Late Summer Blues

Q&A with director Renen Schorr

Set just after the Six-Day War, in the shadow of the War of Attrition with Egypt, Late Summer Blues follows a group of high school graduates during the summer before they’re conscripted into the army. Restored after thirty years, this Israeli classic portrays the paradox of Israeli adolescence in raw, deeply human terms: the uncertainty, confusion, and playful embrace of the present are constantly tainted by the shadow of military service and the razor’s edge of anxiety, only somewhat tempered by days at the beach and rock music. Drawing from his own experiences, director Renen Schorr and writer Doron Nesher create a powerful and bitterly funny anti-war message by drawing on the restlessness of the young men and women as they cope with their growing fatalism. U.S. Premiere of the restoration.