Maya Dreifuss’s Highway 65, which opens in theaters around Israel on January 30, is the kind of movie I wish Israeli directors made more often: a tense, neo-noir thriller with well-drawn characters and atmosphere that is thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.
Israeli movies tend to be either very serious dramas or slapstick comedies, and, in general, directors here don’t make movies in other genres. This isn’t true of Israeli television, where there have been quite a few mystery series, but for some reason, mysteries and police dramas rarely make it to the big screen here.
While these TV series are enjoyable, there is something great about having a whole, complex mystery that gets told in under two hours, where you get to find out whodunit and why, without having to invest 10 hours.
It requires discipline for directors/screenwriters to tell such a story in a feature film. They have to stick to the essentials and create memorable characters quickly.
Dreifuss has succeeded on both counts and created a suspenseful movie that combines Israeli directness and occasional comic touches with Nordic noir.
Assembling a great cast
It helps that she assembled a great cast, starting with the lead, Tali Sharon, whom many remember fondly for her role as Hodaya in the groundbreaking series, Srugim, about Orthodox singles in Jerusalem. Sharon has a great screen presence and also starred in Dreifuss’s debut feature, She Is Coming Home, in 2013.
In Highway 65, she plays Daphna, an honest and earnest police detective who is great on the job but who has little energy left for anything to do with her personal life. She’s in her early 40s, single, and sick of people asking her when she’s going to get married and have kids. She’s also messy, and can’t seem to eat a falafel without getting tehina all over herself, which reminded me of Tina Fey’s 30 Rock character, Liz Lemon, if you can imagine her as a detective.
Daphna got herself into trouble in Tel Aviv by pursuing investigations into important people when she was warned not to, and she has just been transferred to a much lower-profile posting in Afula. It works for the story that she’s new in town and has to figure out whom she can trust.
When she is asked to return a lost cellphone to its owner, Daphna learns of the disappearance of Orly (Anastasia Fein), the young widow of a soldier killed in the Lebanon War, and she is suspicious. No one seems concerned about the whereabouts of this beautiful young woman, who was seen as a free spirit.
Orly’s late husband was the son of a powerful local real-estate developer, who is as corrupt as developers always seem to be in noir movies. The developer and his wife, who are still grieving the death of their cherished son, claim to have remained close to Orly and not to be surprised that she has gone off on her own.
Their other son, Matan (Fauda actor, singer/songwriter, and real-life war hero Idan Amedi), is something of a black sheep, and he is the only one in town who shares Daphna’s concern over Orly. Daphna warily draws close to him, hoping he can give her information that everyone else seems to be withholding, including, and especially, her superiors in the police department.
The more she delves into the facts about Orly’s life, the more Daphna becomes convinced that Orly was having a romance she kept secret from her former in-laws and that she has been murdered.
That’s the basic plot, and as Daphna doggedly works to find out the truth about Orly, she is discouraged and even threatened by nearly everyone around her. Sharon makes Daphna an entirely real, vivid character, and you believe that she would risk what is left of her professional reputation and even her life to get justice for this woman, so confident and sexy, so much her opposite.
Dreifuss has constructed a thriller that also has a feminist vibe without being preachy, about how both of these types, the serious unmarried woman and a beautiful woman seen as wild and promiscuous, are dismissed by society and the authorities as worthless.
The entire supporting cast is good and includes Sara von Schwarze, Igal Naor, Dikla, and Boaz Conforty. Amedi is outstanding as the sexy, brooding guy who may be misunderstood – or very dangerous.
All the elements in the movie, including a haunting score by Pierre Oberkampf and evocative cinematography by Amit Yasur, come together to bring the story to life. While the characters and setting are distinctly Israeli, the movie tells a story that has universal appeal, and I hope it finds its audience, both at home and abroad.