‘Shelter’ comes up short as spy thriller
From director Eran Riklis of the far superior “The Syrian Bride” and “The Lemon Tree,” both with Hiam Abbass, comes “Shelter,” a not very convincing or coherent cloak and dagger thriller with some beautiful cinematography and a couple of appealing leads, if not much else.
Naomi (Neta Riskin) is a widow, former Israeli soldier and Mossad agent who is pulled back into action and sent to Hamburg, assigned to protect the pseudonymous Mona/Lina (Golshifteh Farahani), a beautiful woman from Lebanon with information about her Muslim Hezbollah leader ex-husband Naim (Doraid Liddawi). Yes, the film, which is based on a short story by former Haganah fighter Shulamith Hareven, is a queasy mixture of espionage tropes, often reminiscent of a Jason Bourne film and a soap opera. A lot of the canned dialogue is about trust; I wondered if I could trust this film not to disappoint me.
Once the two women are together in a vast apartment in a beautiful building in Hamburg, the paranoia begins to build. Is the Arabic fellow running the news kiosk a secret agent? Who is the German fellow across the street staring at Naomi/ Claudia? Doesn’t Beirut, if it is Beirut, look spectacular in the film’s opening scenes?
Mona, who has been given a new face and remains heavily bandaged, wanders around in a blood-red dressing gown and black chemise like the Hezbollah Bride of Frankenstein. Naomi goes out for breakfast rolls and in one scene is paralyzed with fear by the street noises. As they warm to one another, Naomi and Lina get dolled up as if to go out on the town together. Meanwhile, men on both sides plot to betray and/or kill them.
Naomi, who gives herself injections in an attempt to get pregnant, has dreams that show us plot developments that turn out not to be real. Lina, for her part, turns out to have a son with Naim, whom she is trying to protect from both Hezbollah and Mossad.
If someone can explain the twisty ending of the film to me, fine. But the truth is I don’t much care.
(“Shelter” contains gun violence and mature themes.)