Free Zone (2005)

26% of critics liked it
(46 reviews)
26% of users liked it
(19,624 ratings)

A Jewish-American woman still reeling from her breakup with her Spanish-Israeli fiancée hits the road with a middle-aged Israeli woman, who is looking to collect the 30,000-dollar debt owed to her by her husband's former business partner, and a Palestinian woman, who claims to know the elusive… More A Jewish-American woman still reeling from her breakup with her Spanish-Israeli fiancée hits the road with a middle-aged Israeli woman, who is looking to collect the 30,000-dollar debt owed to her by her husband's former business partner, and a Palestinian woman, who claims to know the elusive moneyman's whereabouts, in this road-trip drama from Kippur director Amos Gitai. In her efforts to escape the painful memory of her breakup with former fiancée Julio (Aki Avni), Rebecca (Natalie Portman) agrees to accompany Hanna (Hanna Laslo) on her arduous journey through Israel to the Free Zone -- a tax- and customs-free region where those from countries at war with one another amiably buy and sell cars -- in hopes of collecting a large debt owed to her by her ailing husband's business partner known only as "The American." When Hanna and Rebecca finally arrive in the Free Zone only to discover that Hanna's contact and money have mysteriously gone missing, a Palestinian woman named Leila (Hiam Abbass) agrees to lead the skeptical Hanna to both "The American" and Hanna's rightly due cash. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 30 min.
Directed By: Amos Gitai
Written By: Marie-Jose Sanselme, Amos Gitai
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Apr 7, 2006 Wide
On DVD: May 29, 2007
Studio: New Yorker Films

Critic Reviews

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
A minor movie on a major subject, a drama with an almost unbearable lightness.
Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News
The movie -- a metaphor for the tangled, impossible state of Israeli/Palestinian relations -- only intermittently clicks.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
Without fail, Gitai's determination to churn everything into metaphoric mud prevails.
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
Too slight as a metaphor for the larger catastrophe of the Mideast, too preachy to work as an emotionally compelling drama.
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News
Much of the dialogue is didactic and pedantic. And when not didactic and pedantic, it's plodding and dull.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
The message is made clear within the first 10 minutes, leaving us with about 80 minutes of thematic repetition.
Robert Davis, Paste Magazine
There's an art to ambiguity -- there really is... Left to their own devices, viewers will fill in the blanks, but when the movie starts filling them in itself, you have to wonder about the mismatch.
Jordan Hiller, Bangitout.com
While Portman does outshine everyone and everything on screen and though she certainly gets credit for making the résumé sacrifice in the spirit of embracing her heritage, Free Zone does nothing for her in return
MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
[A] film of unexpected power and strange tenderness...
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
Without much effort you can imagine the corkboard littered with index cards mapping out the political clashes this cast is asked to act out in their robotic interactions.
Eric Monder, Film Journal International
Much of it is labored and overemphatic.
Ryan Cracknell, Calgary Movies
Free Zone is a powerful film -- definitely not what you'd expect from Natalie Portman. Thought provoking and visually pleasing, this is one you will want to track down.
Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times
A rambling road movie with noble intentions and an excess of speechifying.
Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The elder actresses simmer as they warily interact, but the dialogue is more schematic than dramatic...
Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
The milieu he chooses -- essentially one long, queerly prosaic car ride to nowhere -- robs the film of much of its dramatic force.
Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
Portman and the audience are stranded in the middle, on the outside looking in, with nothing to do and patience increasingly wearing thin.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
An exceptional new film.
Todd Jorgenson, Denton Record Chronicle (TX)
...never seems to gain much emotional traction throughout its meandering female road trip, despite some provocative subject matter.
Luke Y. Thompson, New Times
Shot mostly in close-ups, it's a fascinating road movie with an absurdist allegorical finale.

Read all 19 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Leigh R

Crazy ride.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"Free Zone" starts with American tourist Rebecca(Natalie Portman) hysterically crying in the backseat of a taxi in Jerusalem. The driver, Hanna(Hanna Laslo), wants to know where she wants to go because she has an appointment in Jordan. Rebecca figures… More
[font=Century Gothic]"Free Zone" starts with American tourist Rebecca(Natalie Portman) hysterically crying in the backseat of a taxi in Jerusalem. The driver, Hanna(Hanna Laslo), wants to know where she wants to go because she has an appointment in Jordan. Rebecca figures that is as good as anyplace...[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]Director Amos Gitai takes a page out of Abbas Kiarostami's book by setting almost all of "Free Zone" in a taxi(accompanied by some distracting flashbacks. Well, as long as it gets Carmen Maura in the film...) as it travels through Israel and Jordan. Gitai has even less to say than his Iranian counterpart and the movie does not get anywhere interesting until the end. It is a shame because the movie wastes a valuable opportunity to view the Middle East conflict in microcosm.(It is rather obvious that Rebecca is a representative for all Americans who can leave the region any time they want.) But there are some good thoughts on identity, here. [/font]