Seret Layla

This is quite a poignant half hour drama following an Israeli under-cover soldier on patrol who encounters a young man who panics and tries to run away. “Eli” (Moshe Ivgy) handcuffs the terrified kid (Akab Abed El-Hai) to him and off they set to try and get to the police station. Perhaps it’s the fact that he is wielding a machine gun that puts folk off, but nobody in this wet and bustling Tel Aviv wants to stop to help, so they commandeer a motor bike and sidecar that thanks to their security arrangements is more dangerous than it’s worth as they drive round in circles an attract the attention of the police! It’s this whirlwind ride that begins to break the ice between the two men, so they head to the boy’s home - well, more of an underpass where the homeless congregate to huddle around anything that will burn. Oddly enough, they don’t welcome the pair either - and so they set about finding an ingenious way to get shot of their bonds and get out of the relentless rain. By morning, their own personal dynamic has changed profoundly, but when they separate it becomes clear that these two men are very much in a minority - with tragic effects. There’s not a great deal of dialogue, here. Auteur Gur Heller allows the dark city-scape and the audio to do much of the heavy lifting as we watch two people come to terms with the fact that both have acted on the basis of ingrained instinct, and that one’s exposure to the other reveals substantial flaws in those age-adhered to doctrines. It’s impossible to imbue anyone with much depth in thirty minutes and the denouement isn’t really that convincing, but there is food for thought here that challenges prejudice, dogma and ignorance and simplistic as it may be, it’s still worth a look.