Synopsis
A former Israeli soldier who participated in a revenge operation where two Palestinian policemen were murdered seeks forgiveness for what he has done. His girlfriend does not think it is that simple, and she raises issues he is yet not ready to address. The soldier willingly testifies in front of the camera as long as his identity is concealed. While the filmmaker keeps looking for the right solution for concealing the soldier’s identity, he questions his own political and artistic conduct. Z 32 deals with the unbearable gap between a young person’s disturbing testimony of his own experience as an elite soldier in the Israeli army and the artistic representation of that very same testimony.
A word from Tënk
Avi Mograbi’s films are in a unique league of their own. Here, once again, he demonstrates his great knack for innovation and invention with this trenchant, bumpy ride of a film that breaks the mould of all classic notions of the documentary genre. How do you capture the young soldier’s own account of events, yet still hide his identity? Mograbi’s ingenious solution is an expandable, computer-animated 3D mask that hides the face while letting humanity gradually show through.
This interplay with masks and use of songs as musical interludes to express the filmmaker’s own doubts, both hark back to the tenets of Greek tragedy and its potent cathartic effect.
Pascale Paulat et Christophe Postic
Artistic Co-Directors
États généraux du film documentaire
