Wild Dogs

In filmmaker Arnon Zadok's Israeli drama Wild Dogs, Uri (Lior Ashkenazi), a successful lawyer with traumatic memories of his army service, finds himself in the stressful situation of testifying against a friend from his former military unit. Meanwhile, Uri's wife Telma (Ayelet Zurer), a dedicated and compassionate social worker trying to save a poor family (Neta Garty and Yigal Adika), is brutally raped by a gang headed by a vicious sociopath (Alon Abutbul). These dual traumas threaten to unravel the couple's relationship, as Telma becomes consumed with fear and Uri begins to question whether he should be damning a friend with his testimony. Scriptwriter Assi Dayan and director Zadok don't sugarcoat their story (no easy answers or happy ending here), which ultimately raises profound issues related to the difficulty of obtaining justice from a corrupt system. The acting is first rate (Abutbul is positively chilling as the gang leader), but even though several sequences are harrowing, those with an interest in socially provocative films will find Wild Dogs to be eminently rewarding. Recommended. (E. Hulse)