Beaufort (Film)

Almost entirely confined to a fortified Israeli outpost, the film follows soldiers living under missile fire while preparing to abandon the position they have been ordered to defend.[1] Its narrative emphasizes their responses to danger, the deaths of friends, and the prospect of leaving, rather than tracing political developments surrounding the withdrawal.[1] The action takes place in 2000, shortly before Israel’s departure from southern Lebanon.[5]

Beaufort was Cedar’s third film, with a screenplay written jointly by Cedar and Ron Leshem.[6][1] Although based on soldiers’ experiences, it is a work of fiction rather than a docudrama.[1] Its cast includes Oshri Cohen as the commander Liraz, Ohad Knoller as the bomb-disposal soldier Ziv, and Itay Turgeman as Zitlaui; Itay Tiran also appears in the ensemble.[1][2]

The fortress gives the story both its physical boundaries and its military setting: soldiers occupy narrow passages and enclosed spaces while remaining exposed to attacks from outside.[5] Neither enemy soldiers nor Lebanese civilians appear on screen, keeping the visible action concentrated on the Israeli garrison.[5]

Cedar’s collaboration with Leshem began after he read a monologue published in 2001 in Yediot Aharonot, written from the perspective of a soldier at Beaufort.[7] He contacted Leshem about working together before the novel was finished.[7] The eventual adaptation drew on Leshem’s Sapir Prize-winning novel, identified in English-language coverage as If There Is a Heaven.[1]

Cedar and Leshem spent several years developing the screenplay, producing 18 drafts and making substantial changes to the story in the book.[7] Their subject was the final period of the Israeli garrison at Beaufort, a castle Israeli forces had captured from the PLO in 1982 and held against Hezbollah forces until May 2000.[8] The position strategically overlooked much of southern Lebanon and northern Israel.[8] The outpost was destroyed on the night of May 24, 2000, during the Israeli withdrawal.[2]

The production was filmed at the Crusader fortress Kalat Namrud, near the Lebanese border.[1] The film juxtaposes the surrounding landscape with the outpost’s deteriorating concrete-block structures, using explosions and simulated missile fire to depict the garrison’s vulnerability.[1] It contains relatively little dialogue, giving considerable space to the soldiers’ surroundings and the physical experience of waiting under threat.[1]

Cedar brought his own military experience to the project: he had served as a paratrooper and medic in the late 1980s, spent time in Lebanon, and lost two friends there.[7] He said making the film helped him reflect on his service and on the fear he had repressed while serving.[7] One question he sought to explore was why young soldiers wanted to enter such situations, and what social mechanisms could override their instinct for survival; he said he did not have an answer.[7]

The relationship between fictional storytelling and recent bereavement also affected production.[7] Cedar described the possibility of disappointing soldiers and bereaved families as a major source of stress, and families of soldiers killed at Beaufort attended the film’s screening in Berlin.[7] He said that awareness of those families influenced the editing: he devoted more time to preparing some characters for their deaths so that the losses would have greater emotional impact.[7]

Liraz, the outpost’s 22-year-old commander, bears responsibility for his soldiers while struggling with uncertainty about whether they will remain at Beaufort or withdraw.[1] Played by Oshri Cohen, he trusts the justice of Israel’s cause and the judgment of its military and political leadership.[5] When senior officers visit, he demands clarity: “If we're retreating, let's go. And if we're staying, let us do our job.”[1] The officers show concern for the soldiers but offer no solution beyond keeping them at the position longer.[1]

Ziv, played by Ohad Knoller, brings a contrasting outlook to the outpost.[5] An older bomb-disposal soldier who arrives to defuse a roadside bomb, he questions the purpose of the army’s continued presence at Beaufort.[1][5] His uncle was killed there 18 years earlier, giving his doubts a personal connection to the position’s history.[5] His mission also provides a setting for the film’s examination of how soldiers confront and manage fear.[1]

Zitlaui, played by Itay Turgeman, expresses his own disillusionment in a brief exchange about why he came to Beaufort.[1] Asked whether he was there by mistake or had wanted the posting, he replies, “I wanted to be here. That was the mistake.”[1] The ensemble presents the soldiers as flawed individuals, rather than treating them simply as heroes or victims.[1]

Fear runs through the soldiers’ daily behavior: they deny it, attempt to remain upbeat, and use cynicism while living with the possibility of injury or death.[1] A television interview introduces the father of a fallen soldier, who blames himself for not having instilled a sense of fear in his son.[1] Alongside the immediate danger of bombardment, the narrative follows the emotional consequences of casualties among friends.[1]

The confined setting limits what both the soldiers and the audience can see.[5] Although the men patrol the surrounding countryside and remain alert to Hezbollah attacks, Lebanese residents and Hezbollah fighters do not appear on screen.[5] Missiles strike the outpost and kill soldiers without revealing the people firing them.[7] Cedar described the fortress itself as becoming a character in the film.[7]

The conclusion centers on evacuation rather than conquest: Liraz takes down the flag as the outpost is abandoned.[7] Cedar contrasted that action with the flag-raising endings of other war films, explaining that the explosion destroying the set was intended to confront Liraz with the reality of withdrawal.[7] He called it “the end of a thousand-year cycle of young men being killed on this fort.”[7]

Beaufort had its international premiere in the official competition at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival, where Cedar received the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2007.[9][3] He was the first Israeli director to win that directing award.[9] Because Cedar does not answer the telephone on Shabbat, a producer came to his Berlin hotel room to tell him the result in person.[7] The film was scheduled to begin its commercial release in Israel on March 8, 2007.[9]

Its Israeli audience approached 300,000, placing it among the country’s box-office successes that year alongside Hollywood releases including Ratatouille and Shrek the Third.[10] At the 2007 Ophir Awards, Beaufort won four awards, including editing for Zohar Sela.[3] The Band’s Visit defeated Beaufort in the Israeli Film Academy competition, leaving Beaufort as the runner-up.[4]

That runner-up position became important when The Band’s Visit, initially selected as Israel’s Academy Awards submission, was ruled ineligible because its proportion of English-language dialogue was too high. Beaufort, as the runner-up, replaced it.[4]

In January 2008, Beaufort became one of the five nominees for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[4] It was the first Israeli film nominated in that category since 1984.[4] It did not win: the award at the 80th Academy Awards went to Austria’s The Counterfeiters.[5]

The film also served as a focus for discussion between American and Israeli educators.[11] At Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion’s Burton Lehman Faculty Retreat in Lisle, Illinois, held June 16–18, 2008, a screening prompted discussion and questions from American faculty members to their Israeli colleagues.[11]

The casting attracted public criticism over actors who had not completed military service portraying IDF soldiers.[12] Cedar disputed reports that most of the cast had not served, saying the proportion was about one-third.[7] He said those actors had been released by army doctors for medical or psychological reasons rather than evading the draft, and rejected attempts to connect their casting with declining patriotism.[7]

The replacement of The Band’s Visit as Israel’s Oscar submission also generated rumors that Beaufort’s producers had drawn attention to their rival’s eligibility problem.[4] Contemporary reporting presented that allegation as rumor, not an established finding.[4]