The Human Resources Manager (Eran Riklis, 2010): Israel, Germany, France, Romania

Reviewed by Carolina Soto. Viewed at Mann Chinese Theater, AFI Fest  Hollywood.

In The Human Resources Manager by Eran Riklis (Lemon Tree), starring Mark Ivanir, we follow Jerusalem’s largest bakery’s human resources manager on a emotional journey where people comes together and works for a goal. With an unusual setting and realistic characters, Eran Riklis drags us to the tragic life of the manager (without a name).

When a woman dies, the human resources manager at the bakery doesn’t care, emotionally, about the happening. But when the bakery is accused for inhumanity, he’s forced to take care of things and represent the bakery at the funeral to keep out of trouble. With a disappointed daughter waiting at home, he want the mission to be over as soon as possible, and prepares to travel away with a coffin with the deceased employee and bad luck following him hard on the heel. On the road from Jerusalem he has to contact a relative to the woman. One person leads to another and on that way they are a few people on this mission which takes them to the ice-cold Romania and the hometown of the woman. Along on the way, the human resources manager finds his own humanity while getting more and more involved in the woman’s past life and the broken family she left after her.

The camera works nicely following the characters to different angles and leaving the frame on wide shots. The setting welcomes us to the countryside of Jerusalem and Romania, with realistic minor characters and extras (if not real inhabitants). The weather works perfectly for the depressing mood and the gloomy and misery environment fits with the snow and cold in the movie. The clothes matches the characters’ state of mind and social position. Even if the movie is tragic it has a hint of comedy scattered in the movie. We get to hear a lot of folk music, which let us know how to feel to the happenings during the movie.

It’s not often I watch a movie in Jewish, taking place in Romania. And only that was one reason for me to see this movie. What can happen over there? As the movie goes on, I got more and more involved just as the main character. When I saw the setting I wished I’ll never have to visit that place in real life. Even the director and his actors said that it was hard to be there for so long time shooting. Tempted to take the first plane home, the place grew on them and that helped them to get in the mood for this movie. So don’t get scared away because of the setting, this movie is worth watching.