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by Blender Dumbass

Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".

Watching Foxtrot ( a film by Samuel Maoz ) I felt a strange feeling. The film moves and feels like surrealistic horror movies by directors like Nicolas Winding Refn and Panos Cosmatos, yet the film is not a horror. It is a drama.

The film is very poetically made. The direction and the tension the film is going for made me afraid that the film will end up being pretentious ( as, in it is trying to be profound, but fails ). Yet by the end, I no longer thought that it failed. I think it did deliver something that is worth digesting. Something worth talking about. Which I will not spoil.

The film central tension holds on dramatic irony. A family is being told that their son has died in the war. But it was a mistake. Or was it?

There are 3 sections in this film ( if you don't count a little cartoon between sections 2 and 3 which is a small comedic and ballsy exposition dump ). The first is about a reaction of a father ( played insanely well by Lior Ashkenazi that slowly becomes my favorite actor from Israel ) to the news that his son apparently died.

The second is about the son ( Yonathan Shiray ) and his military service. This part of the movie is breathing with an enormous amount of tension since you are not sure what to expect. The first section sets it up so well, that you watch people basically getting bored with an insane anticipation of something terrible.

And then there is a third section, coming back to the parents and their relationship. Establishing an unreal chemistry between Ashkenazi and his co-star Sarah Adler. Which ends up in a sort of, kind of dramatic ironic depressive punchline, if you will.

If you enjoy films like Only God Forgives and want something similar, but without the graphic violence ( there is violence, but it is more conceptually disturbing, rather than visually ), then I think you will like this film.

Happy Hacking!!!


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