SHELTER – JFF 2018 Review

St. Louis Jewish Film Festival at Plaza Frontenac Cinema
Monday, June 4, at 7 pm
Israel • English, Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles
Director: Eran Riklis
Feature: 83 minutes 

The Israeli thriller SHELTER is a film that has been getting a lot of buzz in film circles as it make the rounds of international film festivals. Writer/director Eran Riklis’ drama is a mix of psychological and spy thriller mostly in English although the action takes place primarily at a Mossad safe house in Germany

Naomi (Neta Riskin) is a former Mossad agent who has been out of service for a couple of years. She is lured back by her former boss (Lior Ashkenazi) to take what she is told is a simple two-week assignment, guarding a female Lebanese informer in Germany while she heals from facial plastic surgery to give her a new identity. But the assignment becomes more complex than originally expected, and the women start discovering they have more in common than it at first appeared,

Lior Ashkenazi, who has been in several international hits the last few years, as Naomi’s boss sweet-talks her into coming back to work and reassures her the assignment is little more that “baby-sitting.” Naomi is not sure she wants to come back to work, still mourning the death of her husband, but her boss finally persuades her. Arriving at the apartment in Germany posing as a lady’s companion, she finds her new charge, Mona (Golshifteh Farahani) is beautiful but imperious, the daughter of a wealthy man, who does indeed rather expect Naomi to wait on her like a servant. No-nonsense Naomi is not having it and the two don’t hit it off. But as things start to unravel, a bond grows between the two women.

Riklis adds a lot of unsettling film noir-ish touches to ratchet up the suspense. The German safe house where Mona is being hidden in an apartment in an old German building, the kind that has winding narrow staircases and those old-fashioned elevators that look like cages. Further, there is a plaque in the street outside the building denoting that it was once the home of a Jewish family who were deported to a concentration camp. Neighbors and a shopkeeper nearby have a slightly sinister look to Naomi’s eye, and it does not help that her spoiled charge has a fatalistic view of her situation and is not too careful.

Meanwhile, the terrorists that Mona betrayed are indeed hot on her trail and have figured out she’s not in Lebanon. Uncertain how much she has already said to the Israelis, they are set on assassination – if they find her.

The spy thriller aspect is pretty good, with some nice turns. Much of the film’s emotional heart and drama depends a great deal on the chemistry between the two women. Both Riskin and Farahani do a nice job unspooling each woman’s complex character and tragic backgrounds. The actresses build a convincing bond between, drawing on shared experiences as women caught in political conflict.

SHELTER is a good, entertaining spy and psychological thriller with nice performances although not a film that offers fresh insights on the Israeli-Arab conflict.