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One fine day, Blaumilch (Bomba Tzur), otherwise known as The Mole,
escapes from a mental institution, steals a pneumatic drill and at five in
the morning starts digging right on Tel Aviv's busiest road. The police
are on the spot soon enough, but they don't know what to make of it and
decide to think he's here on official business and help him block off the
road.
Soon the whole thing becomes a political issue, not at least because
elections are just weeks away, and the mayor (Nathan Wolfovich), not
knowing what to make of it either, delegates all the responsibility to his
road department. Koybishevsky (Shraga Friedmann), head of the road
department, meanwhile knows nothing about plans to dig up the road, so he
decides to blame it all on Sholtheiss (Mosko Alkalai), the intriguing head
of the ministry for roadworks. But to show Sholtheiss who's the boss in
Tel Aviv, Koybishevsky before long sends a team of construction workers to
Blaumilch's dig to help him digging.
Nobody though seems to have the idea that Blaumilch is just a madman
who likes digging, instead everybody seems to prefer to have Tel
Aviv's busiest road blocked.
Eventually though, Koybishevsky at least starts to ask the right
questions, like what is the ministry of roadworks planning with the dig.
So he sends his assistant Ziegler (Nissim Azikri) to the ministry to break
in and steal the plans ... and breaking in Ziegler does, and he even gets
caught - but those who catch him cannot worry less about him breaking in,
they even try to help him find the plans ... thing is, nobody has the
least idea about which plans are where - and Ziegler leaves the building
with a heap of plans that show everything but the road he wants.
Eventually though, Ziegler himself grows suspicious about Blaumilch,
and he breaks into his barrack one night, to find out two things: One that
Blaumilch even sleeps with his pneumatic drill, and two that Blaumilch
plans to flood the street - and everybody including the road department
seems to help him in his crazy plan ...
Eventually, Ziegler wants to report what he has found out at a meeting
of town officials, but he is considered a madman, as everybody refuses to
believe that another madman, Blaumilch, has fooled the entire city hall
... but then the water does flood Blaumilch's canal ...
In the end, the Mayor, trying to milk the situation to the fullest
before the elections, claims the whole canal was his idea in a big
spectacle including water parades and the lot, announcing Tel Aviv to be
Israel's Venice.
Ziegler on the other hand is shipped off to a mental institution ...
but on the way there, he sees Blaumilch, already busy to build his next
canal.
Extremely well-written political satire that - despite some
over-the-top ideas - doesn't seem all that far-fetched when thinking about
it. An unspectacular but subtle directorial effort (by the great Jewish
satirist Ephraim Kishon himself, who also wrote the story and play this
film is based on), good acting and wonderfully exressive character actors
help bring this film to life.
Recommended.
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find The Big Dig at adultvideouniverse.com
