Michael and Dafna Feldmann, an affluent Tel Aviv couple, learn that their son, Jonathan, a soldier, has died in the line of duty. The Israel Defense Forces refuse to inform the distraught parents where and how Jonathan died, or if his body had been recovered. Several hours later, they are notified almost matter-of-factly that there has been a mix-up, and that it was some other Jonathan Feldman who has been killed. An angry Michael demands that the IDF allow Jonathan to return home. Although they promise that Jonathan will return by the next day, Michael demands his son return immediately and calls in a favour to have Jonathan's homecoming hastened. In a remote outpost Jonathan and three other soldiers man a desolate checkpoint. They spend their nights in a converted cargo container that is slowly tipping into the mud. To pass the time, Jonathan tells the story of how his father once traded a treasured heirloom that had been preserved through the holocaust for a porn magazine. Late one night, Jonathan kills four young Palestinians after one of the soldiers mistakes a beer can that rolled out of the Palestinians' car for an explosive device. The soldiers call in the incident and more senior IDF officers arrive, bringing a bulldozer to bury the car with its deceased occupants inside. The men are warned by a senior IDF officer not to disclose the accident. At the end of their discussion the IDF officer receives a call from Michael's connection and tells Jonathan he will be returning home with him. Six months later Michael and Daphna reunite for their son's twentieth birthday. It is revealed that Jonathan died on his way home and Michael and Dafna have separated as they both blame Michael's impatience for Jonathan's death. Michael and Dafna get high together and ponder over the meaning of their son's final drawing, an illustration of a bulldozer burying a car, with each suggesting that their spouse is the bulldozer and they are the car. Michael also finally admits that during his time in the army he witnessed the death of several members of his unit which he blamed himself for. He viewed Jonathan's birth as absolution for the deaths while Dafna was conflicted by her pregnancy and wanted an abortion. In the final scene as Jonathan is being driven back to Tel Aviv, the military vehicle in which he is riding on a narrow, rutted desert road swerves to avoid a camel and rolls down an embankment.
Cast
Lior Ashkenazi as Michael Feldmann
Sarah Adler as Dafna Feldmann
Yonathan Shiray as Jonathan Feldmann
Shira Haas as Alma Feldmann, Michael and Dafna's daughter
Yehuda Almagor as Avigdor, Michael's brother
Karin Ugowski as Michael and Avigdor's mother
Ilia Grosz as Dafna's sister
Reception
Critical reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 135 reviews, with an average rating of 8.14/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Foxtrot uses topical themes to deliver a bruising sociopolitical statement that's equally effective taken simply as an absorbing, well-acted drama." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Because Foxtrot depicts the Israeli Defense Forcescovering up the shooting of four Arab youths, it was denounced by Israel's Minister of CultureMiri Regev after it won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice. Regev referred to the film as "the result of self-flagellation and cooperation with the anti-Israel narrative". In response, the film's director Samuel Maoz said, "If I criticize the place I live, I do it because I worry. I do it because I want to protect it. I do it from love." In a follow-up statement, Regev said it was "outrageous that Israeli artists contribute to the incitement of the young generation against the most moral army in the world by spreading lies in the form of art."
