1. When the teacher takes Yoav to the poetry reading, why did one man start throwing things at them on the stage? Wasn't that man in her poetry class also? Don't get it.
2. Also, there's a late scene where Yoav starts doing a very odd ballet dance and the teacher is frozen, looking at him from the kitchen for a long time. Unsure of this one also.
"The future is tape, videotape, and NOT film?"
1. It's traditional (especially in Sephardic communities) to throw candies at the bar mitzvah boy at his recitation of the Torah (also to throw candies at the groom at a wedding). One of the people at the recitation makes a comment on this bar mitzvah custom (I don't remember exactly what he said) . This is in the spirit of congratulation, though here it appears to be ironic, making fun of the recitation.
2. Yoav appears to be on the Asperger spectrum, with odd quirks of behavior (like walking back and forth just before reciting a poem). Like many Aspies, he is capable of reciting many texts verbatim that he has heard (probably the poems he recites are ones he heard from his uncle; obviously a 5-year-old, no matter what his "genius" wouldn't have the experience to compose a poem on bullfighting). The teacher is probably trying to figure out what is going on with quirky behavior in that scene.
Thanks for the explanations. The throwing at the reading surprised me, because I thought the man was friendly with the teacher. As you said, it was supposedly made in congratulation, but the teacher probably took it as a slight.
I agree that the poems Yoav recites are probably not his own. The fact that the teacher then uses them early on as well brings up an interesting question of 'when is art no longer yours, but everyones?'. At some point, it becomes a shared experience. The child dancing scene seemed odd to me and I never considered Aspergers, but you could be right.
"The future is tape, videotape, and NOT film?"
I watched the film on dvd, which had an interview with the director. He mentioned that the film is somewhat autobiographical because he also had the ability to come up with poems when he was between 4-6 years old. He claims he stopped at six and never returned to it. He obviously still thinks of poetry though because he made a film exploring it.
And all the pieces matter (The Wire)share