Big Bad Wolves

Director: Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, Starring: Lior Ashkenazi, Rotem Keinan, Tzahi Grad

A young girl is brutally tortured and murdered; her headless corpse a gruesome puzzle for the Israeli police force to suss out. Convinced he has the perpetrator, a detective named Micki (Lior Ashkenazi), attempts to elicit a confession from the suspect (Rotem Keinan) by thuggish, brutal means, administered by two law enforcement personnel untroubled by due process. Unfortunately for Micki, a young boy stealthily records the beating and subsequently posts the video online; its viral life assured. Micki's interrogation comes to the attention of the police chief, who threatens to demote him to traffic duty if what he suspects is true. It isn't long before the interrogation is exposed, which leads to Micki's temporary dismissal, though the chief doesn't discourage him from pursuing the suspect extracurricularly.
While Micki places the suspect under his own surveillance, we see another man, Gidi (Tzahi Grad) practicing his own on the same suspect. Before long, Micki and Gidi run afoul of one another. While Micki forces the suspect to dig a grave in a wooded, secluded area, Gidi strikes Micki on the head with a shovel; knocking him unconcious. The suspect, believing his saviour has an altruistic purpose, thanks him then receives an identical blow. Both Micki and the suspect find themselves prisoners in Gidi's newly purchased home. The criterion for selecting said house was its remoteness and a virtually sound-proofed basement. Before Gidi captures both men, we see Gidi setting up a chair with jerry-rigged arm straps and a table with an array of tools for smashing and cutting. Micki wakes to find the suspect bound and gagged in the chair while Gidi divulges his purpose. He explains that Micki merely got in the way of his hunt for the man who he believes murdered his daughter. Wanting only to know where his daughter's head is buried, Gidi intends to torture his victim, employing the same means the suspect used on his daughter. Micki is uneasy about brutalizing the suspect; his absolute guilt unestablished. Gidi will have none of it as he presses forward with his vengeful agenda. The story then becomes a did he or didn't he do it as we're left to guess the suspect's guilt.

What is odd about the movie is its restless tone, which is one moment dramatic the next almost farcical and then darkly humorous. Directors Kehsales and Papushado manage to wrangle them all to create what Quentin Tarantino called the "Best Movie of 2013."
One might feel queasy laughing when not cringing from the sometimes graphic torture scenes. A few moments where Gidi holds a hammer aloft or clippers poised to cut, his phone rings; his mother on the other end. Such a quick transition from horror to humor is handled deftly, keeping the audience off-balance and forcing us to feel the anticipation and dread the suspect feels. It is particularly interesting that the suspect becomes a sympathetic character while Gidi becomes the film's violent antagonist. This shift continues when Gidi's father inadvertently happens upon his basement. Horrified at first, he takes on his son's mission; applying a blow-torch to the suspect's chest then later accidentally eating cake Gidi spiked with a soporific; falling to the floor comically as a shackled Micki tries to extricate himself.

The story continues until its climactic end, when the mystery is clarified but a final shot of a girl held within a doorless room denies us a happy, satisfying conclusion.
One will recognize the ever-excellent Lior Ashkenazi from Late Marriage and Walk on Water and Dvir Benedek from the comedy A Matter of Size but a lion's share of the exceptional acting goes to Tzahi Grad, whose performance must walk precariously between the comic and the menacing.

Big Bad Wolves is something to see though not everyone's taste. Israeli films rarely play anywhere but art houses but one might not even find the movie there; it will unfortunately find itself too soon on DVD. I'm lucky I caught it at my local cinema.