ro ession Life According To Moshe Dayan's Son PUT YOUR MONEY IN FUTURES. LARRY DERFNER Israel Correspondent Harriet Dunskv's Mastectomy CHOZ SHOP 945 WEST HURON • WATERFORD 1/2 Block W. of Telegraph SINCE 1934 681-2727 New Arrivals Daily Sizes 4-16, 14W-24W MARGUERITE'S On The Boardwalk Invest in something that helps all of us. Give to the United Way Torch Drive. For all the good you can do. 932-5252 United Way for Southeastern Michigan GRAND '95 - OPENING ACCESSORIES AvN Unique & One-Of-A-Kind Jewelry Pieces & Accessories PLUS ( Easy Call Ahead Personal Gift Selection Service Give us the details, we'll do the rest ALSO: Bridal party gifts Bat Mitzvah/Sweet 16 $5.00 OFF YOUR URCHASE PURCHASE minimum purchase $30 Free Gift Wrapping with this ad Tel 12 Mall/M-S 10-9 Sun 12-5/353-3444 C/D , w „,„ 0 F OT0G RP?' 932-0202 N foe r el studios ...the very best in mu6ical entertainment MC's available for your next party: • Adult & 6th Grade Dance Classes (313) 357-0600 Think hanukah Gift latottai ts PPG 36 month paint performance guarantee CD CC LU 96 s TU DX 0 ala C/D w LAKIN -SQUIRE Maxie Collision, Inc. 32581 Northwestern Highway, Farmington Hills, MI 48018 (313) 737-7122 Find It All In The Jewish News Classifieds Call 354-5959 T here has never been an Israeli movie that savages this society like Life According to Agfa, which was released in Israel last month and has become that country's cultural con- troversy of the moment. The Israeli soldiers in the film are no better than Nazis: Getting drunk in a Tel Aviv pub, they sing about wiping out Arabs, beat up an Arab cook for no reason, nearly rape a girl, and, finally shoot up the pub and kill a dozen or so inno- cent people. The other characters, all Israelis, are either predators or victims: Their behavior is abrasive, brutal; their sex is quick and lacking any emotion. They'd like to find love, but they're just not made for it. This is a movie about an ugly people. The director and screen- writer has been one of the stars of Israeli cinema for nearly a quarter-century. He is Assi Dayan; his father was Moshe Dayan. Israelis have long gotten used to the idea that the filmmaker, 46, is not a son after his father's own heart. Assi is a national anti-hero; his father was a national hero. Since the 1967 Six Day War, in which he fought, Assi has spoken out harshly against the Israeli occupa- tion. He's had four mar- riages and four divorces, and a cocaine addiction that he kicked after being hospitalized. Like his father, Assi is a sex symbol, known for his affairs with numer- ous women. There the resemblance ends. His break with his father, like all the other messy episodes in his life, has been well-documented. In 1981, when Moshe Dayan was on his deathbed, Assi (accor- ding to his account in Robert Slater's new book, Warrior Statesman: The Life of Moshe Dayan) told him: "You are an SOB . . . You are the one who invented screwing as a national item. You are the generation that lost sight . . . of what we were. You made this country after the Six Day War into a little fascist nation, a little SS-trooping nation. You have changed this state into a racist one . . . I want you to know that I hate your guts. So when you die, remember there's one person who thinks of you as a fake, as a killer." In his new film, Assi Dayan indicts Israel much as he indicted his father:, Without mercy, without mentioning the "good side." It portrays an Israel that is all black. (The film, inciden-~T tally, was shot in black-and- white; the characters are constantly being photographed with gro- tesque expressions by a barmaid named "Agfa.") 1 Despite its scathing, un---= forgiving tone, the film is do- ing well not only in fash- ionably jaded Tel Aviv, but throughout Israel. It ha -7 even received glowing re- views. Yehuda Stay, film critic for Yediot Aharonot, the country's largest daily newspaper, called it "the c most Israeli film to come out of Israeli cinema in recent years." In an interview in his rumpled, arty apartment in Ramat Gan, bordering Tel Assi Dayan indicts Israel much as he indicted his father. Aviv, I asked Mr. Dayan if the movie didn't exaggerate the ugly side of Israel and Israelis. "It's an apocalyptic vi- sion," he said, "It's my nightmare; it's a prophecy. As in every prophecy, you exaggerate. An artist has to go all the way with his vi- sion. And you can't 'argue' with the way I see things, just like nobody 'argues' with Fellini over the way he portrays life in his films." Frederico Fellini isn't the only exalted name Mr. Dayan tosses off when c discussing his work. In an essay about Life According to Agfa, he explains that he got his artistic perspective from "existential philosophy, Heidegger and his horror of death (angst), to which I add the 'absurd' of Camus . . ." This would sound preten- tious coming from a college freshman with a goatee, and, , indeed, Assi Dayan is a mighty pretentious fellow, still playing the brooding rebel in middle age, mur- muring about existential loneliness to the groupies in hip Tel Aviv pubs, where he is a celebrated fixture. His movie is pretentious,