Big Bad Wolves
Director: Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado
Writer: Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado
Cast: Lior Ashkenazi, Tzahi Grad, Rotem Keinan, Doval’e Glickman, Kais Nashif
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot:
The police have been investigating a series of disappearances/murders of little girls. Their main suspect is teacher Dror (Rotem Keinan) but they don’t actually have anything on him. After they attempt to beat information out of him, police man Miki (Lior Ashkenazi) is suspended, but can’t really let it go, so he decides to kidnap Dror – only to find that the father of one of the girls, Gidi (Tzahi Grad), had the same idea.

Big Bad Wolves is freaking fantastic. It has one of the deliciously darkest senses of humor I’ve ever seen, it’s tense, exciting and pretty much perfect. I walked out feeling positively post-orgasmic.

When I saw Keshales’ and Papushado’s Rabies two years ago, I thought I saw a whole lot of potential in these two filmmakers, even if not fully realized. This time round, it’s all there and realized and amazing. It’s nice to see that some filmmakers actually do live up to the promise of their first film.

It is maybe a little weird to say, but I’ve never laughed so hard in a movie that is about child abuse and murder, torture and revenge. But somehow Keshales and Papushado absolutely pull this off. The entire film has just a frankly amazingly macabre sense of humor. (I think that’s something that flies very well in Austria – and apparently Israel – I don’t know if the rest of the world would laugh as much about it.)

But even apart from the funny things, the movie had everything going for it. The cast is perfect. The timing and pacing is spot-on. It’s gruesome and had me cringing. And I really didn’t know what was going to happen (apart from a few details that were rather clear).

Big Bad Wolves is everything you want from a film. And I can only recommend it to everyone at all.

Summarizing: YES!