Hashoter/Policeman (2011, Nadav Lapid)
As I purchased a 6 ticket package for the FNC a couple of
weeks ago (for the price of 5! What a deal!), one film among the six chosen
that aroused special curiosity was Nadav Lapid’s Hashoter, or Policeman as
the English translation goes. It is an Israeli film from a debutant
feature-length filmmaker about a group of anti-terrorist policemen who operate
in modern day Jerusalem. A propensity to enjoy cop films triggered interest to
begin with, but much more about the film’s potential drew me in. Israeli
cinema, while earning some respect in recent years for quality filmmaking, does
not top a lot of lists of countries who produce many must-see movies. France,
Germany, Korea, Great Britain, Japan are all countries, if one discounts the
United States, that stir up immediate interest before Israel, and that’s just
to name a few. Plus, a film about an anti-terrorist unit working in a country
that currently, and what has seemed like forever, is dealing with the threat of
terrorism, suddenly made me bubble with excitement.
A regular plot synopsis feels futile in the case of Lapid’s
film. Reviews at Between the Seats virtually always offer readers a description
of what happens in a movie’s first 20 minutes or so, just to let the curious
movie watchers an indication of what they would be in for. However, Lapid’s
bold attempt at describing the modern police force in Israel eschews typical
narrative, thus rendering the regular summary difficult and even pointless. In
a nutshell, Hashoter is divided into
two distinct yet equally important halves which eventually cross paths in the
film’s final moments. The first half relates to the aforementioned police
force, more specifically a band of five tightly knit colleagues, all well
built, exuding some machismo manliness, madly in love with their wives, their
job and of course their country. The viewer spends the most time with Yaron
(Yiftach Klein), who massages his pregnant wife thighs, visits a friend’s
party, celebrates his mother’s birthday and deals a cancer-stricken colleague. Without
warning, the narrative leaves this band and chooses to follow a small group of
Israeli born young adult terrorists, born into riches but disgusted with the
state of social and political inequity in their homeland. During this portion,
the viewer spends the most time with Shira (Yaara Pelzig), a pretty woman, but
draconian in her philosophy about justice and ready to make a difference by any
means necessary. Needless to say, the terrorists will attempt something and
guess who will be called in to stop them.
There is a moment in Hashoter
when most of the movie came together for this reviewer. Up until then, the
movie was enjoyable, interesting, well crafted and well acted, but it was not
hitting a grand slam homerun by any stretch of the imagination. The moment
occurs in the final minutes, when Yaaron and his team are receiving their
mission briefing just prior to, hopefully, taking out the enemy who have gone
about executing their own plans. Circumstances have led them to get a hold of
photographs of the targets. Yaron observes the pictures of each individual one
after the other, realizing, with a mixture surprise and irony (and
disappointment? I don’t know) that none of the perpetrators are Arab. The
moment does not last long, there are no comments about the fact, no subtle or
not-so-subtle callbacks to that later on, no special musical cue or edit that
highlights this moment. The moment in of itself suffices. It is a powerful one
however, one that speaks volumes about virtually everything the movie has shown
us from the first minute and probably speaks to the actual reality on the
ground in Israel today. So people are accustomed to reading and watching the
news about crazy, radical Islamists blowing stuff up and taking hostages. Well,
this time the setup is different, but a job is a job is a job, and Yaron’s team
has to take these punks out, whether they are Muslim Arabs or Israeli born
Jews. Still, a little bit of reality has just struck very close to home for
Yaron, who himself is to become a father any day now. By virtue of what has
transpired up until now, the protagonist is incredibly proud to be an Israeli.
He believes in his nation, loves it and enjoys serving and protecting it. Realizing
that the enemy is not always who we think it to be is...weird, revelatory,
unexpected, confusing, etc. The entire movie finally earns its spurs in those
two minutes (it might even be briefer than that), hitting the audience, whether
seeing Hashoter in Israel or in
Montréal, Canada as was my case, with a cold sense of reality. All of our
different backgrounds will undoubtedly create nuances in how we feel about
something like this, but that harsh reality of the moment will affect every
viewer at least in some way or another.
The lead up to that fateful climax is, as stated earlier,
quite good, although not completely jaw-dropping. The most obvious question to
ask is which half does one prefer? Each compliments the other, with each
focussing primarily on one person more than the others in the separate camps,
and with that single character having to live around various pleasing and frustrating
realities. Shira is hard at work at composing a manifesto to be read during
their strike (which always requires a re-draft), learns to use a firearm and is
part of a delicate love triangle. She has feelings for tall, handsome
Nathaniel, but another member of the group, a younger chap, is in love with her. The
entire juxtaposition of what these Shira is fighting, that is, capitalism and its
inequitable consequences, against where they come from, that is, a stinking
rich family, makes this portion of the film both poignant and intriguing. This
rejection of everything she knows and everything that has made her life
comfortable, a rejection which leads her to a very dark place, psychologically
speaking, arguably makes her the most fascinating character in the picture, not
to mention that the actress Yaara Pelzig is powerful in the role. The natural
beauty belies a mean streak inside. She plays the cold, calculating justice
vigilante superbly, while still offering a few moments that remind the audience
that she is a human. She grows more and more disagreeable as her story evolves,
possibly because the pressure of the situation is getting to her, possibly because
that is who she is underneath the pretty face. Regardless, she owns all of her
scenes.
Yiftach Klein, the central figure in the first half, is
strong in his own way. He has charm, both in a way a husband should when
spending time with his wife and when hanging out with friends at the beach or
at a party. The portion of the Hashoter
which follows the anti-terrorist group is worthy mostly for its depiction of
what the behavioural tendencies such a person and group of people would have in
a specific culture. They are more than just men: they are manly men, who enjoy
behaving like manly men at every possible opportunity. They wear sunglasses often,
always slap each other really hard on the back just to say hello like manly men
should, one of their pastimes is pick up wrestling, they like to hit on pretty
girls, at least until they realize the girls are under age. It is a way of life
not many experience, not one I personally want to experience, but deserving of
being explored on screen for the sake of the movie. Seeing them deal with a
friend and colleague who will more than likely die soon because of his brain
tumour is another aspect that proved gripping.
Reviews which argue that a single scene made an entire film
cause scepticism on my part. Hashoter comes
close mind you, although despite that nugget of real gold elaborated on above,
it feels as if each group would have benefited from their own film. By the time
the switch in focus happens at the midway point, the viewer would have liked to
stay with the policemen, and when the final confrontation begins, we want to
learn more about the terrorists before their time is up. Despite some
reservations, Nadav Lapid’s efforts are nonetheless praiseworthy for the mature
storytelling and quality directing on display.
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