Amos Gitai, Free Zone

Amos Gitai is one of Israel's most intentionally provocative filmmakers (Kippur, Eden), but his 2005 film Free Zone is more of a meditation. With the simple story of Rebecca, a distraught young woman (played by the Jerusalem-born, American-raised Natalie Portman) eager to get out of Jerusalem, Gitai takes us on a road trip. Rebecca is a passenger in Hanna's taxi and Hanna (Hanna Laslo), an Israeli, is on her way to the Jordan "free zone" to pick up a large sum of money the "American" owes her husband. Interviewed in Cannes, where Free Zone had its world premiere and where Israeli comedienne Laslo was named Best Actress for her dramatic performance, Gitai talks about working with an international movie star, why he begins his film with a one-take, ten-minute close-up of Portman crying and the state of filmmaking in his native land and its concurrent dangers.

•