‘Listen‘, a film that explores the psychological impact on those who fight against terror

There is an overabundance of films that narrate the adventures of the special forces of all armies. 

Omri Bezalel, born in Tel Aviv in 1983, took a different approach when writing the script for ‘Listen’. A film that immerses us in the story of an Israeli military intelligence officer who, on a routine listening mission, faces a crucial decision when her country negotiates a prisoner exchange. 

His own experience as a member for five years of Shayetet 13, Israel's elite naval commando unit, served him well in the making of this intense thriller, where the essential thing, in his own judgement, is to reflect the psychological impact that these experiences have on the young soldiers who do their military service on such delicate missions. 

He has travelled to Madrid to attend the Spanish premiere of his film, in a collaborative operation between the International Jewish Film Festival of Mexico (FICJM), the Hispano-Jewish Foundation and the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, among other institutions. 

Having barely recovered from the jet lag caused by the trip from Los Angeles, Omri Bezalel sat down for an interview with Atalayar. And the first thing that strikes you is his own modesty when talking about his military experience. ‘All Israelis, men and women, do military service, and the assignment is a combination of the recruiters’ assessment of abilities and each person's willingness to integrate into the assigned unit’.

Dara Nevo, the protagonist of ‘Listen‘, is part of the famous 8200... 

Yes, it is an Intelligence Corps of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), responsible for clandestine operations involving information gathering, code breaking, counterintelligence, cyberwarfare and military intelligence and surveillance. As its own book says, its main mission is to save lives and prevent terrorism and other attacks.

Why did you choose a woman to play this role? 

There are many women who carry out this listening work, women who are barely 19, 20 or 21 years old. I thought it was essential to reflect through them the central message of the film, which is the psychological impact that this ‘direct contact’ has on them with those who are planning and plotting attacks against Israel. 

The experience of killing cannot be trivialised, and if the physical act itself causes personal shock, it is no less dramatic to learn first-hand about the plans of those who are designing a massacre, even if you can come to understand and even empathise with the voices of the women and children that the soldiers hear in the background, after all ‘they are like us’.

Do wars dehumanise? 

Stories tend to do that, as well as presenting facts and situations in a radical way: black or white; oppressed and oppressors; heroes or villains... Life itself is full of nuances, so when making and producing films, we must avoid such stereotypes. We must humanise the character who embodies villainy and downplay the hero's presumed flawless perfection. 

In the generalisation of the story, there is a tendency to blame the soldiers directly for the suffering they inflict, for example, on the Palestinian people. 

This is completely unfair. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself is very complicated and cannot be reduced to a confrontation between good and evil. The height of such injustice is to accuse Israel in general, and its soldiers in particular, of committing genocide. Without going into deeper considerations, I must emphasise the double standard with which Israel and Israelis are judged. That brutal word, genocide, is happily used to stigmatise them, which has not been done, for example, to describe the violence of wars such as those in Afghanistan or Vietnam. Does anyone really believe that Israelis, starting with their conscript soldiers, enjoy living in a permanent state of war? Young people doing their military service aspire to be discharged as soon as they can and live a peaceful life, dedicating themselves to work, development and progress, like any citizen and any people.

A graduate of New York University, screenwriter and film director in Los Angeles, do you think that American citizens have changed their perception of Israel with the Gaza war? 

I have sadly observed the change that has taken place in almost all American universities. When the Hamas terrorist attack took place on 7 October 2023, before we Jews even knew the magnitude of that brutal massacre, my thoughts were centred on the deep sadness I felt at the thought of the deaths of Palestinians that the attack would cause. 

It was so obvious that the operation had been designed to provoke retaliation from Israel that it caused me deep sorrow that Iran and one of its terrorist satellites, Hamas, had unleashed this war. I felt and feel great empathy for the Palestinians, but they too cannot be oblivious to the crimes that have led to this war. Blaming Israel exclusively is as unfair as blaming a woman who has been brutally raped on the pretext that she was wearing a certain type of clothing or had been in a dubious area. 

Do you think there is a lack of leadership to end this conflict? 

What is happening in Gaza is a tragedy, but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very complicated, as is the situation in other areas of the Middle East. I do miss, yes, leaders like those who led Egypt and Israel, with the mediation of the United States, to sign a Peace Agreement after the terrible war of 1973. It seemed impossible, but they did it.