''The Deserter's Wife'' (french: La femme du déserteur) is a

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

Cinema of France, French-Cinema of Israel, Israeli co-production dramatic independent film, independent underground film, underground art film directed by Michal Bat-Adam.

Synopsis

Nina (Fanny Ardant), a French concert pianist, meets Ilan (), an Israeli computer specialist who is on vacation, in Paris. They fall in love, marry, and, move to Israel with their son, Gili (Daniele Napolitano). Not much later, Ilan is drafted into the Israeli military for compulsory military service, as the situation in the Middle East is worsening: Saddam Hussein has attacked Kuwait with his Iraqi forces and the Second Gulf War is imminent. After Nina is accepted into the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, she receives a call from the military and learns that her husband was wounded during a battle. She hurries to him and finds out, to her horror, that Ilan was not injured by enemy troops but by Israeli soldiers when he tried to leave his post illegally. While Ilan is wounded in a hospital and is unable to speak due to a state of shock, the accusations that he is a deserter, she finds out, are true. Despite this revelation, Nina continues to take care of him, breaks off an affair with another man, and tries to understand his motives. Their environment's reaction, however, extends not only to Ilan but also to Nina. When Nina's concert debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is about to take place, symbolically, on the day of the United Nations' ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, the social pressure grows immeasurably. Nina leaves Ilan and returns to France with Gili.

Background

Actress Fanny Ardant and cinematographer got to know each other while filming Margarethe von Trotta's ''Love and Fear (film), Love and Fear'' during 1988 in film, 1988. In 1990 in film, 1990 their daughter Baladine was born. Ardant and Conversi eventually parted. However, they worked together again and again, as with ''La Femme du déserteur'', as well as in 2008 in film, 2008, on the comedy ''Hello Goodbye (2008 film), Hello Goodbye'', which Conversi produced, while Ardant played alongside Gérard Depardieu. ''La Femme du déserteur'' premiered on 20 December

in France. Critic Lisa Alspector opined that "[t]his

melodrama creates only generic sympathy for the disgraced, misunderstood husband, and none at all for the smarmy, selfish wife, whose motives are ambiguous throughout." In Israel, ''Al HaMishmar'' critic underscored that "had this film never been made, it would have needed to be invented," while ''Yedioth Ahronoth'' critic Yehuda Stav wrote that the film is "humble and sympathetic, its material taken from daily Israeli experiences," and, ''Davar'' critic Uri Shin praised the film's uncompromising refusal to placate the audience.

References

External links

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''La Femme du déserteur''
at the Turner Classic Movies, TCM Movie Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Deserter's Wife, The 1991 drama films 1991 independent films 1991 films 1991 multilingual films Films about adultery Films about classical music and musicians Films about computing Films about diseases and disorders Films about families Films about immigration Films about pianos and pianists Films about psychiatry Films about the United Nations Films directed by Michal Bat-Adam Films set in concert halls Films set in Israel Films set in Paris Films shot in Israel Films shot in Paris French drama films French independent films French multilingual films 1990s French-language films 1990s Hebrew-language films Films set in hospitals Israeli drama films Israeli independent films Israeli multilingual films Films about post-traumatic stress disorder 1990s French films