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A movie in which Jerusalem symbolizes religious oppression while Berlin represents freedom and liberty is a particularly obscene type of propaganda. Europe frequently compares Israelis to Nazis, claiming that the Jewish state does to Palestinians precisely what the Nazis did to Jews – a blasphemous comparison that an educated person should be ashamed to utter. Yet, here we are viewing “The Caretaker” and watching Shabbat become synonymous with narrow-minded, even violent religious Jews – people who don’t trust non-Jews and punish those Jews who don’t subscribe to strict orthodoxy. In actuality, only 8% of Israelis identify as ultra-orthodox while 20% of Israelis are Arabs.
The plot that cloaks the anti-religious sentiment concerns Oren, an Israeli man who travels frequently to Berlin on business. While there, he frequents a cafe from which he purchases cookies for his wife while entering into a torrid love-affair with Thomas, its baker and owner (or manager). After Oren’s sudden death, Thomas travels to Israel and, mirabile dictu, gets a job working in a cafe owned by Oren’s widow, where his baking improves her business, while his restrained personality seduces her into finding him an emotional crutch for her grief and sexual frustration. Need I tell you that he’s also great with her troubled son and soon has him decorating cookies with artistic elan.
