[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]

Last night, director Joseph Cedar came to Memorial Union’s Play Circle Theater to discuss the themes of his Academy Award nominated film “Beaufort.” The film was screened three times over the course of the weekend as a part of the WUD Film Committee’s International Cinema program.

“Beaufort” tells the story of a group of young Israeli soldiers and their efforts to defend an outpost in the mountains of Lebanon in the weeks prior to its surrender. However, Beaufort is not a standard war movie. Contrary to typical war movies which depict heroic warriors fighting for a cause with protagonists who charge forward in the face of fear, “Beaufort” depicts a group of soldiers fighting simply because they are ordered to. Focusing on the narrative of the outpost’s commander, Liraz, the film delves into the complexities of fear, demonstrating its effects on the commander and his soldiers as they continue to fight not for glory or a cause, but to survive. “Beaufort” defies the common standards of war movies when Liraz, instead of facing his fear, cowers in the face of it. It is this theme of fear that was the central topic of director Joseph Cedar’s lecture.

Along with discussing themes of fear in “Beaufort,” Cedar discussed these themes within the context of his two other films, “Campfire” and “Time of Favor,” while showing clips of each. When asked about his inspiration to focus on fear as a theme, Cedar responded with personal anecdotes relating to both his family life and his own time serving in the military. While Cedar emphasized his films are not biographical, he did relate one of the scenes in “Beaufort” to a conversation that he had with his father. This conversation not only directly correlates to a scene in the movie, but it also discussed the ever-present theme of fear.

The lecture lasted an hour-and-a-half and was made possible in part by the Department of Hebrew & Semitic Studies, the Center for Jewish Studies and Hillel.