SHELTER: Eran Riklis' semi-thriller about the Middle-East, world politics and betrayal

As a longtime fan of the work of Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis (TrustMovies interviewed him back in 2009), I'm a bit perplexed by his latest movie, SHELTER.

In it, a semi-retired female Israeli Mossad agent is called back into service in order to protect a Lebanese double agent who has turned from Hezbollah to the side of Israel and is currently being hidden in a safe house Germany, recovering from plastic surgery which has reconfigured her face and will help with her new identity.

So far so good -- if a little standard in its premise and plotting. In the previous films of Mr. Riklis (who is pictured at left) -- from The Syrian Bride and The Lemon Tree to The Human Resources Manager -- this director and sometimes writer has managed to take complicated subjects and from them weave tapestries of drama, humor and most especially a full range of human behavior that does justice to some difficult, often seemingly insoluble situations. Yet in Shelter, he has simplified much of what we see and hear down to the level of the simple-minded.

His movie does hold our attention, thanks in good part to the appealing performances of its two leads: Neta Riskin (above, left) as the Mossad agent and Golshifteh Farahani (above, right) as the Lebanese woman. Both actresses are talented, beautiful and charismatic (each in her own very different manner), and Riklis, as screenwriter, initially provides enough spy-movie type situations to keep us properly guessing as to who's good, who's bad and what the hell is going on.

Granted all this does seems a little second-, if not third-hand. We've seen most of it many times previous. But the two woman are worth watching, as are the various supporting-role male actors who surround them (the always excellent Lior Ashkenazi, above, and Doraid Liddawi, below).  Eventually, though, Riklis peppers his movie with so much coincidence, deliberate misdirection, fantasy/nightmares and the like that we begin to wonder if the whole thing isn't taking place in some kind of oddball alternate universe.

The film's last half hour, in particular, is so crammed with plot twists and turns (not to mention a whole bunch of intentionally left-out information) that what happens seems increasingly unlikely, if not outright impossible.

This is too bad because, at heart the movie seems to want to be about betrayal -- by one's peers, one's "employer," one's country. The movie makes its move toward feminism, as well (the women here, along with maybe a single male character, are clearly the only ones to be trusted), but it's mad rush to what can only be construed as a feel-good finale (or maybe wish-fulfillment fantasy) comes off as mostly nutty.

If you're going to pull multiple major "switcheroos" at your conclusion, you damned well better show us at least a little about how you were able to accomplish all this. Perhaps working in the spy thriller genre, which I think may be new to Riklis, has him imagining that this will either not be necessary, or can be delivered completely via shorthand. Sorry, but no.

Still, for awhile, the whole thing works decently enough and the lead performances are very much worth seeing. Ms Farahani (of About Elly, Paterson and many other films) is such a delicate pleasure to view, while Ms Riskin, via her strength and slow-burning vulnerability, offers a fine complement to her co-star. Finally, however, the necessary suspension of disbelief required here would not seem out of place for a sci-fi/fantasy film.

A French/German/Israeli co-production running 93 minutes and released here in the USA via Menemsha Films, Shelter opens this Friday, April 6, in greater Los Angeles area, at a quartet of Laemmle theaters: Ahrya Fine Arts, Monica Film Center, Playhouse 7 and Town Center 5.  Elsewhere? Nothing on the schedule as yet, it seems. But I would expect a DVD to be released eventually, along with some digital streaming availability.

Eran Riklis' HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER: Women are the key to Israel's Oscar entry

When TrustMovies interviewed Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis upon the NYC theatrical opening of his last film, Lemon Tree, in April of 2009 (that interview is here), the writer/director (shown below) told us about his next project, a film he was to direct based on a screenplay he had recently read and loved called The Mission of the Human Resources Manager (from the novel of the same name). That filmed version, complete with an appropriately shortened title, made its New York debut as part of this year's New York Jewish Film Festival earlier this year and has been picked by the distributor Film Movement, which will open the movie on Friday. This is good news all around because Riklis' latest is, I think, his best film so far: serious, smart, occasionally funny, thought-provoking and finally extremely moving without any over-wrought tear-jerking. That it was Israel's selection to represent that county is our Best Foreign Language Film "Oscar" derby was a wise choice -- even though the Academy completely overlooked it.

THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER begins in media res as the titlular character at a large Israeli industrial-strength bakery is given the assignment to head off a very bad newspaper article about that bakery and one of the foreign workers in its employ. (Evidently, in Israel, human resources sometimes does double duty as PR flack.) Viewers are promptly put smack in the middle of this manager's life, as he scrambles first to learn what exactly has transpired, and then find out why and how before he can begin to do anything about it. A journalist ready to pounce on bad corporate behavior has his recorder, camera and steel-trap mind turned on, to better crucify the company and its flack.

