Low Tide

The fact that Yoel Kanovich didn't report for the army reserve training he was summoned to is by no means his only problem. His marriage to Sigal is on the rocks, his father recently died of a heart attack, and on top of that he's lost his job as a history teacher. His nerves apparently got the better of him during a lesson on the Balfour Declaration, of all things. Of all the many declarations made over the years, this promise of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine was his father's favourite. But with everything we learn here about the country and Yoel's home city of Tel Aviv, we could equally speculate that this same declaration is responsible for the state of routine emergency depicted so aptly in Motza el hayam. Using scraps of news reports on the soundtrack, TV images and visions of destruction, the film repeatedly brings together the omnipresent violence in this society and the mess that makes up Yoel's private life. How he turns his back on all this and the surprising encounters he has while looking for a way out lead to some bizarre situations. The film sets a tone in which the absurd is very much at home. (Berlinale)