FOXTROT
Israel, 2017, 117 minutes, Colour.
Lior Ashkenazi, Sarah Adler, Jonaton Shiray, Shira Haas, Yehuda, Almagor.
Directed by Samuel Maoz.
This is a very moving film. It is also very sombre.
The writer-director, Samuel Maoz, made the award-winning film, Lebanon (2009). It won an award from SIGNIS (World Catholic Association for Communication). Foxtrot screened at the Venice film Festival, 2017, winning the Grand Jury Prize. It also won a prize from SIGNIS.
Foxtrot seems an unusual title for such a serious film. However, there is a telling scene where the central character enters a building and finds elderly couples dancing the foxtrot. He explains and demonstrates the steps. Later, the son will dance a foxtrot on the road at his desert outpost – and the codename for the outpost in fact is Foxtrot. And, again, later, there will be peacemaking and reconciliation in the dancing of the foxtrot.
This is an Israeli film. The screenplay is in three parts, three acts, the approximately 40 minutes long.
The first takes place over some hours on one day, the military arriving at the door of an apartment with the audience sharing the apprehension of the parents who open the door. The news is that their son, very young, has been killed in the line of duty. The director uses many close-ups, especially of the father, Michael (Lior Ashkenazi in a most impressive performance). The mother collapses. Michael is quiet, quietly panic-stricken, then breaking out in anger and demands. He visits his mother with the news. His brother comes to help. An official comes to explain the protocols for the funeral and the tribute. Then there is other news which will take the audience by surprise.
There is a transition for the second part. The audience is taken out into the desert, the checkpoint on the lonely road, four young men doing their military service there. Nothing much happens. A camel walks by and they lift the barrier, the camel moves through, the barrier is lowered. The young men talk, play computer games, Jonathan, the son from the first part, has a sketchbook. One of the activities is to roll a can from one end of the hut to the other, their speculating that the hut is sinking. There is rain, heavy rain, scenes of watery mud seeping from the road.
As regards activity, a couple is held up, caught humiliatingly in the pouring rain. One of the young men uses techniques of photo identity so that the people can be cleared and move through. Later there is a group of raucous young men and women, though one looks intently at Jonathan. Again the checking, and then something overwhelming happens.
With the third part, the audience goes back to Michael and his wife. There are many close-ups, intense gazing at the face of the characters, feeling their tensions, sense of alienation, exasperation, grief. This part is introduced by an animated segment, bringing Jonathan’s sketches to life, the story of his father, courting his mother, sexuality – and a glimpse of Michael’s mother in hospital, the concentration camp number on her wrist.
As with the other two parts, there is a surprise that the audience could not have anticipated. An explanation that makes sense of the whole story. Tragic sense.
This is a film for an Israeli audience but makes quite an impact beyond Israel. It is a story about a husband and wife, about children and family – and, especially, different ways of coping with death, different ways of living through grief.
1. The impact of the film? Emotions? Sombre story?
2. The title, the dance, the moves and steps, the visuals of the dance with the older people, with Jonathan illustrating the steps, with Michael dancing with Dafna?
3. The structure of the film, three acts, approximately 40 minutes each? The opening and the vehicle going along the desert road, the ending and its meaning?
4. Part one: the news of Jonathan’s death, the military coming to the door, Dafna and her collapse, Michael and his impassive reaction? Definitely given the injection? Michael dazed, then angry, the devastation, aspects of panic? His being given water, the advice to drink every hour, setting the alarm and it’s going off? The officials, doing their duty, Jonathan killed in the line of duty? Michael and his demands, their responses, their not being to blame? The arrival of his brother, helping, touching and Michael’s reaction, Michael reacting against advice to calm down? The brother preparing the death notice? Michael, the tension, fondness for the dog, kicking it brutally? Going to see his mother, her wanting him to tuck in his shirt, checking whether she knew who he was and who Jonathan was? The talking, German, proper, thinking she was talking to his brother? The scene where he came into the hall and the older couples dancing the foxtrot? Alma, the phone call, her arrival? The man coming to arrange the funeral, Michael wanting to see the body, that this was not possible? The new news, the mistake, Dafna very happy, Michael saying she was not herself? His further demands, wanting to see his son’s body?
5. Part two: the outpost, its code name of Foxtrot? Desert, isolation, barren? The squad, the young men, the military service? Jonathan is part of the group? The talk in conversation, the accommodation of the bunks, computer games, Jonathan falling, rolling the can down the floor, talking about the hut sinking? The visuals of water seeping through the soil? The rain? The irony of the camel walking on the road, raising the barrier and lowering it? The irony for what was to happen? Work at the outpost, the couple in the car, being courted, the rain cringing them, the images and the visual clearance? The arrival of the group, cheeky, the serious girl, they’re being cleared, her dress caught in the door, the opening, the Cannes falling out, calling out grenade, the gunfire and deaths? The bulldozer, the deep hole, the bearing and covering of the car? The official coming, his saying that the episode had not happened, their doing their duty? Releasing Jonathan? The men in their discussion about the foxtrot, Jonathan and his steps and his dancing?
6. Part three: the animation, Jonathan sketches, the story of his father? The slow movement in this part, the importance of close-ups, the long silences? Dafna and her making the cake, Jonathan’s birthday, the alienation between Dafna and Michael? Her throwing out Jonathan’s things? The picture of the bulldozer in the car on the wall? Who was the bulldozer, the car, Michael Dafna? Audiences realising the news of Jonathan’s actual death? The tribute, the ceremony, the program, national anthem, coffee and cake? Michael silent, morose, the tensions? Dafna and her isolation? The cigarettes, the marijuana, smoking, talking, remembering the past, the apartment in the centre of the sea? This story, her pregnancy, not wanting Jonathan, the issue of abortion or not, a loving Jonathan, even more than Alma? Their life, becoming closer? Alma arriving, watching her parents, the piece of cake? Alma rebuking Michael about the brutality towards Max? Giving him the cake? Alma, the phone call, leaving? The couple reflecting on death?
7. The animated book, Jonathan sketches, his father story, the visuals of Michael’s mother, her stroke, hospital, the concentration camp number? The six themes?
8. The reality of death, in this Israeli context, military service?
9. The irony the pathos of the camel on the road in the car crash, going over the cliff?
10. The film and its portrait of ways of grieving?
