Ha-shoter
Director: Nadav Lapid
Writer: Nadav Lapid
Cast: Yiftach Klein, Yaara Pelzig, Michael Aloni, Michael Moshonov, Menashe Noy
Part of: Viennale

Plot:
Yaron (Yftach Klein) is a policeman who divides his spare time between his pregnant wife and his tightly-knit group of friends and colleagues, between coming to terms with becoming a father and trying not to get convicted for accidentally killing a civilian during a terrorist arrest.
At the same time, Shira (Yaara Pelzig), a young girl from a rich family, is part of a revolutionist group led by Natanel (Michael Aloni). They are planning an attack on the capitalist establishment, but things are complicated by their co-revolutionary Oded’s (Michael Moshonov) father (Menashe Noy) who gets wind of their plans.

Ha-shoter is a good film. Not wow-how-amazingly-great, but fine. It had well-rounded characters, an interesting storyline and the pacing was good.

The movie’s weakest point is the editing which was a little weird sometimes. The plot is interesting, but also evolves very classically and won’t blow your mind. It’s the characters that stand out most about the film. They felt real and though they leaned towars stereotypes sometimes, they were always kept that crucial step away. Though I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was supposed to like them more than I did. [But you don’t have to like a character to appreciate it anyway.]

I mean, Yaron was obviously supposed to be a good guy. And he does take care nicely of his pregnant girlfriend, but that’s just kind of normal, isn’t it? And other than that he really behaved like an asshole most of the time, even though like an asshole that is well-liked by everyone around him.

But since I like the rebels about as much as I liked Yaron, I guess the balance is still there. They just show this idealism that makes me want to condescendingly pat their heads for its naivité. And then they combine it with violence, which is just plain stupid. A combination that is not exactly endearing. [The only one who shows a little more brain in that constellation is Yatom.]

What I did like a lot though, was the soundtrack. An interesting mix and some very beautiful songs.

[Unfortunately the info on the soundtrack and the movie in general is pretty thin. I can’t, for example, find out who played Yatom and I had to image search my way through the cast to find the actor who played Oded. Maybe the Hebrew info is more extensive, but I couldn’t tell. :)]

Summarising: a good watch.