Widely dubbed the Das Boot of tank warfare, this visceral, indicting Israeli film was awarded the Golden Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival. “Powerful and original… An astonishing piece of cinema.” — NY Times
Powerful and original. An astonishing piece of cinema.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2010
Lebanon 2009
Levanone
Like Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir) Samuel Maoz served in the Israeli armed forces in the 80s, and has now made a visceral, confrontational film about his experience. His film is as much concerned with the spiritual devastation of young Israeli soldiers as it is with the violence wrought upon the invaded. A technical tour de force set over 24 hours entirely within the confines of a tank, this is a grimy, anti-heroic picture of four typical young men scared shitless. Their view of the world is perilously restricted, glimpsed through the telescopic viewfinder and crosshairs of the gunner’s sights, which move laboriously with the tank’s heavy hydraulic turret. Widely dubbed the Das Boot of tank warfare, this powerful, indicting film was awarded the Golden Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival. — BG.
“This audacious, intensely confrontational piece is a major addition to the darker ranks of war films.” — Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound