Foxtrot

Written and directed by Samuel Maoz, Foxtrot is the story of a couple who receives news that their son was killed in a battle somewhere in the Middle East. The film explores a couple’s grief but also wonder what happened and where as they deal with the Israeli Defense Forces whom their son was fighting for as they ask big questions over what happened and if it’s true. Starring Lior Ashkenazi and Sarah Adler. Foxtrot is a haunting yet offbeat film from Samuel Maoz.

The film revolves around the news of the death of an Israeli soldier as his parents want to know what happened yet confusion arises over his body as well as where their son is stationed at and what he and his fellow soldiers were doing. It’s a film that explore not just grief but also the world that revolves those who serve the Israeli Defense Forces as it isn’t everything that is cracked up to be. Samuel Maoz’s screenplay is oddly structured in the way it approaches the narrative as the first act is set almost entirely in an apartment loft in Tel Aviv where Michael and Dafna Feldmann (Lior Ashkenazi and Sarah Adler, respectively) receive the news about the death of their son Jonathan (Yonathan Shiray). Dafna is wracked with grief while Michael asks people from the IDF about his son’s body as confusion begins to emerge.

The film then moves to the second act at a remote area in the Israeli border where a group of soldiers are guarding the area as they live in a containment unit that is sinking on the land it’s on. There we get a glimpse into the lives of these soldiers and the boredom they have to do in their line of work as one of them is named Jonathan as it only raises the air of confusion of what the Feldmanns are going through. Especially as it would play into the third act over an act of confusion that would affect Jonathan and the other soldiers as it also play into this air of guilt and how fate plays into the actions of a few.

Maoz’s direction is entrancing for the compositions he creates that include a lot of overhead shots that play into not just this air of grief but also confusion. Shot on location in Israel with the scenes at the Feldmanns’ apartment inside a studio, Maoz definitely aims for intimacy with the usage of close-ups as it play into this air of claustrophobia of repressed anger and grief that Michael Feldmann is carrying. Even as he is surrounded by family and soldiers with the latter often making suggestions. The usage of long shots add to this atmosphere that is unsettling as is in the framing where Maoz play into this tension between Michael and those around him as he begins to question about the validity of his son’s death and why there’s no body found. Maoz then goes into surreal elements in the second act where a soldier is dancing with this gorgeous landscape behind him but the reality is that he and the other soldiers are in a desolate area in the middle of nowhere. Even as the camera is tilted to show how deep the containment area they live in is sinking.

Maoz’s direction also play into this air of repetition and boredom where a soldier places a tin can of food to roll it down to see how deep the containment area is sinking day by day. The added boredom would also have the character of Jonathan tell his fellow soldiers stories about his father as it is told through animated drawings from Jonathan that does play into the film’s offbeat humor. The third act has Maoz return to the Feldmanns as it is more about the aftermath as well as a return to the intimacy of the film’s first act as it does play into not just grief but also fate. Especially as it play into revelations that occurred in the film’s first act and what did happen as it would play into the events of the third act and its ending. Overall, Maoz crafts a riveting and haunting film about a couple dealing with the possibility of their son’s death during his service for the Israeli Defense Forces.

Cinematographer Giora Bejach does brilliant work for the film’s cinematography with its low-key look for many of the interior settings including the scenes in the containment unit with its lighting as well as the nighttime exteriors with its usage of available light. Editors Arik Lahav Leibovich and Guy Nemesh do excellent work with the editing as it is largely straightforward with some rhythmic cuts to play into the dramatic tension that looms throughout the film. Production designer Arad Sawat, with set decorator Felicity Good plus art directors Eyal Elhadad and Francis Kiko Soeder, does amazing work with the look of the apartment and how small the bathroom is as well as the look of the containment interior and how deep it’s sinking into the ground.

Visual effects supervisor Jean-Michel Boublil does nice work with a few of the film’s visual effects bit that includes the fantasy backdrop for one of the soldiers’ dancing as well as other bits of set-dressing. Sound designer Jonathan Ritzel does superb work with the sound as it play into the atmosphere of the locations as well as the sparse sounds in the apartment. The film’s music by Ophir Leibovitch and Amit Poznanky is wonderful for its low-key score that is a mixture of strings and ambient-based pieces that play into the sense of uncertainty and lack of action that occurs in the film while its soundtrack features an array of music ranging from foxtrot instrumental music, heavy metal, and some classical pieces including one from Avro Part.

The casting by Tanja Schuh and Chamutal Zerem is fantastic as it feature some notable small roles from Ilia Grosz as Dafna’s sister, Yehuda Almagor as Michael’s brother Avigdor, Karin Ugowski as Michael and Avigdor’s Alzheimer-stricken mother, and Shira Haas as Michael and Dafna’s daughter Alma. Yonathan Shiray is excellent as Jonathan as a young soldier who deals with the boredom of his work as he tries to liven up moral by telling stories to soldiers and such while he would also later deal with a moment that would shock him and many others all because of a misunderstanding. Sarah Adler is brilliant as Dafna Feldmann as a woman wracked with grief to the point she becomes hysterical and then numb while she is later filled with repressed rage during the third act over everything that had happened. Finally, there’s Lior Ashkenazi in an amazing performance as Michael Feldmann as the father of a soldier who deals with his son’s death as he tries to maintain composure until confusion about what happened to him makes him angry as he then copes with the sense of disappointment and guilt over everything in the film’s third act.

Foxtrot is a phenomenal film from Samuel Maoz. Featuring an incredible cast, a somber music soundtrack, intimate and chilling settings, ravishing visuals, and a stark yet captivating look on grief, frustration, and the fallacies of life in military service. It is a film that is unconventional in its approach to narrative as well as it how explore the themes in the film. In the end, Foxtrot is a sensational film from Samuel Maoz.

© thevoid99 2020