Loin d'Eden

A Ukranian woman, Galia, is working as a prostitute in Tel Aviv, when her friend is beaten and stabbed to death. She survives the abuse by the Russian mobster and he offers her a deal to stop selling her body if she will become an assassin instead. She is given a modest apartment and follows orders. Her passport is being held, preventing her from traveling to see her daughter.

Day after day, her neighbor, Elinor, is physically abused by her husband. She finally stabs him and the two run away as the mob turns on Galia after she steals money she is owed by her mafia bosses. The speaking parts alternate from English to Russian to Hebrew with subtitles.

There are the usual chase scenes and shootouts and Olga Kurylenko is sexy as Galia, the lead hit woman on the run from the bad guys. A desperate woman doing anything necessary to survive in a cold, cruel world, The Assassin Next Door is depressing and in the end an average action film.

The final fun battle scene got me upset. How could you act so weak when you freely kill everyone that your abusive boss demands you to do? Where is John Wick when you need him?!?! This movie basically tells me that as woman, you are f-cked no matter what! Not a feel good movie. If you want to be depressed, watch it.

-- Review contains spoilers I liked the actors,I hated the story and music.

The movie has some really powerful scenes, in which we get a glimpse of the real human trafficking.

The story is beyond stupidity: A runaway mother from her mentally retarded child, which somehow is sold as a sex-slave in Israel, reached to become a bad ass assassin which kills all her owners + bodyguards and become friends with a sexy husband abused woman.

The action, is not really good and frankly the Hollywood stereotype of spaghetti arms assassins, it's getting boring. Actually the only good scenes are the ones where the girls talk and when we see some European human trafficker mentality towards his salves.

3 November 2017. It's important to be aware that this movie is not an action movie, but a dramatic thriller. With the word Assassin in the movie title, there's an implicit bias towards believing that this movie will be full of sophisticated violence in the mold of Haywire (2010) or La Femme Nikita (1990). Instead what this predominately Israeli production offers is a drama involving a woman who apparently is trapped in a vicious criminal gang who forces her to do awful things. As such, the storyline actually involves two women, both having to contend with their own abusive situations.

The forlorn musical score along with a strong script involving the plight of a ordinary, but rather good looking females facing very difficult life decisions tugs at the heart and thrills with the unknown outcome and life choices facing each women. This is a straight forward no-nonsense look at human trafficking and domestic violence along with a gun for added suspense. Additionally, in a moving and riveting musical number with the ending credits, Ninette Tayeb who played the principal role of Elinor, that she wrote and sang. Rarely has the lyrics during an ending credits been so intertwined with the movie itself that it actually becomes part of actual movie as a lyrical scene unto itself.

Most audience members who come into this movie with preconceptions might easily be quite disappointed with what they experienced to what they wanted to see. Nevertheless, the movie itself, such disappointments can't take away the definite foreign flavor of this intense and moving movie. The only few problems with the movie might include the over-use of the same lonely and sad melody which could have been remedied with perhaps one additional piece, the almost unbelievable gun battle scenes with what might be considered too many against one, and finally the surprising absence of local security or rapid response around various public places considering this movie supposedly takes place in Israel, not the most safest place in the world.

However, these few weaknesses don't really diminish the captivating storyline, the human interest and internal struggle of these two women who have to make tough decisions against great odds.

Being familiar with Israeli cinema and hating it, I have to say that I welcomed the idea of this movie when it was announced. Among tearful melodramas, unnecessary and unfair political films, boring war pictures and idiotic romantic dramas, Kirot stood, at first, as the refreshing example of the much needed genre cinema in Israeli film industry.

Just imagine following pitch: sexy Ukrainian woman is forced to work as a prostitute after being threatened and violently beaten. Then she gets a gun and forced to become an assassin, also becomes involved in a lesbian relationship with her neighbor. But when she is given an assignment that she doesn't like, she rises against her abusers and her former pimps in old fashion bloody revenge.

Sounds great, isn't it. Juicy, violent and gory exploitation flick in potential. In some places such idea could turn out to be "Thriller: A Cruel Picture", in others it could turn to be ""Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion", even "Kill Bill", but for some reason in Israel it turned out to be "Kirot", which is more an insult than a compliment.

So maybe no one actually intended to make an exploitation flick here (and really why not?), but this is besides the point. The movie "Kirot" is a pale shadow of any good expectations I've had about the film. Instead of daring plot, bold direction and uncompromising violence all we got here is a boring story with carton characters without any ability to be liked, crude and dull direction, forceful and artificial manipulation on the viewer, and finally many rip offs and little imagination.

And although camera work is somewhat innovative, sometimes even very nice (single shots), it feels disconnected and pointless in connection to the movie itself. Because every part should work together, here each part is pulling to a different direction.

Lerner is not a good director and even worse screenwriter. His rise as the next big thing in Israeli cinema is not surprising, because he is not representing anything new, only an upgrade of the old. You can imagine how bad the old school is if even the younger upgrade still fails where the majority of world cinema succeeds for many years.

A viewer should not spend his time justifying narrative flaws and implausible events, viewer should not be forced to feel sorry for a female character for a sole reason of her being abused by a man, and a viewer should not have only that feeling alone towards her. Seriously, for each character in this film you can only have one single emotion, so underdeveloped and caricature they are. It's like being back in kindergarten when they said to you - "a cow goes moo", because this is the only thing she goes.

Instead of telling a story, defining the characters by their actions, Lerner decides it is time to play very sad piano music while showing the heroine walking on the street and crying, for like 3 minutes. Then to show the depth of her inner desires, wishes and hopes he shows her painting a sad picture on the wall with black colors. So sad (wiping tears). Instead of showing characters trying to deal with the world around them, he shows them escaping it. Instead of showing some kind of character development, because people do change under harsh conditions of reality, he decides that his characters will remain the same, keeping same faces, same attitude, same problems, same idiotic ideals. The characters are stuck in their private hell, each one of them, without any ability to evolve and change. And maybe that was the point of the movie, but doing stupid things intentionally doesn't make them smart.

Which illustrates my point exactly - Israeli filmmakers are simply unable to change, unable to adapt themselves to the current world of film goers and filmmakers. All the talking about new approach, new style, are false statements from someone who doesn't understand what does it mean to be different and innovative. Same all drama, same old forced tears, same old unconvincing conflicts and same old dramatic weaknesses.

Looking for a new path, a fresh start, a new wave in Israeli cinema is still not dead, but it sure will not start with 'Kirot' or Lerner. I am still looking for a day when Israeli filmmakers will not act like homeless beggars, going to film festivals just to collect their season donations. Still looking for a day an Israeli movie will be actually remembered one year after its release, or at least will have more than one comments page on IMDb board.

When announcing the film production Lerner said that the movie will be about two chicks and lots of guns. Far from the truth. More like a depressing love story about people accepting their fate and unable to change. How very relevant in that area of the world.