Blaumilch Canal (international release title:
The Big Dig) is a 1969 Israeli comedy directed by
Ephraim Kishon' was an Israeli writer, satirist, dramatist, screenwriter, and film director.- Biography :Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, as Ferenc Hoffmann , Kishon studied sculpture and painting, and then began publishing humorous essays and writing for the stage.During World War...
, which depicts the madness of bureaucracy through a municipality’s reaction to the actions of a lunatic.
The film was nominated for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language FilmThe Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the awards presented at the Golden Globes, an American film awards ceremony.Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film could be honoured...
.
A lunatic with a digging compulsion (Blaumilch) escapes from an asylum and then steals a
jackhammerA pneumatic drill or jackhammer is a portable percussive drill powered by compressed air . It is used to drill rock and break up pavement, among other applications...
and proceeds to open up a main street and traffic artery in
Tel AvivTel Aviv-Yafo , usually called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 391,300. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of...
(
Allenby StreetAllenby Street is a major street in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was named in honor of Lord Edmund Allenby.Allenby Street stretches from the Mediterranean sea in the northwest to HaAliya Street in the southeast. It was first paved with concrete in 1914. During the day, it is a commercial street with many...
).
Blaumilch Canal (international release title:
The Big Dig) is a 1969 Israeli comedy directed by
Ephraim Kishon' was an Israeli writer, satirist, dramatist, screenwriter, and film director.- Biography :Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, as Ferenc Hoffmann , Kishon studied sculpture and painting, and then began publishing humorous essays and writing for the stage.During World War...
, which depicts the madness of bureaucracy through a municipality’s reaction to the actions of a lunatic.
The film was nominated for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language FilmThe Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the awards presented at the Golden Globes, an American film awards ceremony.Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film could be honoured...
.
Plot summary
A lunatic with a digging compulsion (Blaumilch) escapes from an asylum and then steals a
jackhammerA pneumatic drill or jackhammer is a portable percussive drill powered by compressed air . It is used to drill rock and break up pavement, among other applications...
and proceeds to open up a main street and traffic artery in
Tel AvivTel Aviv-Yafo , usually called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 391,300. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of...
(
Allenby StreetAllenby Street is a major street in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was named in honor of Lord Edmund Allenby.Allenby Street stretches from the Mediterranean sea in the northwest to HaAliya Street in the southeast. It was first paved with concrete in 1914. During the day, it is a commercial street with many...
). Rather than question his actions, the police, as well as city officials, assumes he is operating under the municipality’s orders and aid him as much as they can. Complaints from local residents, whose lives become a living hell due to the noise and traffic jams, lead to infighting amongst city departments. To hurry up the work before the elections, the city then sends armies of construction workers and heavy equipment to help the lone compressor, turning a mere annoyance into a disaster.
When the city realizes that they are destroying a street without any plans or goals it is too late, which leads to the connection of Allenby Street with the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
and the creation of a canal. The mayor then declares in a flamboyant opening ceremony that Tel Aviv has been turned into the
VeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
of the Middle East. The lone citizen (a low-ranking municipal administrator named Ziegler) who realizes that the 'project' was the work of a lunatic, is laughed at, and branded a lunatic himself.
In the final scene, Blaumilch is seen digging up the
Kings of Israel SquareRabin Square , previously Kings of Israel Square , is a large public city square in central Tel Aviv. It was re-named after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, following his assassination there in 1995...
near Tel Aviv's municipality building.
Cast
- Bomba Tzur as Blaumilch
- Nissim Azikri as Yehezkel Ziegler
- Shraga Friedman as Dr. Avigdor Kooiybishevsky
- Gideon Singer as Police Chief Levkowicz
- Shaike Ophir as the police officer
- Mosko Alkalai
Mosko Alkalai was an Israeli stage and film actor. He was best known a for a string of hits including Blaumilch Canal, The Fox in the Chicken Coop and Yana's Friends....
as Schultheiss
- Reuven Bar-Yotam as Foreman
Production notes
Blaumilch Canal was the largest Israeli movie production at the time it was made. Tel Aviv’s Allenby Street was reconstructed in Herzelia Studios, as well as a long canal. The cast consisted of some of the most prominent Israeli actors of the time, as well as hundreds of extras.