Policeman

About the film

With his bold and controversial Locarno winner, 'Policeman', the Israeli debutant, Nadav Lapid, gives us an unflinching symbol of a divided Israeli society, where conflicts run much deeper than the ubiquitous feud with the Palestinians. In the first part of the film, we meet Yaron, who is a member of Israel's elite anti-terror unit, which openly seeks to defeat the almost mythologised 'Arab enemy', with no means spared. He and his colleagues are a parody of masculinity, as when Yaron, wearing no more than a towel and plenty of self-confidence, dances in front of his heavily pregnant wife, who is left to admire him from the sidelines. While the first half of the film is strongly motivated by bodies, the second half is driven by words. Shira, the self-proclaimed leader of a revolutionary group, strongly opposes the pertinent financial oppression, while the group contains so much sexual tension internally, that their unity is challenged. Yaron definitely doesn't look at the revolutionaries with a merciful eye; for him they are just as alien and dangerous as the Arabs, who are to be beaten. Palestine is not the only enemy.