forerunners resonated to me in a way transcending any political force.

the universalizing element of sport unites human bonds of physical strength and survival. the lm, by showing the simple activities of daily life, helps the viewer to feel very close to the characters. the 2004 date of the lm helps to explain some of the lm's style, with a reality monologue focus, and real life documentary feel, which captures the tensions and interior words of the athletes and coaches, in a style that makes me nostalgic for late 90s and Y2k cinema. jagged in a cool, realistic way. in that way too, the very youthful aspect of sport, and the styling, which relied heavily on contemporary music to convey emotional worlds for the characters, maintains a coolness, and universal youth theme. the signicance of the gender aspect of the soccer team, is at the forefront, but in some ways then becomes less important, as we feel the interior worlds of the different characters dreams and visions. i lost the gender focus, and started to see them the women seriously as humans. their coach praises their sensitivity in working with each other. one character is from Ukraine, deprived of her family. the very perfectionist star player has a huge level of drive and determination, for which she is reprimanded. towards the end, her personal force is more accepted, as the team realizes her success oriented vision helps the team cohere. i like very much to hear the hebrew, but can sometimes loose track of the content, for reading and taking in all the visual details. what i liked most about the lm, is how it seemed overwhelmingly uplifting and empowering. a lot of the sports pep talks and mantras centered on determination, desire, hard work, faith. when they lost, they remembered that they had tried their hardest. that's the part when i teared up, even if it wasn't a tear-jerker. the discussion with Alone Raab of UC Davis was great. he spoke of traditional roles for women in Israel keeping women underrepresented in University Positions at 10% even if they were 55% of graduate students. women under-represented in government, treaties, war, and peace. he mentioned harassment of women in the Israeli military being a severe and pervasive problem. this lm in the context of changing roles and the shift ot gender equity globally, shows force for Israel's

transformation towards equality of access and funding for all realms of life. old days of arab-jewish football. he spoke of the larger picture of women in the middle east, restrictions on their performance, due to interpretation of Koran or family honor. a graduate student of linguistics from Libya spoke of many sports issues there regarding women. the issue of sport is deeply political and issues of honor familial and national caused a huge upset over a Libyan swimmer, while horseback riding is accepted and popular for women. he spoke of political baiting going on with pictures of gadda waived to taunt opposing side, and that the old gadda loyalists want too control libya, or hide it by calling it the new Libya. another person spoke about misconceptions that Israel had total gender equality when she heard of women politicians and the ideals of the Israel socialist political party movements. question regarding a young male character who worked as an informal assistant for the team, came up. who was he? he was the one i most identied with, an outsider, misunderstood, the wrong gender, quiet, easily scared. he was so sensitive, but really cared about the team. i liked the character of the coach, but sometimes the confrontations between the strong lead character were too severe, and i wished they would stop raising their voices. Raab mentioned also that one review suggested the palestinian character was a negative stereotype of a certain outsider lower language skills, or lesser manners, and that this was perceived as unfair by the critic. this was lost on me. not so ever in to sports, it reminded me of the girls in catholic girls school, who in the isolation of gender segregation really develop their personal leadership skills. the larger implications for gender equity shines a light on Norway, where the star palyer goes to play for 4 years, where the conditions are more hospitable for women athletes. overall, the lm really conveyed progressive attitudes towards freeing the people from gender discrimination, or devaluing women's contribution to sport. it was very joyous to see the image of rallying enthusiasts enjoying the new cultural experience of strong women athletes. i mentioned about our class discussions of the reshaping of a new cultural identity of strength and athleticism, and how the the lm helped to convey to me this new cultural identity through promotion of sport.