Veteran filmmaker Nurit Kedar's accomplished documentary Wasted (based on Ron Leshem's novel If There Is a Heaven) is a candid look at Israeli soldiers who served in the fortress of Beaufort in Southern Lebanon before Israel's withdrawal in 2000. These young men go to war and come back changed. What is remembered is sometimes profound and sometimes banal: the smell of oil and schnitzel, the smell of your girlfriend on a shirt, the smell of feet and the smell of your own fear. In this quiet, elegant film about the horrors of war, the camera searches the young soldiers' faces, knowing their gestures tell as much as their words. The interviews unfold deftly - a credit to the articulateness of the men and the sparing precision of Kedar's directing and that of her editor. The man lived each day on the mountain, teeth clenched between blasts, hoping not to survive a hit: death was better than amputation. It was an absurd theatre of war; one soldier remarks, "I never saw anyone to shoot at." Another asks, "Who and what were we guarding? We were simply safeguarding ourselves so that we could make it out when the mission ended." Interviews with the soldiers, who spent months in the fortress's claustrophobic rabbit warren, are interspersed with chillingly exquisite footage of the male dancers from Bat Sheva Dance Company, directed by Ohad Naharin (one of Israel's leading choreographers). Packed tightly together - moving like soldiers or brothers or a bizarre minyan - their simulation of living in such close quarters, of being blown up, of almost being one organism is strangely beautiful at the same as it is absolutely spine tingling.


Wasted

Doc, 70 min, \ 55min, color, 2007 - Based on the Best seller "If There is a Heaven" by Ron Leshem, Israel, 2006

Written and Directed by: Nurit Kedar
Produced by: David Mandil & David Silber – Beaufort Limited Partnership
Sponsored by: Keshet – Israel's 2nd Channel
Language: Hebrew with English subtitle

DVD - For Home Use Only :
$29.90

Synopsis


Veteran filmmaker Nurit Kedar's accomplished documentary Wasted (based on Ron Leshem's novel If There Is a Heaven) is a candid look at Israeli soldiers who served in the fortress of Beaufort in Southern Lebanon before Israel's withdrawal in 2000. These young men go to war and come back changed. What is remembered is sometimes profound and sometimes banal: the smell of oil and schnitzel, the smell of your girlfriend on a shirt, the smell of feet and the smell of your own fear. In this quiet, elegant film about the horrors of war, the camera searches the young soldiers' faces, knowing their gestures tell as much as their words. The...

Awards

  • Best TV Film - CMCA International Film Festival, Italy, 2007
  • Best Directing Award - Montenegro International TV Festival, 2007

Festivals

  • Hamburg Film Academy, Germany, 2008
  • Israeli Showcase, Vienna Film Archive, Austria, 2008
  • Montenegro Int’l TV Festival – Competitive Section, 2007
  • Istanbul International Film Festival, 2007

Additional info

Gallery

Press & Links:

  • 'Wasted,' shot on the set of 'Beaufort,' which was screened at Berlin festival. But instead of actors, the film accompanies the real heroes of the mountain. 'The feeling I got was that they really did not understand what we were doing there, that they were sitting in the post like cannon fodder, or ducks in a shooting gallery waiting for the end,' director says"
    Merav Yudilovitch, Ynet, February, 2007

    For the entire interview, please click Here

Festivals

  • Hamburg Film Academy, Germany, 2008
  • Israeli Showcase, Vienna Film Archive, Austria, 2008
  • Montenegro Int’l TV Festival – Competitive Section, 2007
  • Istanbul International Film Festival, 2007
  • Cologne Conference International Film Festival, Germany, 2007
  • Beit Avi Chai, Jerusalem, Israel, 2007
  • Prix du CMCA – The Mediterranean International Competition for Documentaries and High Profile Reportage, Spain, 2007
  • Parnu International Film Festival, Estonia, 2007
  • Melbourne International Film Festival, Australia, 2007
  • Palm Beach Int'l Film Festival, USA, 2007
  • DocAviv International Film Festival, Israel, 2007
  • Buhne International Film Festival, Austria, 2006

Educational

  • McGill University
  • University of Texas at Austin
  • Baltimore Center for Jewish Education
  • UCLA
  • University of Florida
  • Makor Jewish Library, Australia
  • Ohio State University
  • University of St. Louis
  • Harvard University
  • Maryland University
  • Middlebury College
  • AJS Conference, 2008
  • Columbia University

Awards

  • Best TV Film - CMCA International Film Festival, Italy, 2007
  • Best Directing Award - Montenegro International TV Festival, 2007