Youth

Brothers Yaki and Shaul are extremely close. After their father loses his job and the family falls into debt, the boys decide on a radical solution to their problems. In his feature debut, director Tom Shoval breaks out of the low-budget, intimate drama mold in favor of an urgent investigation into the existential middle-class issues that are destroying even the most solid family environment. This realistic family drama then morphs into a thriller. When he is called up to fulfill his military service, Yaki is issued a new rifle – which leads the protagonists to somehow mistakenly believe that they are now adults. In a world of violence and manipulation, the natural boundary between filial devotion and social morality becomes hopelessly perverted. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)