Foxtrot

Foxtrot (2017) is an Israeli drama directed by Samuel Maoz — watch it online on iFILM. A co-production between Israel, Germany, France and Switzerland, the film ran 113 minutes and took the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice.

The film unfolds in three movements. In Tel Aviv, Michael and Dafna receive word that their son Jonathan has died at his military post. The first act stays close to the parents: the official visit, the sedative, the government machinery of grief. The second shifts to a remote checkpoint in the middle of nowhere, where Jonathan and three fellow soldiers stand watch as the road slowly sinks into the mud. The third returns to the family — and closes a circle that was always going to close.

Maoz named the film after the dance for a reason: the foxtrot always ends where it began. It's a film about the Israeli military, parental fear and the particular cruelty of coincidence — austere and precise in the way it withholds and then delivers. Stream Foxtrot (2017) online on iFILM.