Playing the manager, in a very private performance that only slowly lets the humanity of the character leak into view, Mark Ivanir (above, right, last seen here playing Jesse Eisenberg's dad in Holy Rollers) is terrific -- quick on his feet and with his brain, but coming up against things he finds enormously difficult to handle. The employee in question was a woman (above, left), and women are key in this movie: from the manager's boss, with whom he may have (or have had) more than a working relationship, to his estranged wife and the daughter he loves so much and who mirrors somewhat that foreign employee, to whom he becomes a kind of after-the-fact father. Even the employee's own mother (below, shown in foreground, right) rattles this movie's cage rather fiercely.

This is Israel, so yes, terrorism rears its head by starting off the action. Yet like so much else in the film, it acts only obliquely in this tale that is about "home" and "borders." The biggest theme here is probably "family," but in a much broader sense than our own nuclear version: the family of Jewish culture/religion, of the workplace and of the world at large.

In the course of the movie we travel with the manager from his own country to another (where, again, the women exert surprising force), and what we see and learn is heartbreaking and enriching. By the end of this relatively short film (103 minutes), our hero has changed in a surprisingly believable manner. And if we, being spectators rather than participants, have not quite done the same, the film has nonetheless set us to considering a world beyond our own in a way that we would not have imagined when we first sat down in our seat to watch.

Film Movement is giving The Human Resources Manager one of the larger theatrical send-offs in the company's history, which the movie fully deserves. Opening in some 24 cities over the course of March, April and May, in New York City, you can see it at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the Landmark Sunshine, starting Friday, March 4.  To see all the venues (theaters, dates and cities) across the country, simply click here.

All photos are from the film itself, except that of Mr. Riklis, top,

which was found on the web, credited to Jesús Uriarte.

NYJFF: Eran Riklis' HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER--Israel's shot for BFLF Oscar

When TrustMovies interviewed Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis upon the NYC theatrical opening of his last film, Lemon Tree, in April of 2009 (that interview is here), the writer/director (shown below) told us about his next project, a film he was to direct based on a screenplay he had recently read and loved called The Mission of the Human Resources Manager (from the novel of the same name). That filmed version, complete with an appropriately shortened title, is now making its New York debut as part of this year's New York Jewish Film Festival (which will host three screenings in the4 coming week). It has also been picked by the distributor Film Movement, and will have a theatrical debut soon, before going onto DVD release. This is good news all around because Riklis' new film is, I think, his best so far: serious, smart, occasionally funny, thought-provoking and finally profoundly moving. That it is Israel's selection to represent that county is our Best Foreign Language Film "Oscar" derby was a wise choice.

THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER begins in media res as the titlular character at a large Israeli industrial-strength bakery is given the assignment to head off a very bad newspaper article about that bakery and one of the foreign workers in its employ. (Evidently, in Israel, human resources sometimes does double duty as PR flack.) Viewers are promptly put smack in the middle of this manager's life, as he scrambles first to learn what exactly has transpired, and then find out why and how before he can begin to do anything about it. A journalist ready to pounce on bad corporate behavior has his recorder, camera and steel-trap mind turned on, to better crucify the company and its flack.

Playing the manager, in a very private performance that only slowly lets the humanity of the character leak into view, Mark Ivanir (above, right, last seen here playing Jesse Eisenberg's dad in Holy Rollers) is terrific -- quick on his feet and with his brain, but coming up against things he finds enormously difficult to handle. The employee in question was a woman (above, left), and women are key in this movie: from the manager's boss, with whom he may have (or have had) more than a working relationship, to his estranged wife and the daughter he loves so much and who mirrors somewhat that foreign employee, to whom he becomes a kind of after-the-fact father. Even the employee's own mother (below, shown in foreground, right) rattles this movie's cage rather fiercely.

This is Israel, so yes, terrorism rears its head by starting off the action. Yet like so much else in the film, it acts only obliquely in this tale that is about "home" and "borders." The biggest theme here is probably "family," but in a much broader sense than our own nuclear version: the family of Jewish culture/religion, of the workplace and of the world at large.

In the course of the movie we travel with the manager from his own country to another, and what we see and learn is heartbreaking and enriching. By the end of this relatively short film (103 minutes), our hero has changed in a surprisingly believable manner. And if we, being spectators rather than participants, have not quite done the same, the film has nonetheless set us to considering a world beyond our own in a way that we would not have imagined when we first sat down in our seat to watch.

I'll have more to say when The Human Resources Manager makes its theatrical debut.  Right now you can see it at the Walter Reade on Saturday, January 15, at 6:30 and again on Thursday, January 20, at 3:30 and 8:30. If you can't make these screenings, you 'll have the chance again, as the film will definitely be opening later this year. I suspect our Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will look highly upon Mr. Riklis' movie.

All photos are from the film itself, except that of Mr. Riklis, top,

which was found on the web, credited to Jesús Uriarte.