Zero Motivation

2014
7.2| 1h37m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 11 October 2014 Released
Producted By: July August Productions
Country: Israel
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Filmmaker Talya Lavie steps into the spotlight with a dark comedy about everyday life for a unit of young female Israeli soldiers. The human resources office at a remote desert base serves as the setting for this cast of characters, who bide their time pushing paper, battling for the top score in Minesweeper, and counting down the minutes until they can return to civilian life. Amidst their boredom and clashing personalities, issues of commitment—from friendship to love and country—are handled with humor and sharp-edged wit.

Genre

Drama, Comedy

Watch Online

Zero Motivation (2014) is currently not available on any services.

Director

Talya Lavie

Production Companies

July August Productions

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime.
Watch Now
Zero Motivation Videos and Images

Zero Motivation Audience Reviews

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
lileonhirth Zero Motivation is an Israeli film about a group of women who are working in the Israel Defense Forces. Zohar and Daffi are best friends who traveled together daily to work at the Human Resources Office at a remote dessert base in Israel. One day when they arrive at the base Daffi finds her replacement named Tehila. Daffy's big dream is to work in Tel-Aviv, so she tried to get a replacement and reassignment, so she could work in Tel-Aviv. Rama is the supervisor and head of all the girls working in the defense forces. Daffi and the rest of the base soon found out that Tehila was not her replacement. Tehila snuck onto the base to see a boy that she fell in love with. This boy serving in the forces rejects Tehila, and she then commits suicide. Daffi decided to apply for a position to be an officer because she saw this as the only way to achieve her goal to work in Tel-Aviv. She got transferred to another base, and left her friend Zohar in bad terms. Daffi then graduates from officer training, and instead of being placed in Tel-Aviv, ironically she receives Rama's old position which was extremely ironic. Daffi struggles to discipline the girls that she used to be friends with while working in the office. Zohar and Daffy get involved in a violent fight. These girls got arrested because they were harassing each other. In the end Zohar takes the blame, so that Daffi can experience her dream by working in Tel-Aviv. I would recommend this film to someone who is not looking for a lot of action, and wishes to learn about women's role in the Israeli troops. I have watched many films throughout this school year, and Zero Motivation has not been very intriguing. This film was very boring and did not have any climax which does not allow the viewers to question what will happen next. Although I did not enjoy watching this film, I thought it was very interesting to see footage of all the soldiers serving for the Israel Defense Forces.
jormatuominen In Talya Lavie's film there is a scene where a male soldier tells female conscripts about his recruit training. It was really bad, like the holocaust, he narrates. Why? Because the officers were like the Nazis, he goes on. I'm not a Jew, so if I told you the rest of this holocaust joke, it would be absolutely tasteless. I can't do that. But funny it is, when told by a Jew in Israeli Defense Forces uniform to other soldiers. The humour in this film relies on unlikely and sudden contradictions such as this, which is pretty much the definition of a farce. Some reviewers here have obviously not recognized this genre and have not expected the unexpected which this film delivers in plentiful doses. If you ask a cinema lover about Jewish humour, she or he probably first thinks of Woody Allen telling a joke about God, and why not - but he's told so many of them we're surely ready for some new perspectives. Joseph Cedar's Footnote was a refreshing dark comedy from Israel and Lavie's Zero Motivation is a fine showcase for classical Jewish humour in a fresh setting, the all-female personnel files office of a desert military base. One reviewer thought that the soldier girls are bitching and lack solidarity - to me it seems they are mostly just being argumentative pretty much as a Jew is expected and brought up to be. Another non-Israeli reviewer was shocked by the suicide of a young woman sneaking into the base dressed as a soldier. This is sensitive, of course, but one has to remember the tragicomic context. The biggest fear in the Israeli base is surely an attack by a suicide bomber. Then an outsider penetrates the base using a fake ID - and kills herself but for purely romantic reasons. The Palestinians are present in the film only in hints such as this. The film is based on Talya Lavie's own experiences in the IDF. She must have been bored. But the audience of the film is not. I'm not in the target audience: I'm a 60-year old Nordic male conscience objector and as said not Jewish. Yet I enjoyed the whole thing and think I got most of the jokes right. Could be re-written into an effective theatrical farce.
nahar34 This is one of the best Israeli films I've seen. I loved the characters and the real portrayal of army life for women. There was one difficult scene about suicide. It was shown in a somewhat humorous manner, but is obviously a serious problem in the IDF as in other armies. I'll just explain this for people who haven't lived in Israel: "The Kirya" is a base located in TLV, and considered an easy service compared with being placed in a remote location. One of the girls wishes she could serve on this base.Just a note to the actors: please create a profile with your pictures, on this site.
The Fresh Prince i will admit, i'm an Israeli guy and i think that the film industry in my country still has a lot to improve when it comes to quality, to meet with other countries standards. in the last 5-6 years, there has been a huge improvement in film editing. Israeli films used to be about drama and comedy, there almost hasn't been any thrillers or sci-fic but now we get the chance to enjoy new styles like "vals with bashir" which is an academy award winning animated Israeli film, or "bufor" - military thriller ,"big bad wolves" - an amazing high quality horror-drama, all are big budget films.the lately "zero motivation" ('efes be'yahasey enosh' - zero in social skills) is the most entertaining Israeli film i've seen so far. it's about 3-4 IDF female soldiers who work in office of their military base. doing paper work and complains about anything and everything. the film is hilarious from beginning to end. not even one minute that is boring. the acting is superb and the dialog is just natural. the film is a huge box office hit in Israel, on the top of the charts for more than 2 months already, and receiving a 90% positive reviews from critics and regular watchers. to make a long story short, if you are looking for 2 hours of sweet drive, this is the one for you. 10 out of 10.