Mitahat La'af (1982)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Jacob Goldwasser

Writers:

Jacob Goldwasser (writer)
Haim Marin (writer)

Release Date:

1982 (Israel)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Four men whose combined intellect does not reach into the triple digits decide to steal a safe full of foreign currency - not from a local bank...

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Uri Gavriel	...	Sammy Ben-Tovim
Moshe Ivgy	...	Hertzel
Makram Khoury	...	Detective chief inspector Ben-Shooshan
Zadok Zarum	...	Uri Janna
Jocko Arkin	...	Jacob Khaguel
Shmuel Umani	...	Police Commander
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Reuven Dayan	...	Rahamim
Shoshana Doar	...	Mrs. Ben-Tovim
Yehudit Millo	...	Miriam
Adam Tson
David Tzabar
Daniel Wachsmann

Also Known As:

Big Shots
Under the Nose

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Israel

Language:

Hebrew

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Noah Films

Movie Connections:

Followed by Max V'Morris (1994)

petty criminals who lost their heads- a good version of the formula

if you keep track of my reviews (which i don't see any particular reason for you to it) you'll see that i'm criticizing many israeli films and many times, i am playing the devil's advocate. this movie is an example of how a country with limited resources, can make a great criminal movie that although(or should i say- because)it doesn't convey deep philosophies or a crying protest against the establishment, can still be fun to watch. the movie in short, deals with two petty thieves who are scraping their living and dream of their "big heat". one day, opportunity knocks in the shape of a large smuggled currency captured by the police and held in it's headquarters. the duo starts to plan the robbery and meanwhile expands it's team with a veteran criminal and it's friend who is in, shall we say, lukewarm friendship with those two. needless to say, there are many obstacles for that team to face, most of them are ego related, and without detailing about plot progress, the charachter problems take their toll the movie is acted wonderfully (shlomo ivgy shines in the era before he became a local icon and poorly miscasted in obscure movies). also it has a great unpretentious direction (yankol goldwasser's best work) and altogether a great to watch but apparently, hard to recreate movie)

9 out of 10 in my FilmOmeter. my personal second best israeli movie (right after "ha-lehaka")