Comments on: My First War

By: Amos Lassen

Amos Lassen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:15:30 +0000

When Yariv Mozer was 28 he was drafted into the Israeli army as a reserve soldier during the second Lebanese war. He took his video camera with him and he wanted to use it as “a tool with which to mediate between myself and the reality into which I was thrown”. He was a member of an artillery regiment and he soon understood that war goes according to no plan. What he saw was disorder, dead soldiers, destruction and chaos. He was soldiers who were overwhelmed and exhausted and he knew they wanted to tell their stories and to talk about what they had seen and what they had done. Many felt that the war was a complete failure. A while after the war was over Mozer went to look for the men who had serve4d with him–the ones he had filmed during the war and those he had met quite by chance. Memories were etched into him and he wanted to talk about what he had been through.
What a personal film!! Mozer served as an officer and he felt that he had something to say. His film is a testimony to what Israelis think, what they were afraid of, what they cried about and what they hoped for. We see the horror of war and the fact that many go to war ill-prepared to do so.
The majority of the film is the director’s interviews with his brothers-in-arms and we also see his experiences that are not on the battleground. Mozer is not an experienced director and we are faced with a barrage of events that are not interesting. But the fact that he managed to film what he did is so important to an understanding of the problems in Israel and with war.

By: Sarah F

Sarah F — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:14:25 +0000

With every step that Yariv Mazor, the soldier and filmaker made through this film, I felt waves of dissapointment through my body. Finally, a movie that tells the sad truth about the second war in Lebanon. Personal, intimate and undeniable.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:14:04 +0000

I just had to add this movie to my list of favorite Israeli movies because for me it symbolizes everything that is Israeli. On the one hand, a struggling nation fighting terror from every border and on the other, a country that is unfortunately making mistakes in this no win situation. Yariv Mazor, with his film, shows this conflict on himself as well, as the creator of this film. Wars are always tough and this film shows how do young people only drafted, deal will it, or not.

By: Lisa M. Mims

Lisa M. Mims — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:13:30 +0000

This is a documentary shot with a handheld camera by a young Israeli soldier who was suddenly drafted into the 2006 northern conflicts with Hezbollah. What’s very striking about it, is the soldiers are just regular people: they’re really afraid of getting hurt, and constantly aware of the fact that they are largely unprotected from the bombing going on overhead. Also, several of them are girls–Israeli military service is compulsory for women as well.

The narrator spends a lot of time talking to other soldiers who are questioning, “Why are we here?” Watching this, you start wondering the same thing; then the narrator gets sent closer to Lebanon, and we see bombing. What you see mostly, is bombed out cars. It’s then that you realize that Hezbollah was hitting civilians targets as well as the military. (Although it’s very clear that the bombing is directed at the military; it makes you really wonder if the “collateral damage” was worth it.)

Most of the soldiers are very young, and very disillusioned; they want mostly to go back to their homes and families. The narrator is very careful to point out that most of Hezbollah is very young as well, “…age 18-27″, says one Israeli seargant.

The film continues after the cease fire; the narrator follows a shopkeeper back to his family; and a medic back to a life in which he wonders why he didn’t die, and other people who trained with him did.

This is an amazing film; Israel is portrayed in some parts of the American media as being an incredibly warlike society. What seems to be the truth, though, is that their soldiers, are just as young and just as subject to incomprehensible orders from higher ups as ours, and their battles may be just as pointless.

If you watch this, you’ll never really think the same way about fighting in Israel again.

By: D. Fowler "Dragonfly77"

D. Fowler "Dragonfly77" — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:12:44 +0000

The Hezbollah began firing missiles at Israel’s border towns. Soon reserve troops were called up and Lt. Colonel Ilan Levi, quickly deployed his troops into the field in what would be known as the Second Lebanon War (Milhemet Levanon HaShniya). These thirty-four days of hell would beckon to the young men of Israel, who would quickly ask themselves, “Who are the victims?” Yariv Mozer had been drafted and began to film, not only the conflict, but the emotions of men and women who were caught up in this madness. The silence was mixed with the sound of explosions and as they put on their helmets, one young man claimed, “We do have fear. We do.” The rockets were “falling endlessly.” Yuri’s camera lens was speckled with dirt, but it did not fall to the ground because he had hung it around his neck. Yuri Mozer was twenty-eight-years-old and it was his first war.

