Himmo, King of Jerusalem


Himmo, King of Jerusalem is a 1987 Israeli independent underground dramatic art film directed by Amos Guttman. It was adapted by Edna Mazia from an eponymous 1966 novel by Yoram Kaniuk,

Plot

The film is set in an abandoned monastery-turned-clinic, unfolds during the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. The protagonist is the enigmatic Himmo Perach, a mortally wounded soldier and former charismatic philanderer who cannot speak or move as he had most of his limbs removed without anesthesia due to severe shortages. A young and beautiful volunteer nurse, Hamutal Horowitz, is romantically drawn to Himmo. Jealousy amongst the other patients, all in love with Hamutal though receiving only professional care, soon begins to emerge.

Production

The film, financed by the and developed at Herzliya Studios, stars inter alia, Mika Rottenberg,,,, Amos Lavi, Dov Navon,, and Sivan Shavit and has cinematography by, production by Enrique Rottenberg, and music by Ilan Virtzberg.

Cast

Reception

It was screened and won several prizes at the 1988 Toronto International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Haifa International Film Festival, and 1988 Chicago International Film Festival, despite being a commercial flop with only 21,000 tickets sold.
Journalist Meir Schnitzer dismissed the film for its "lack of plot" and "visual ugliness", and similar pontifications were voiced by other journalists such as, who dismissed its "pretentiousness" and called it a stain on the Israeli film "industry", and, who called it “miserable, tiring, heavy, a boring and slow film in which nothing happens” and complained that it utilized "too much dialogue and too little action".
Outside Israel, where the film was distributed by the National Center for Jewish Film, TV Guide also dismissed the "stagy, with a fair amount of speechmaking" approach. The film was released on DVD in Israel by as part of a boxset containing the complete filmography of Guttman and an equivalent boxset was released in France by. Several nowadays notable Israeli film people, such as Rony Gruber, Samuel Maoz, Shva Salhoov, and started out as crew bit parts on this film.