Chronicling a Crisis

Directed by Amos Kollek. Starring Amos Kollek, Robin Remias, Ally Sheedy, Anna Thomson, and Teddy Kollek.

Just marginally a documentary, "Chronicling a Crisis" turns out to be one of Amos Kollek's more affecting films, partly because the Israeli helmer turns his camera on his woeful self and on Robin Remias, an East Village junkie whose downward spiral provides an exaggerated metaphor for Kollek's own. Although Kollek's aesthetic is as abrasive as his narrative is fractured, neither is haphazard: The angular self-portraiture, scuttling street scenes and the director's reflections on his failing father, longtime Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, form an unusual but intelligent mix that could well click with arthouse auds looking for something unique.