Motif: “Home”
A PLO member, unaware that Avner is Mossad, tells Avner, “You don’t know what it is not to have a home. Home is everything.”
Avner’s mother, regarding Israel, says, “Whatever it took, whatever it takes. We have a place on earth at last.”
A Palestinian academic says he is a part of the world’s “largest refugee population” with “our homes taken from us.”
Avner tells his wife, “You’re the only home I ever had.” She replies, “That is so corny.”
While leading hostages to the airfield where they’ll ultimately die, a Black September terrorist tells them, “After this, you will go back to your homes or your Olympic games.”
Twice Avner meets Louis, the information gatherer, in front of a storefront display with a model kitchen. The second time, Louis says, “You could have a kitchen like that someday. It costs dearly, but home always does.”
When Louis says “safehouse” he oddly puts the emphasis on “house.”
Avner says, “I have no idea where I should be.” Then he looks around his Brooklyn apartment and says, to his wife, “This place is nice. You’ve made it nice.”
In the final scene, Ephraim invites a diasporic Avner to “come home” to Israel. Avner says no. Avner invites Ephraim to break bread at his Brooklyn home. Ephraim says no.
On assignment, while waiting in a car, Steve sings, “Papa was a rolling stone. Wherever he laid his hat was his home.” Carl says, “Steve, shut up.”
-Matt Denvir
Hitchcock Cameo 