‘Domim Tree’ Shows Life After Holocaust

Gila Almagor, grande dame of the Israeli cinema, fashioned one of her finest roles in “The Summer of Aviya,” a charming, funny and deeply poignant memoir of a bright 10-year-old girl whose warm, loving and fiercely independent mother (Almagor) is periodically wracked with mental breakdowns. It was directed tenderly by Eli Cohen. In that exhilarating--and never maudlin--1988 film, Almagor was in effect playing her own mother, a woman slowly being driven mad by the loss of her policeman husband to an Arab sniper, and by the Holocaust, although she had fled Poland before World War II broke out.

Almagor has but two harrowing scenes in “Under the Domim Tree,” which premiered in December at the Monica 4-Plex’s Cinema Judaica series and is the beautiful, bittersweet sequel to “The Summer of Aviya.” (Both films are based on best-selling books by Almagor.)

Set in 1953, the film finds the now teenage Aviya (again the gravely beautiful Kaipo Cohen) living at a kibbutz-like boarding school housing teenage survivors of the Holocaust because her mother (Almagor) is now confined to a nearby mental institution. “Under the Domim Tree” can be enjoyed without having seen “The Summer of Aviya” but is undeniably a richer experience if you’ve seen the earlier film.

The school’s setting is idyllic, but moments of camaraderie are easily shattered by the teenagers’ tormented memories. In almost all instances, eight years after World War II ended, none of them knows for sure whether their parents or most other relatives are dead or alive; some of the young people are more damaged than others, but in the end the healing process emerges from them learning to help one another.

This is a gentle, loving film about confronting pain and loss, beautifully directed, again by Cohen. It takes its title from a tree that becomes a refuge for the young people when they feel overwhelmed by the past.

* Unrated. The film, in dealing with Holocaust memories, is too harrowing for children.

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‘Under the Domim Tree’

Kaipo Cohen: Aviya

Juiano Mer: Teacher

Gila Almagor: Aviya’s mother

A Strand release of an H.S.A. Ltd.-Under the Domim Tree Ltd. Partnership presentation. Director Eli Cohen. Producers Gila Almagor, Eitan Evan. Screenplay by Almagor, Eyal Sher; based on the book by Almagor. Additional writing by Eli Cohen. Cinematographer David Gurfinkel. Editor Danny Shik. Costumes Rona Doron. Music Benny Nagari. Production designer Eitan Levy. In Hebrew, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Music Hall, 9236 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869, and the Town Center 5, 17200 Ventura Blvd., Encino, (818) 981-9811.