FOXTROT

Michael and Dafna are devastated when army officials show up at their home to announce the death of their son Jonathan. Michael becomes increasingly frustrated by overzealous mourning relatives and well-meaning army bureaucrats. While his sedated wife rests, Michael spirals into a whirlwind of anger only to experience one of life's unfathomable twists which rival the surreal military experiences of his son.

„The idea comes from an incident that happened to me a long time ago. Every day, my eldest daughter would wake up late for school, and every day she would then ask me to call a taxi for her, and it started to cost us quite a bit of money. It seemed to me like it was affecting her education, so one morning I refused to get her a taxi and told her to take a bus like everyone else. There was a bit of an argument, but she needed to learn the hard way to wake up on time. Her bus was line 5. About half an hour after she left, I heard that a terrorist had blown up a line 5 bus, and dozens of people had been killed. I tried to call her, but of course the telecoms service had stopped working because of the sheer volume of calls. So I went through the worst hour of my life. It was worse than all my time at war put together. An hour later, she returned home; she had just missed the bus that exploded.“

Samuel Maoz for Cineuropa.org