her death. How does the owner of the bakery handle the bureaucratic complications? How does the manager handle the journalist (significantly known only as The Weasel) who sees a story with damning headlines and photos in the offing for his career? And how does the manager handle his family, estranged from his wife and promising his daughter he will attend her function in succeeding days?

Not smoothly is the quick answer.

A decision is made that the body of the dead woman be returned to her native Romania to be buried there. However, when the entourage arrives and has met the Israeli consul (with The Weasel who has succeeded in getting himself on board), a signature is needed. The woman is divorced and her ex-husband cannot sign. They track down the 14 year old son who is living on the streets after being kicked out by his father. He is full of resentment. He can’t sign. He is under age. The only solution seems to be to travel up country (through rather ugly and desolate landscapes and ageing industrial areas) to find the grandmother.

It is a road movie with a difference. The car with the coffin is not in the best condition. Police are authoritarian and forbid their driver to proceed because his licence is years out of date. Villagers are sceptical, if not hostile (including the grandmother) and the dead woman is Romanian Orthodox. In the final stages, the group find an old army installation and travel in a veteran tank.

The comic touches are bleak and ironic. The serious side is important in terms of respect for the dead as well as for the living. The human resources manager is a kind of Everyman who has to cope with strange circumstances, make decisions that he knows will not please everyone. And he has his own family life to deal with.

Mark Ivanar does not look like a Hollywood star. Rather, he looks like anyone you might see on the street. He engages audience attention and, finally, audience sympathy as he struggles with the changing situations and people’s moods and feelings. This is an interesting an unusual film.


1. The director and his social concerns? Israel? Palestine? Israel and the relationship to Europe, especially Romania?

2. The Israeli locations, Tel Aviv, ordinary life, businesses and factories, the journalists’ world, television? The unions, the bureaucracy? Justice?

3. Romania, the migrants in Israel, their work, non-Jewish, Christian affiliations? The Palestinian bombings, fatalities? The trip to Romania, travel through Romania, the ugly landscapes, the hostile people, xenophobia, the police and their authoritarianism, the military? The traditions, the church? Harshness, 21st century poverty, drug addiction, street kids, the movement to the cities?

4. The bakery and its production, the credits and the detail, the busy staff, the boss, the human resources – and the manager and his work, the documentation, the finding of the receipt, the research, the questionings, the accident and the repercussions?

5. The manager in himself, his age, separated from his wife, his love for his daughter, the daughter’s expectations of him? The discussions with the manager, the pressure on him, going to the supervisor, asking the questions, getting the true story? The press targeting him? The journalist – the Weasel? Working out a solution for public relations? Burial, the trip to Romania, his representing the company? The costs? His plan to return for his daughter’s recital?

6. The head of the firm, her management, the personal link with the manager, political connections, journalistic connections? The plan, saving face, sacrificing the human resources manager?

7. The journalists, articles, smear campaigns, photos, headlines, career concerns, the Weasel going on the journey?

8. The daughter and her hopes, disappointment with her father, the phone calls in Romania, her support of her father and what he did for the dead woman?

9. The journey, the flights, Romania itself, meeting the consul and her husband, the trip, the costs, the vehicle, the driver (arrested because of having no licence)? Meeting the ex-husband of the dead woman, the information about the dead woman, her reasons for going to Romania, her remains? In the morgue, the identification? Her possessions? The need for a document? The husband and his hostility, his inability to sign the papers, going to find his son, the street kids, the drugs, anger? The father and his bitter son, ousting his son from home? The trip, contacting the grandmother?

10. The contacts for the journey, travelling, the roads, the bar, the hostility, the driver and his failure, the unsteady vehicle, the police and their authority, the military, the tank – and the echoes of World War Two and the tanks?

11. The terrain, the snow, the forests, the hard landscapes? The journalist and his experience, changing heart? The grandmother, hostile to her daughter, the church officials, the refusal for burial? The irony of the vehicle with the coffin? Going through the landscapes and the different reactions?

12. The son, his mellowing, with his grandmother, relating to the manager, relenting? The effect of the experience?

13. The journalist, getting him to leave, change of heart, his support, reporting?

14. The manager, the food poisoning, the illness, the time for reflection? His wife and daughter? His return?

15. The mission and the accomplishment?