Yuri had often enjoyed war movies, but this was something altogether unreal when he found himself serving as real live armament officer. It was considered bad luck to film and one young man sternly shooed him away. Men felt they were nothing but “exposed targets” as the Hezbollah aimed their Katyusha rockets at them. The “beautiful northern region” had turned into a hell, but a mere two hours away in Yuri’s hometown there seemed to be nothing amiss. A woman’s voice cried out over the radio, “This is a very harsh sight . . . I have no words.” Hadas Shtaif’s voice soon became synonymous with the war. She cried at night for her son who was also serving. The chaos increased, the men felt betrayed and duped. They were being jerked around. They were crossing into Lebanon . . . they were being used. “Trach, trach, trach . . . ” the missiles continued to pummel them. When would the horror end? Who would make it out alive? Would these young men ever be the same?

This was a stunning, sobering documentary about the Second Lebanon War, sometimes known as the Israel-Hezbollah War. Yuri encounters and films many men during and after the conflict. The voices of these men are haunting, a haunting that did not stop with the cease-fire. The men themselves examine their lives and participation in the war. There are several that stand out and made me swallow and pause to think a few times. The commander, the man who lost his “favorite cousin,” and those who felt betrayed all had poignant stories to tell. Their voices are in Hebrew (subtitled), but the narration is in English. I had no problem or difficulty following. This film about an “unnecessary war” is mesmerizing, simply mesmerizing and there are few words to impart how stunning and important this documentary truly is.

DVD received courtesy of 921 films in exchange for an honest review.

By: Andy Orrock

Andy Orrock — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:11:45 +0000

‘My First War’ from writer/director/producer Yariv Mozer is a stark, brave and compelling first-hand perspective of the 2006 Lebanon War (also known as the ‘Second Lebanon War’ or ’2006 Israel-Hezbollah War’). Because Mozer has captured his experiences on video, his production gives an immediacy and rawness to the unfolding of events. It’s not this glossy sheen of a war movie that has seduced so many over time with its glory and camaraderie of battle. What we see instead is reality: war as it is. War that is not masterfully plotted and staged and triumphant, but instead is haphazard, ad-hoc and by no means clear-cut.

Look at the passages that stick in my mind – either from Mozer’s voice-over or from his protagonists:

“There’s no trust. The commands are crazy. Next time no one will come.”

“We are fighting against ghosts.”

“Life has lost order and direction. I have lost interest.”

“When people hear the truth, they wake up. The right people better wake up.”

It’s this type of comment that Mozer elicits without prompting from his colleagues. I’ve read many an analysis and spin trying to convince readers how “Israel won the war.” But here we have it much differently from those in the battle. No amount of spin can counteract the plain truths that Mozer’s camera unveils here.

Hats off to the soldiers willing speak here for the record (notably Reuven Saadon, Guy Shaked, Idan Taler, Aharon Yechezkel)…and to Mozer’s commanders (foremost Ilan Levi), who allowed him to tote his camera everywhere. He appears to have been given unfettered access. If any censorship was applied by the military command, it doesn’t appear to be much. While it’s a damning indictment of the execution of the war, whose ultimate failure was preordained by the soldiers here, it’s a testament to Israeli’s democracy that this film was produced and released.

I’m very much into Israeli cinema, so ‘My First War’ was a special treat for me. I can see parallels here to Waltz With Bashir (war, memory of war and Lebanon), Beaufort (the purgatory of Southern Lebanon) and The Bubble (a different life back in Tel Aviv while war rages a few miles to the North)..those are three that came to mind off the top of my head while watching this film.

By: IMDB

IMDB — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:22:00 +0000

Platoon in Israel, 17 March 2009
Author: arsenick from Paris, France
This is a personal documentary, a video-diary of an Israeli soldier in the second Lebanese war. The director made this war, has served as an officer and felt that he had to testify. He filmed his fellow officers and soldiers, making this movie a true testimony of what Israeli soldiers think, fear, cry for, and hope…or not. Israeli government, the headquarters of Tsahal are hardly pointed out by the soldiers. Horror of war, lack of preparation are the ordinary life of these soldiers. It should be seen before “Waltz with Bashir”. That is the sign of the vitality of Israeli civil power, despite the fact that the state could be seen sometimes as a violent state. Many Israeli movies and documentaries have been issued these past years, and are often heartbreaking. Haven’t you seen it yet?