Youth

It is hardly a ringing endorsement of a film when, halfway through, the woman beside you wakes herself up with her own snoring. If you were being generous, you could blame the timing: a dreary, wet, Sunday mid-afternoon showing being the perfect opportunity for her to escape to dreamland. Sadly, however, that would probably be giving Youth a bit too much credit.

Amongst esteemed company as one of the dozen films shortlisted in the First Feature Competition at the 57^th BFI London Film Festival, Israeli director Tom Shoval’s debut effort remains very much a personal affair. Most of the film works as an intimate family drama, detailing the shaky unit that surrounds Shaul and Yaki Cooper, played by real-life brothers Eitan and David Cunio.

The brothers’ bond is tight, almost unnervingly so. Still sharing the same bedroom, they also share visits to the bathroom. Very much an alpha male, Yaki has just been enlisted into the Israeli army, while Shaul is slightly more naïve and withdrawn, and is still in school. Together, however, they hatch a plan – a seemingly perfect get-rich-quick scheme. They will kidnap a rich schoolgirl, hold her hostage and, within 24 hours, they will have $152,000 in ransom money.

The reason for this specific number is never really explained, and nor are the brothers’ reasons for concocting the scheme. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the boys’ parents are struggling financially. Mother pours over bills, readying herself for a meeting. Father has taken up smoking, drinking and wallowing in self-pity, searching in vain for jobs.

Whether this is the main motive for the boys’ plan is never expressly confirmed, and that is one of the things that gives Youth its uneven tone. If their motives were explicit, it might allow the audience to feel a degree of sympathy early on with the brothers. As it is, the voyeuristic way in which we follow their actions leaves a feeling of unease. The attempts at humour are too murky to break the tension, rather leaving a veneer of dread over the deeper darkness. Their plan is haphazard and aggressive.

For all the financial concern, it appears more that the boys’ plan lies in their obsession with films. Directing from his own script, Shoval presents Youth as ‘a struggle between reality and cinema’. The film presents interesting questions, asking the audience to consider important themes, most significantly around modern manhood. Indeed, so focused is the meditation on different forms of masculinity that you would think the film has more right to be called ‘Men’ than ‘Youth’.

The brothers are aimless, violent and brutally misogynistic; there is not a lot to bring the audience to like them. Their father is weak, so they assume they must be strong. For an extended sequence, in a not-so-subtle move, Shaul wears a t-shirt with the words ‘Son of No One’ emblazoned across it. Parts of the story feel like they ought to have had some more thought put into them; as it is, there is a brisk pace to the proceedings which then jar with an ending that feels like it needed just a little bit more to be earned. Youth is an earnest piece, perhaps creaking under the weight of the obvious connection the director has to the core story. Sadly, it does not appear as though he has managed to convince anyone else of its importance, especially not my sleeping neighbour.

John Quinn



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 Click here to watch a trailer for Youth