Beaufort (Bufor)
Bavaria Film International
Joseph Cedar / Israel / 2007 / 125 min
Oshri Cohen, Itay Tiran, Eli Eltonyo, Ohad Knoller, Itay Turgeman, Arthur Faradjev, Itai Szor
This film is based on a novel by Ron Leshem; but you wouldn’t notice that it is a fiction film as it seems so incredibly real. Set in 2000 in southern Lebanon, this is the story of the retreat by the last Israeli outpost on the historical Beaufort mountain and a character study of its commander Liraz. The narrative is very quiet and very slow, but tense and tight at the same time, mainly because of the unexpected interrupting explosions. One after the other of the protagonists die in the conflict between IDF and Hezbollah, and the soldiers seem to have long forgotten why they are on this historically bloody mountain.
“There is an abrupt, definitive moment in every war, when the mission, or purpose,for which soldiers gave their lives until that moment, ceases to exist.” (Joseph Cedar, director.)
rating 4/5