Free Zone

Release Date: 04/07/06

Starring: Natalie Portman, Hana Laszlo, Hiam Abbass, Carmen Maura, Makram Khoury

Director: Amos Gitai

Rating: (NR)

Genre
Drama

Running Time
94 min

Distributor
New Yorker Films

NEW YORK VIEW
Terrific performances—including Natalie Portman as a distraught American—are the saving grace of Amos Gitai’s didactic, talky road movie about a cab ride to the titular area in Jordan, where people of warring nations can trade freely. It might be more accessible than the director’s other films, but the clunky exposition and the muddled plot are serious handicaps.

Plot Summary:

Rebecca, an American who has been living in Jerusalem for a few months now, has just broken off her engagement. She gets into a cab driven by Hanna, an Israeli. But Hanna is on her way to Jordan, to the Free Zone, to pick up a large sum of money that "the American", her husband's partner, owes them. Rebecca persuades Hanna to take her along. When they reach the Free Zone, Leila, a Palestinian, explains that the American isn't there and that the money has vanished