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Dec 05, 2014 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

The Israeli military comedy Zero Motivation is set far back from the front line, following a group of young, female soldiers serving out their nation’s mandatory two years of service within the administrative department of a quiet, regional military base. Zohar (Dana Igvy) and Daffi (Nelly Tagar) are best friends and partners in crime; Rama (Shani Klein) is their upwardly mobile senior officer. The film is broken into three sections, each focusing on one of these women.

Watching Zero Motivation, you’d be hard pressed to detect there was any sort of conflict ongoing with Israel; rather, the film zeros in on the mundane, day-to-day operations of an army base’s human resources office. Daffi and Zohar are bored out of their minds with shredding documents and serving coffee to officers; Daffi longs for a transfer to a more glamorous posting in Tel Aviv (where there are shopping malls), but Zohar dreads the thought of being stranded in the boondocks without her BFF. Meanwhile, if officer Rama hopes to be promoted, she must succeed in the impossible task of motivating a unit which serves little purpose in the first place. (Her charges are more interested in setting high scores in Minesweeper than furthering their military careers.)

Writer and director Talya Lavie has a unique voice which overcomes any language or cultural barriers. While the setting may be one U.S. audiences rarely see, the film trades in universal themes – friendship, jealousy, and boredom – which ensures that no joke is lost in translation. With humor ranging from absurd to surprisingly dark, Zero Motivation is one of 2014’s funniest, most twisted films.

www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=zeromotivation

Author rating: 8/10