A fascinating if frustrating documentary from Israeli director Yoav Brill

This absorbing new documentary explores those volunteers who flocked to Israel’s kibbutzim and their vast impact, but it also reveals the darker underside.

In the swinging 60s, the countercultural generation wanted to travel, try new experiences, taste life abroad and, most importantly, live a communal life. What began as a trickle soon turned into a flood after the Six-Day War in 1967 and travel agencies began selling volunteering packages. This continued through the 1980s as the result of widespread unemployment across Europe, but it was not without problems.

The volunteers brought sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll with them, broadening the mindset of the kibbutzniks. These blonde and blue-eyed Europeans presented a tempting contrast to the dark-haired and dark-skinned Israelis – and the lure was too much to resist for those who fell in love and got married. While many Israelis left for their spouses’ home countries, this documentary focuses on those who converted, learned Hebrew and stayed long after their Israeli partners departed.

For their part, the kibbutzim saw they were on to a good thing. Volunteers were a source of free labour and, despite the kibbutz’s professed commitment to equality, a distinct hierarchy emerged between the kibbutzniks and the volunteers. Emphasising this difference, the incomers were housed separately in areas often referred to as “the ghetto”. One contributor even suggested that racism was at the heart of the volunteer programme in that the kibbutzim preferred hiring Europeans to Palestinians. As if proving the point, after the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drastically reduced the number of European volunteers, labourers from Thailand replaced them.

Apples and Oranges reveals much about the era, but its modest runtime (80 minutes) means it only scratches the surface of a topic that should be explored in more depth.

By Nathan Abrams

UK Jewish Film Festival runs online and in person until 18 November. ukjewishfilm.eventive.org