The Vanishing Soldier

The story of a deserter in the middle of the desert: At dawn after a combat mission in the Gaza Strip, Shlomi Aharonov, an 18-year-old infantry soldier from the Golani Brigade, leaves his unit without permission. Shlomi's route first takes him to his parents' house in the rural settlement of Sde Uziel. When soldiers appear in front of the house, Shlomi manages to escape on a bicycle The young man wants to return to Tel Aviv to see his girlfriend Shiri. But Shlomi's spontaneous decision has far-reaching consequences: The military leadership believes he is in Palestinian captivity, which leads to an escalation of military measures. At the same time, Shlomi learns of his father's heart attack following a bomb attack. As he hides in Tel Aviv and tries to escape his identity, he becomes increasingly aware of the dramatic consequences of his escape... Dani Rosenberg's drama is a haunting, fascinatingly multi-layered anti-war film that interweaves the personal story of a soldier with socio-political issues. The main character Shlomi, played by Ido Tako, is not a hero in the classic sense - rather a confused young man who deserts on impulse and finds himself in a spiral of flight, longing and guilt. Rosenberg stages Shlomi's odyssey through Tel Aviv with a strong sense of rhythm and atmosphere. The camera remains mobile, the soundtrack emphasizes the emotional tension between panic and hope. “The Disappeared Soldier” shows the rifts within Israeli society, the effects of war on families and friendships and poses the question of whether there can be any escape at all in a country in a state of emergency. Rosenberg does not become bold, but remains subtly political. "The film was shot before the terrible massacre by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which is incomprehensible in its blind violence. Since that day, the world has been a different place. A war has broken out that has claimed countless civilian victims on all sides. Should ‘The Disappeared Soldier’ now be read in the painful light of the escalating conflict? Would it then still be about the movie at all or would this not be a change of register? Ultimately, it does not seem appropriate to detach the film from the period in which it was made. Rather, Rosenberg's film should be shown in its own time and thus be understood as an invitation to a dialog about the human condition. 'The Disappeared Soldier' should by no means be read as a direct commentary on the Middle East conflict. The film is about people trying to live their lives. Life in the sense of the Sisyphean task of somehow adopting an attitude towards the world. This is precisely Shlomi's fate: he does not want to stand up for a struggle that is beyond him. He wants to be allowed to be young. In Israel. And this tension has to be endured." (Sebastian Seidler, on: filmdienst.de)