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Review:
 Just
west of the border with Iraq is the area of Jordan known as the
“Free Zone.” This piece of desert is sparcely inhabited and is tax
free, hence the name. The special status is thus perfect to sell
used cars for use all over the middle east.
Rebecca(Nathalie Portman) has just left her husband and grabs a
taxi for the airport. She wants to leave Israel in order to forget
the wreck of her marriage, but she gets into the wrong cab, for
Hanna(Hanna Laslo), has a mission. To cross from Israel to the
Free Zone and get thirty grand from “the American” who's her
husband's business partner.
So Hanna offers to take Rebecca with her, why we don't know. First
there's a slight amount of trouble at the Israeli/Jordanian
border, then they get lost, but this is a good place for some
interesting flashback action where we see the two protagonist's
back-stories. While the relationship between Rebecca and her
husband(Markram Khoury) doesn't ring exactly true, the one between
Hanna and her husband Moshe(Uri Klauzner) most certainly does and
is quite moving.
Finally getting to where they're going, quite late, in fact, the
pair meets up with Leila(Hiam Abbass), who's supposed to be the
American's assistant. She and Hanna argue about the money owed,
and finally she agrees to take them to see the American.
What happens next is unexpected and actually quite interesting.
This is not a geat film, but an extremely good one and the whole
thing is quite moving in parts.
Why Portman is brilliant in everything she does except “Star Wars”
isn't exactly a mystery. I blame George Lucas. In the meantime,
check this out.
Eric Lurio
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