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'Beaufort' questions reasons for war

Rob Thomas  —  5/16/2008 5:15 am

For some fans of international film who follow such things, "Beaufort" is considered slightly damaged goods. The film was selected by Israel to be its entry in the best foreign language category at this year's Oscars, beating out the better-known "The Band's Visit," which just finished up a run at the Orpheum.

Squabbling between the producers of the two films got pretty acrimonious, and some "Band's Visit" supporters have it in for "Beaufort." Which is ridiculous, because they're both strong, essential films that signal a bold creative movement emerging in Israeli filmmaking.

Joseph Cedar's "Beaufort" is basically a war movie almost entirely without combat. The principals are a group of Israeli soldiers assigned to guard a 12th-century castle on top of a mountain in Lebanon. The castle was seized with much fanfare when Israel seized Lebanon in 1982 (there's even a plaque to commemorate the event), but the year is now 2000, and Israel is leaving the country.

That leaves the dozen or so men at Beaufort to sit around and wait for their orders to evacuate as well. But it's clear that spending years on an isolated mountaintop in a hostile country has taken its toll on the soldiers, who not only question what they're doing in Lebanon, but wonder if their superiors even remember they're still up there.

Cedar makes great use of the setting -- both the ancient battlements of the castle and the claustrophobic, vaguely coffin-shaped metal tunnels that the men hustle through to get from one post to the other. It's a hellish place, and even if the soldiers are supposedly safe inside Beaufort from terrorist attacks ("Hezbollah admires the Crusaders," one soldier says), the tedium takes its own toll.

Cedar doesn't have much to say directly about the Israel-Lebanon conflict, although recent headlines about continued strife in Lebanon make their own statement about the long-term effects of the Israeli occupation. "Beaufort" is more about war in general, about a group of soldiers struggling to stay true to a cause long after their orders have stopped making sense.

The film renders each of the soldiers with an even-handed empathy, from the harried commander (Oshri Cohen) who feels unworthy of his men to the new recruit (Ohad Knoller) brought in to clear roadside bombs so convoys can reach the castle and evacuate the soldiers. Even if they do finally get to leave, the film's dispiriting message seems to tell us, in eight centuries there will probably be a new set of soldiers guarding Beaufort.

BEAUFORT

Three and a half stars

Stars: Ohad Knoller, Oshri Cohen

Rated: R for war violence, language

How long? 2:11

Where? Sundance

For fans of: "The Band's Visit," "Platoon," "Waiting for Godot"

Rob Thomas  —  5/16/2008 5:15 am