User reviews

This film is about a specific period in Israel's history, told through several individual stories layered over one another. The principal story is, as others have said, about a brother and his traumatized younger sister, newly arrived in a make-shift camp during or shortly after the War of Independence. They have come to look for their mother, from whom they were separated during the Holocaust. They are lodged temporarily in difficult circumstances among a miserable crowd of others fleeing from Displaced Persons camps in Europe or from persecution in Arab nations of North Africa or the Middle East. Their story, while in the foreground, is accompanied by several other poignant tales -- a pregnant Greek Jew who lost her only child during the Holocaust living with a man who had lost his wife and child; a young man and woman, camp leaders whose mutual love is shattered when the young man says that the female survivors of the Holocaust must have been "Nazi whores" and the young woman furiously quits the camp; the wifeless and childless Moroccan man whose brother-in-law runs the black market inside the camp; the deathly sick elderly Jew who arrives with his Christian wife, looking for medicine which the black market chief will supply only if the wife sleeps with him. It is the period in Israel's history that is paramount in the this movie, more than the individual stories. While specific to the individual characters, the stories are also meant to be prototypical. Each is framed as a tragedy headed toward outcomes that may be more or less difficult but never easy. The resolution of the brother/sister tale is a fantastical dream sequence likely to remind some viewers of "ET." But there is nothing remotely pleasing about the outcome because it is emblematic of the girl's disturbed personality which seems unlikely ever to be cured unless her lost mother unexpectedly reappears from the mouth of Hitler's crematoria. The Israeli nation will recover. We know that from history. But the individuals will carry their experiences with them throughout their lives.

A powerful and poignant tale of Holocaust survivors trying to make a new life in the infant State of Israel, `New Land' tells its story through the eyes of a young girl. Anna has lost everything in life, except for her older brother and a stuffed bear she rescued from a bombed out city. She waits in a refugee camp dreaming of finding her mother while observing the lives of others around her. Watching this film is a moving experience.

This movie is really weird...I don't really recommend it. The characters are very undeveloped. Even the main character (Anna) does not develop as the movie progresses. Its also just creepy how it shifts gears so suddenly. One second its very serious (deaths, sickness, intense drama etc.) Then all of a sudden the bears comes to life and starts crying and dancing? It was very "trippy" and real weird. It's an Israeli movie so you can't really expect much. It was really long, and you get a little sick of it after a while. Its hard to keep track of the characters. It just keeps switching all over the place! We had to watch this movie in a hebrew class. It has a good meaning behind it, but in general it wasn't so great. Don't rush to see it.