HaChayim Al-Pi Agfa

A grotesquely bleak piece of cinema. It's an unabashedly political ensemble drama, the characters representing slices of distinct sectors of Israeli society: soldiers, a cop, hoodlums, a married adulterer, a blue-collar Arab and women. Dayan is ruthless toward most of the men, with perhaps only the Arab and bar singer portrayed as less than monstrous, while the female characters are unequivocally innocent. The film reaches an early boiling point and climaxes more catastrophically yet.