FILM SCREENINGS

Sinai Field Mission

1978. USA. Directed by Frederick Wiseman. U.S. and U.N. diplomats and electronics technicians monitor the buffer zone between Israel and Egypt after the war in 1973. Errol Morris, who recently cited Sinai Field Mission in his irreverent study of Wiseman’s “Great Moments of Quintessential Meaninglessness,” observes, “A man with a large push-broom is sweeping sand off a road in a windstorm. What more can you say? Oh yes, it’s about the U.N. peacekeeping forces in the Sinai. Trapped inside a windowless bunker and surrounded by chain-link fence, microwave dishes and razor wire, several nationalities and a group of Texans try to keep the peace. After a short while, they start fighting with each other.” 127 min.