Due to the renewed interest of the public in the conflict at the middle east, some filmmakers tried pushing and pulling a political pendulum when it comes to accepting / boycotting Israeli film-makers. It is known that film-makers ( being in the art of empathy ) usually tend to be on a progressive side. That makes a concept of an "Israeli filmmaker" a rather strange thing to fathom. But since we see filmmakers from far more restrictive parts of the middle-east find ways to speak their true minds about complex topics, despite heavy censorship, there is no shortage of progressive Israeli films. One of them *Zero Motivation* ( אפס ביחסי אנוש ), a tale about IDF itself, has some rather interesting points. No... Not the ones you might expect.

I didn't know about the existence of this movie until 2 or 3 days ago. And only today, by request of my girlfriend, I've seen it. 

Israeli films could be good, but the constant obsession with the IDF or the conflict in the middle east, make most of them rather uninteresting to me. The few Israeli films, which aren't about the IDF ( like [Footnote](/reviews/footnote_2011_is_a_suprisingly_good_israeli_film) and [Broken Wings](/reviews/broken_wings___2002___is_satisfyingly_depressing) ) are quite good pieces of cinema.

*Zero Motivation*, on the surface appears to be a feminist picture about the evils of IDF's misogynistic culture. But there is more to it. On the surface, it is about a group of girls under a supervision of a lady, who's job is some mindless uninteresting bureaucratic bullshit. They are not deciding on anything important. They are not touching anything important. They are not fighting. They are not killing nobody. They are managing documents about the staff of their base. If anything they have the most boring and inconsequential position there is.

The men, sit in their board-room like a bunch of ministers from [Stanley Kubrick]()'s *Dr. Strangelove* and talk about important-sounding shit. While our main characters pour them their coffee and being subjected to the male gaze up their bottoms.

The film is broken down into 3 chapters:

First is about a girl named Daffi ( [Nelly Tagar]() נלי תגר ) who desperately wants to be transferred to a much more consequential position in the main Tel Aviv base. She is fed-up with feeling unimportant. So she writes to the IDF's commanders, in hopes that she will be transferred. 

Then we have a chapter about Zohar, played by [Dana Ivgy]() (דאנה איבגי), who you may know as the girlfriend of the depressed teenager guy in [Broken Wings](/reviews/broken_wings___2002___is_satisfyingly_depressing). She plays the only virgin girl on the base. She is so desperate to get rid of her virginity that she gets into trouble. And another girl Irena ( Ирина ) has to save her ass.

Funny thing, Irena ( or more like Irina ) supposed to be Russian in the movie. But her actress [Tamara Kleingon]() ( Тамара Клейнгон ) is Ukrainian. And coincidentally she appears in *Children of the Fall*. An Israeli horror film by [Eitan Gafni]() which has a rather intriguing trailer. And which I really would like to see.

And then we have a chapter that combines the two girls ( Daffi and Zohar ) from the beginning into one. But given the writing, the whole situation is now utterly up-side down. Thought, it seems like chapter 3 is technically not about the 2 girls at all. But about their commander Rama ( Sheiny Klein שני קליין ).

The Hebrew poster for the movie contains an image of 3 girls: Daffi, Zohar and Rama. Therefor it must be that at least to some extent, the 3 chapters were meant to represent these 3 girls.

Chapter one, about Daffi, is clearly about feminism in more than one way. We have the utter unimportance of their job, yes. But we also have a subplot involving a different girl. An impostor who is there to secretly meet with one of the guys at the base. Which ends up catastrophically wrong. As if the movie is saying that being in love with a guy, so much, will literally kill you.

We have similar type of love between the best friends Daffi and Zohar. Which also breaks apart and turns into an utter slapstick. But they, because they both are girls, survive through their hurdles in the end of the day.

The second chapter about Zohar trying to lose virginity, reinforces the point from the first chapter. She "lost her mind" for a guy, who, quite literally, ends up being a rapist. The film plays with these elements in a very light-heated and funny way. But the message is quite clear.

Now with the third chapter, we have a complication. Technically it is about the reunion of Daffi and Zohar. But is also about the rejection of Rama. She herself wanted to be more consequential, but got rejected by the higher ranking officers. In the scene where she receives the bad news, she asks them "Is it because I'm a woman?". 

Clearly, if you couldn't tell by now, the movie is written and directed by a woman. [Talya Lavie]() ( טליה לביא ) to be exact.

Writing in my opinion suffers in the first act. There was 23 minutes of pointless ( on the surface ) buildup in the beginning of the film, where it felt like nothing of consequence was happening. Yes, knowing what happens at 23 minutes, you know why all this buildup was important. But 23 minutes is quite a long time for contemporary audience.

Perhaps she could introduce some element of intrigue or tension from the very beginning to make you pay attention through those first 23 minutes. And yes, technically there is some of it. But whatever it has, feels so surface-level and inconsequential, that you start to think that you will need to sit through this kind of drag the entire time.

Now at 23 minutes the movie picks up steam and becomes a far better movie. There is suddenly real tension. There is suddenly real consequence. Suddenly everything is far more engaging.

Chapter 2 thrown me off a bit. It had a voice-over narration, while the other 2 chapters didn't have it ( or had very little of it ). I get it. It is private stuff. She wants to get rid of her virginity. But there are cinematic techniques to do it in a "show don't tell" way. Look no further than [Paul Thomas Anderson]()'s *The Master*. Though, credit where credit is due, Talya Lavie's voice-over writing is full of character quarks, making it way more serviceable. Which kind of begs the question: why didn't she do that on the entire film?

Directing-wise, even though Talya Lavie is far better than somebody like [M. J. Bassett]() ( [Red Sonja](/reviews/red_sonja_2025_has_good_story_but_bad_execution) ) or [S. J. Clarkson]() ( [Madame Web](/reviews/madame_web_2024_feels_like_it_had_potential) ) I still believe there is room for improvement. She isn't yet on the level of [Greta Gerwig]() ( [Barbie](/reviews/Barbie) ) or [Coralie Fargeat]() ( [The Substance](/reviews/the_substance_will_make_you_puke_while_cumming) ). But here is the thing. I believe she can ( if she wants to ) get to those heights.

Shots aren't particularly Spielbergian ( as I would put it, in my older reviews ) but they are very fun, and for the most part, rather well put together. She has a very nice sense of flow. And I quite enjoyed the moments of visual humor.

What I was rather baffled by, was how dark the movie was. Not dark, in the emotional sense. Dark, in the sense of, the screen is black and you can't see shit. Like come on... just adding a bit of smoke machine here and there, or a bounce light here and there, would have improved the damn thing significantly.

That's said I quite enjoyed even the cinematography of the film. There was a rather cool looking scene toward the end where the darkness of the image actually made things look way more cinematic. But what was because ( this time around ) there was plenty of light to see what you had to see.

So what is the great reveal of this review? What is the thing I promised in the very beginning? The earth-shuttering reveal about the IDF or Israel as a whole from an Israeli film-maker?

At one point, the Russian girl advises Zohar ( the virgin girl ) to get rid of her virginity. And Zohar remarks "Maybe in Russia that is what a women needs to do. Here it's a western civilization". To which the Russian says "We are literally in the middle east.".

**Happy Hacking!!!**