Film Festival Spotlight: Mossad

Need a good laugh? Mossad is a laugh out loud film; it was funny and fun to watch. This is not the usual gritty Israeli movie complete with sex, political conflict, war and teen angst that does well at film festivals, but not at the Israeli box office. Blue and white films have come a long way! Mossad is a clever comedy that lampoons one of Israel’s most revered institutions – the Mossad–and, it was a box office smash in Israel. Gone are the days when the Israeli government had to pay theaters to show Israeli films!

Mossad borrows its style from classic American comedies Airplane! and The Naked Gun and maybe a little of Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, to poke fun at both the Israeli Mossad and Hollywood cinematic clichés. Guy Moran (Tsahi Halevi, Fauda) is a sleek Mossad agent who must deal with Linda Harris (Efrat Dor, Sneaky Pete) a manipulative CIA operative. They compete to get the credit for saving the world from an international terror organization – the RGB (The Really Bad Guys). When an American tech-billionaire is kidnapped in Jerusalem, the CIA decides not to depend on Israel any longer and sends its own agent for the rescue operation. Relations between the CIA and the Mossad agents reach a level of suspicious respect. Their methods and opinions conflict continually like everything else in the Middle East. The CIA agent is backed by substantial budgets and operates by the book whereas the Mossad agent is spontaneous, looks for short-cuts, and takes all the credit for himself. If their mission is a failure, Haim, the Mossad’s Director will not be able to fulfill his lifelong ambition of lighting one of the Independence Day torches in a live TV broadcast. This is something that he has wanted for a very, very long time which is kind of quaint when you think about all of the Mossad’s real accomplishments.

Screenwriter and director Alon Gur Arye, with the creative support of legendary filmmakers David Zucker and Avi Nesher and a cast of some of Israel’s most popular actors – Tal Friedman, Adi Himelbloy, Dvir Benedek, Shlomi Koriat, Ilan Dar and Gila Almagor, created hilarious results on many different levels. Israelis have learned to laugh at themselves and we enjoy laughing with them. The laughs continue well into the witty credits at the end of the film – keep watching till the very end!

Abby Ashkenazi
– Jewish Educator + Community Engagement