Alila (2003)

In Tel Aviv, gloomy Ezra hires foreign workers without permits to build an addition to a homely block of flats where his ex-wife Mali lives with her current lover Ilan. Ezra and Mali's young son Eyal hates the army and is AWOL, living among prostitutes and drug dealers. Gabi, a beautiful young friend of Mali's, is carrying on an affair with Hezi, an older man who insists on secrecy and rents an apartment in the building for their trysts. Neighbors complain about the noise of their lovemaking and of the construction. Lives revolve slowly around one another. "Everyone's out for himself," says Ezra of Israeli society. Suicide bombings and elections provide a backdrop. —