Writer-director Samuel Maoz’s (“Lebanon”) excellent film is of course more structured than the average dream (or nightmare), with themes and Greek tragedy twists that are expertly crafted to test the heart, but there is a precise sensation of out-of-body powerlessness and comic absurdity throughout that can only be described as dreamlike. And the overall experience is a meditative and powerful one.
The story is ostensibly about a man, Michael Feldmann (Lior Ashkenazi), and a woman, Daphna Feldmann (Sarah Adler), immediately after they are told that their son, Jonathan, a soldier, has died in the line of duty. Daphna faints at the sight of the military messengers at her door and is taken to her room and sedated.