Hayal Halayla

(1984) Solider of Night/ Soldier of the Night/ Hayal Halayla DUBBED PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER/ DRAMA

Produced, written and directed by Dan Wolman that has an Israel soldier stabbed on the back with a knife and as it turned out there were two Israeli soldiers who were killed at that night. On the following day, a young man walks into a diner and he manages to hook up with a young waitress, Iris (Iris Kanner). We find out that the young man is Ze've (Yehuda Efroni) and that he lives in an apartment with a single mattress on the ground. However, by the time she wakes up, it appears he may be the killer who killed two Israeli soldiers since as soon as she wakes up, she can see he has muddy army boots and a knife that is identical to the one used at the opening. And for the rest of the movie, we know bits and pieces about Ze've, such as he sometimes works in the toy store and works there whenever he wants. When Iris questions Ze've, he often tells her that he works in "Special Forces" or that he is at times, undercover whenever he is not around during the night. The army uniform that he wears, came from a uniform shop, and the weapons he uses comes from other Israel soldiers after he knocks them out. During news stations and radio, it says there's an ongoing investigation, but it is like, not a single police officer or investigator had ever approached him, as if he was never a suspect in the first place, despite many indications he might be the culprit. And during the night, Ze've does these strange exercises such as using grenades and firing a machine gun as if those acts were not even noticeable from other Israel soldiers or from anyone. How can this be? The unforeseen killings went from being important to becoming unimportant as they do not appear to be reported anymore. If it was not for the nude scenes of a beautiful young actress, this movie might have been completely unwatchable.

The movie is about a person that is rejected from being drafted to the army and therefore go berserk and start murdering other soldiers as a revenge. the description of that person is of a "avenging Solider" it's beyond me why they chose to describe him like that, he is not a solider just a raving loon, and also who is he avenging exactly ?? other soldiers in HIS country army ? if the story was about the fact that he is going to mission on an enemy army it could be understandable. but start eliminating soldiers just because he didn't get to be one.

it's more a psychic ward movie than one, common people can watch and be entertained.

pointless movie, stupid plot, who came with the idea of this sick movie anyway ?

In October 1983 I was staying on a Kibbutz in Israel, one evening a film crew turned up and asked for a few volunteers to help them. A group of us went off into the woods with the crew, put on army uniforms, sat around a bonfire, and then they chose me to go off for firewood and be murdered! I didn't get the names of the crew etc but I did ask what the film was to be called and was told "Soldier of the night". Twenty years later I finally found the film on IMDB but could not find a copy of it to watch. In fact I don't think it's ever been released on video in the UK. Although not sure whether 'my' scene ended up in the final cut I eventually bought a copy from the USA (thanks ebay)and, with the help of an American friend who has brought his video recorder here to the UK with him, last night I watched it. The good news - I survived the editing process and am in the first scene of the film (OK - its all very quick and poorly lit but its definitely me), the bad new - the rest of the film was awful. The plot idea isn't that bad I suppose, and the acting from some of the main characters was passable, but everything else had a very amateurish feel to it and this made much of it, and the ending in particular(yes I did watch it all), frankly ludicrous. If any of your friends or family where involved in making this film then watch out for them - otherwise give it a miss (sorry Dan, but thanks for my movie debut).