Time of Favor

Former paratrooper Joseph Cedar casts a critical eye on the volatile West Bank settlement movement and terrorism in Israel as personal and political beliefs (and religious devotion and fanaticism) collide and ricochet into an ominous future. Manachem (Aki Avi) organizes a military unit under the guidance of a rabbi (Assi Dayan). The rabbi wants his daughter Michal (Tinkerbell) to marry the brilliant student Pini (Edan Alterman) but she falls in love with Manachem, who is Pini’s best friend. This heady-handed love triangle and an act of impending violence are cloistered in a crudely drawn but intriguing drama-thriller that dissects a community in which “the line between the normal and the abnormal has changed.” The film won six Israeli Oscars including best picture.