Joseph Cedar

Ron Leshem, Joseph Cedar

Oshri Cohen
Itay Tiran
Eli Eltonyo
Ohad Knoller
Itay Turgeman

Metro communications – David Silber

United King Films – Moshe & Leon Edri

Movie Plus - David Mandil

1 March 2007

35mm

131 min

Hebrew

In a small enclave, an isolated cage in the heart of enemy territory, in the back yard of a magnificent ancient Crusader fortress, stands the Beaufort outpost.

Beaufort personified the most disputed of Israel’s wars and was a symbol of Israeli control in Lebanon, but it was also a myth of heroism upon which generations were raised, and for which many lost their lives. There, on the mountaintop, completely cut off from anything familiar, was a boy-soldier’s state - with its own rules and colorful language, where fear reigned but youthful innocence and happiness too had a hold.

That was the way things were until May 24, 2000. On that night, the outpost was demolished – blown up with a thousand mines. A huge explosion lit up the sky as the Israeli army withdrew and 18 years of occupation came to an end. 

BEAUFORT tells the true story of LIRAZ LIBERTI, the 22 year-old outpost commander, and his troops in the months before Israel pulled out of Lebanon.

This is not a story of war, but of retreat.  This is a story with no enemy, only an amorphous entity that drops bombs from the skies while terrified young soldiers must find a way to carry out their mission until their very last minutes on that mountaintop. As LIRAZ lays the explosives which would destroy that very same structure that his friends had died defending, he witnesses the collapse of all he's been taught as an officer, and his soldier's mental and physical disintegration.

While the film is an accurate account of the events that occurred on the Beaufort in the months before the Israeli withdrawal, it is also the story of any battle in any war: it's about young people who are asked to give their lives for a mountain that will soon lose its significance. And it's about fear: contagious, intoxicating, palpable fear, a word LIRAZ never allowed himself to utter.

Academy Awards, USA 2008 - Best Foreign Language Film of the Year – nominee

Berlin International Film Festival 2007 - Silver Bear Winner

Awards of the Israeli Film Academy 2007 - Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Sound – winner

Bangkok International Film Festival 2007 – Official Selection