'Youth' is an Israeli film about two criminally-minded brothers. Discovering their parents are in danger of losing their home because of financial troubles, the pair - one of whom has just been enlisted in the Israel Defence Forces - kidnap a local schoolgirl with the intention of ransoming her back to her family. But as the brothers aren't overly blessed with brains, they stage the kidnapping on a Friday - and the girl's Jewish family are observant, which means they won't be answering the telephone (and thus receiving the ransom demand) until after sundown on Saturday (when I lived in Israel I was forever getting caught out by the Sabbath, so it's nice to see two Sabras have the same problem!)
If this sounds a bit slapstick, it isn't: there's a real sense of menace hanging over this film, from the creepy opening sequence where one of the brothers follows the girl home from school, through the kidnapping sequence itself - one can really appreciate how terrified the girl must be - to the realisation the brothers are amateurs with short fuses so there's a chance the girl may not make it home safely to her family. The fictional brothers are played by real-life siblings: David & Eitan Cunio do a good job, portraying nicely both savagery and, when things start to go wrong, exasperated bewilderment. I found Gita Amely, as the girl, to be tiring but that's probably because her role consisted mainly of grizzling a lot!
If this sounds a bit slapstick, it isn't: there's a real sense of menace hanging over this film, from the creepy opening sequence where one of the brothers follows the girl home from school, through the kidnapping sequence itself - one can really appreciate how terrified the girl must be - to the realisation the brothers are amateurs with short fuses so there's a chance the girl may not make it home safely to her family. The fictional brothers are played by real-life siblings: David & Eitan Cunio do a good job, portraying nicely both savagery and, when things start to go wrong, exasperated bewilderment. I found Gita Amely, as the girl, to be tiring but that's probably because her role consisted mainly of grizzling a lot!