Book Review: The Thinking Heart: Essays on Israel and Palestine

(Bought at Barnes and Noble) Israeli author David Grossman's slim volume of 11 essays and speeches grabbed my eye from one of the tables at Barnes and Noble. I wanted to understand more about the tragic situation in Gaza and the West Bank as well as Israel's fight for its very existence. Grossman addresses the seemingly unresolvable conflict, acknowledging Israel's inhumane occupation and how the right-wing policies of the Netanyahu government will never result in peace, but perpetual struggle. At the same time, he mourns the fact that Israel is the only country on Earth whose very existence is called in question. He calls for compassion on both sides. The title refers to a passage in a diary written by a Jewish Dutch woman in the concentration camps (not Anne Frank). Etty Hillesum wrote how her fellow prisoners had lost all hope and feeling and she wanted to be the thinking heart for all of them. For this situation to end successfully, we'll need more than one thinking heart. 

As soon as I finished the book, we went to see the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land which chronicles the destruction of century-old West Bank villages by the Israeli army. The cruelty of the army and the settlers is devastating. The film focuses on a Palestinian political activist and an Israeli journalist documenting the oppression via video and social media. At one point the Palestinian points out the Jews were once an crushed minority just like the Palestinians are now. He hopes they will remember that and stop treating them like vermin.

2024 Oscar contenders seen:
Between the Temples (Angelika Film Center)
Conclave (Angelika Film Center)
Gladiator 2 (Regal Kaufman Astoria)
Wicked (IMAX at Lincoln Square)
The Piano Lesson (Netflix)
Hard Truths (Walter Reade/Lincoln Center)

Maria (Netflix)
His Three Daughters (Netflix)
A Real Pain (Kew Gardens Cinema)
Emilia Perez (Netflix)
Queer (Angelika Film Center)
Flow (Angelika Film Center)

Anora (Amazon Prime)

A Complete Unknown (Regal Kaufman Astoria)

Babygirl (Kew Gardens Cinema)

The Substance (Amazon Prime)

The Last Showgirl (Angelika Film Center)

Dune: Part Two (Max)

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix)

The Room Next Door (Kew Gardens Cinema)

The Wild Robot (Amazon Prime)

Inside Out 2 (Disney Plus)

The Brutalist (Kew Gardens Cinema)

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (Amazon Prime)

Black Box Diaries (Paramount Plus)

Sugarcane (Disney Plus)

Nosferatu (AMC 34th Street)

Memoir of a Snail (Amazon Prime)

I'm Still Here (Kew Gardens Cinema)

The Apprentice (Amazon Prime)

Sing Sing (Amazon Prime)

Nickel Boys (Amazon Prime)

No Other Land (Film Forum)

Doc. Shorts

The Only Girl in the Orchestra (Netflix)

*Eternal Father (New Yorker/YouTube)

I Am Ready, Warden (Paramount Plus)

Instruments of a Beating Heart (NY Times)

Incident (New Yorker/YouTube)

Live-Action Shorts

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (IFC Center)

Anuja (IFC Center) 

I'm Not a Robot (New Yorker/YouTube) (IFC Center)

A Lein (IFC Center)

The Last Ranger (IFC Center)

Animated Shorts

Magic Candies (IFC Center)

In the Shadow of the Cypress (IFC Center)

Yuck (IFC Center)

Wander to Wonder (IFC Center)

Beautiful Men (IFC Center)

*Short-listed but not nominated

Razzie Nominees Seen:

Unfrosted (Netflix)

Megalopolis (Amazon Prime)