Viewed at the Los Angeles Israeli film festival of 2013
"ROOM 514" is kind of a companion piece to "Rock the Casbah" in that it is also a film that addresses the internal conflict within Israeli Society between acute security needs and essential Jewish morality, in this case by bluntly questioning Israeli military behavior against Arab civilians. Anna is a young attractive Russian immigrant who will soon be going to law school and is fulfilling her military service obligation as an interrogator in army legality cases. The case assigned to her is one of alleged physical abuse of Arab civilians beyond the call of duty by a small patrol in the occupied territories. She is a relentless questioner out to prove herself and the male chauvinism of the hardened soldiers under questioning does not phase her in the least. Bit by bit she dredges up the embarrassing facts until finally the leader of the group, Davidi, a war hero is forced to admit his guilt. A general is called in to try to pressure her into dropping the case but it's too late -Davidi, to save face has committed suicide!
Other than a brief breakaway for a panting quickie with her superior officer and a couple of bus rides home after work, almost the entire 90 minutes of the film take place in the single room of the title in head to head confrontations, and is filmed in relentless facial close ups most of the way creating an intense claustrophobic space enclosing the mounting drama.
This is literally a chamber piece on a small canvas, but a very promising directorial debut by Sharon Bar-Ziv. The film has traveled to many festivals and actress Asia Naifeld, who plays Anna and is in every single scene, was nominated for an Israeli Oscar as best actress in 2012.
All of these films were supported by the Israel Film Fund (Keren Kolnoa Israeli) which indicates an open-mindedness and self criticism one could hardly expect from filmmakers on the other side of the fence.
Bottom Line:
Unflinching self-critical hardball is another winner from Israel
