Director Eli Cohen’s feature-length debut was commissioned by the film division of the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit, and was originally intended solely for internal policy and comms needs. However, once commercially released, the film became a box office juggernaut. At a time when Israeli audiences were turning their noses up at local film, nearly one million viewers flocked to cinemas by the droves to see the movie.
At the centre of the story, set in the First Lebanon War, is a military squad from the Golani infantry unit’s Battalion 13. The IDF is preparing to retreat into the security buffer zone but in the meantime, the squad are up to their eyeballs in all the chaos in Lebanon that is only getting worse. Gaddy (Roni Pinkovitch) is a new idealistic platoon commander – an entitled posh boy from the rich suburbs of Tel Aviv – who arrives to take over for the previous commander and has a rude awakening about the harsh realities of South Lebanon that involve incursions into villages and clashing with the local civilian population. He is met with tired and battle-worn soldiers and one hardline squad commander (Shaul Mizrahi) who sees a potential terrorist in every Lebanese citizen.
The pair’s oppositional worldviews – the squad commander’s uncompromising ruthlessness vs. the platoon commander’s wish to uphold and maintain humane treatment of the local population – leads to constant friction between the two and in the process, portrays two fundamentally different approaches to the IDF’s presence in Lebanon. Through the depiction of frontline daily life, the film also delves into the stories of the other platoon soldiers like Effie (Boaz Ofri) who has taken a liking to a local Lebanese girl, and Georgy (Alon Aboutboul) – the ‘common Joe’ soldier plagued by anxiety and panic attacks.
The film was featured at that year’s Cannes Film Festival as part of the Un Certain Regard section whilst leading man, Alon Aboutboul, took home the Best Actor award at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
Director Eli Cohen also penned the lyrics to the film’s theme song which became a massive hit in its own right and over time, grew into a song that perfectly epitomises the mood amongst soldiers during the war.
