Shelter
LEMON TREE meets JOHN LE CARRÉ in a subtle thriller set in Germany involving Mona, a Lebanese woman (Golshifteh Farahani), and Naomi, an Israeli Mossad agent (Neta Riskin) sent to protect their informant while recovering from plastic surgery for her new identity. Mona and Naomi - together for two weeks in a quiet apartment in Hamburg. A safe house. A shelter. No one saw what was coming, no one knew that this supposedly quiet fortnight would turn into an abyss and that shelter would need to be found elsewhere. The intimacy of the relationship that develops between the two women is exposed to the threat of terror that is engulfing the world today. In this game of deception, beliefs are questioned and choices are made that are not their own. And yet their fate takes a surprising turn in this suspense-laden, elegant neo-noir. |  |
Shown at
- 15th Annual JCC Rockland International Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- 20th Annual Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival (Detroit) - 2018
- 22nd Annual Hartford Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- 22nd Annual Jewish Film Festival of Dallas - 2018
- 22nd Denver Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- 23rd Annual Jewish and Israeli Film Festival (Allentown) - 2018
- 26th Portland Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- 26th Toronto Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- 28th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- 7th Annual Augusta Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Atlanta Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Baltimore Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Berkshire Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Budapesti Zsidó és Izraeli Filmfesztivál - 2018
- Central Florida Jewish Film Festival - 2017
- Charlotte Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Chattanooga Jewish Film Series - 2018
- Cincinnati Jewish & Israeli Film Festival - 2019
- Columbia Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Dayton Jewish International Film Festival - 2018
- Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Fresno Jewish Film Series - 2018
- Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Honolulu Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Indianapolis Israeli Film Festival - 2018
- Israel Film Festival - Singapore - 2018
- Israel Film Festival New York - 2018
- Israeli Film Festival (Danbury) - 2018
- Israeli Film Festival at the Weinstein JCC - 2019
- Jewish Film Festival of Central New Jersey - 2018
- Jewish Film Festival of Southwest Florida - 2018
- JFilm Festival (Pittsburgh) - 2018
- Kansas City Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Karen Schneider Jewish Film Festival of Flint - 2018
- Long Beach Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Miami Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Milwaukee Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Northern New Jersey Israel Film Festival - 2018
- Northern Virginia International Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Randi & Bruce Pergament Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Ring Family Wesleyan University Israel Film Festival - 2019
- SERET the London Israeli Film & TV Festival - 2018
- Seret: The Amsterdam Israeli Film and Television Festival - 2018
- SFJFF WinterFest - 2018
- Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Sonoma County Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- St. Louis Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- The National Center For Jewish Film's 21st Annual Film Festival - 2018
- Tucson International Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- UK Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Virginia Festival of Jewish Film - 2018
- Washington Jewish Film Festival - 2018
- Wilmington Jewish Film Festival - 2018
A Mossad agent and her Arab informant seek elusive ‘Shelter’ in new Israeli film
Eran Riklis has enjoyed one of the most successful international careers of any Israeli director, partly because so many of his films express a tempered optimism that common ground exists between Israelis and Palestinians.
https://www.jweekly.com/2018/03/08/mossad-agent-arab-informant-seek-elusive-shelter-new-israeli-film/
It is impossible to claim the civilized world is winning the war on terrorism when Hezbollah is part of Lebanon’s ruling coalition.
https://jbspins.blogspot.com/2018/04/eran-rikliss-shelter.html
A well-acted thriller about trust between a vulnerable Israeli agent and the Lebanese woman she is assigned to protect.
https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/28576/shelter
A female Mossad agent bonds with a Lebanese informant in Eran Riklis’ psychological drama/thriller.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/shelter-1099764
Eran Riklis takes a coolly professional approach to a Mossad potboiler starring Golshifteh Farahani
https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/shelter-haifa-review/5123430.article
Shelter is fun because, like Naomi, the audience gets seduced by Mona.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Take-Shelter-with-these-two-women-539739
Shelter is competent, cohesive, and capable. At just over 90 minutes, the movie doesn’t pad itself with unnecessary scenes and moves along at a swift pace without feeling rushed.
https://www.monkeysfightingrobots.co/shelter-film-review-spy-thriller/
The dissipating focus and the turgidly explanatory dialogue ultimately affects the legitimately surprising twist at the end, one in keeping with espionage’s great theme — the intertwining of loyalty and betrayal — but that lacks oomph after so awkwardly uninvolving a buildup.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-capsule-shelter-review-20180405-story.html#
Filmmaker Eran Riklis forces viewers to contemplate big sociopolitical questions while Shelter’s leads shed their poker faces and grapple with the highly personal, from motherhood to makeup. Such a grim story could collapse with less capable performers, but Riskin and Farahani deftly shoulder the burden as the haunted, paranoid spy and her disconsolate yet glamorous charge at the heart of this international scandal.
https://www.laweekly.com/movies/shelter-9177394
Riklis fares better as a visual stylist. He gets the most out of his urban landscapes: the glittering lights of Beirut’s skyline, the twisting and claustrophobic stairwells in German apartment buildings. And while his script lacks subtlety, Riklis is still able to stage moments of surprising grace.
http://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews/shelter/
This is a remarkably astute film that never simplifies a hugely complicated situation. The nuanced approach to the Middle East conflict adds extra weight to the drama, and therefore makes the suspense that much more gripping.
http://www.shadowsonthewall.co.uk/18/b-f.htm#gent
It is possible that the women who play the leads may be better than what they have been given to work with. Unfortunately, neither rises above the material.
https://easyreadernews.com/shelter-us-movie/
It purports to be an espionage thriller, film noir, and tale of women adversaries bonding with homoerotic overtones—the latter thread bordering on gothic camp.
http://www.filmjournal.com/reviews/film-review-shelter-0
“Shelter” is a psychological thriller that is neither particularly psychological nor it is thrilling, and as for action, one can say with kindness that the proceedings are subtle, but that in reality the bursts of energy are neither credible nor sweat-drenching.
http://www.shockya.com/news/2018/04/01/shelter/