We saw Closure, an Israeli short film, at The 2010 Dark Carnival Film Festival. Closure marks a milestone for the ZRC, as it
represents our first chance to review a zombie movie from the Middle East, and a peek at the politics and perception of the Differently Animated in a whole new region of the world (for us, anyway).

Unfortunately, the view we get is disturbingly familiar.

In Closure, we observe a young woman apparently stranded on the rooftop of (what is presumably her) apartment building, hiding out from some sort of collapse of civilization. Random screams and scary noises filter up from street level as the woman obsessively draws in the dust and dirt on the rooftop. What horrors could she be hiding from?

Well, not to spoil it or anything, but we’re reviewing it here at the ZRC, so as you might have guessed, it’s the ‘Zombie
Apocalypse’ again.

Zombie Apocalypse: Tel Aviv edition

At any rate, our small cast is about to become somewhat larger, as the young woman’s estranged love interest will make an appearance on the scene, the allegedly Undead will interrupt their emotional reunion, and, yeah, the woman will attempt to get her ‘closure’ before the end of the world.

Sigh.

Closure is, in other words, yet another entry in the ‘Zombies as Background Menance to Illustrate Human Foibles’ field so beloved of George Romero and Robert Kirkman. Actually, Closure is closer to the latter than the former, in that Romero
likes to give at least hints of character and backstory to his Zombies (often in the form of wacky clothing that gives an
instantaeous, if tiny, bit of uniqueness to each Zombie, ie, a Ballerina Zombie, a Clown Zombie, and the like). Much like
with Kirkman’s infamous Walking Dead comics (now regrettably a hit tv show), the Zombies here are an anonymous force of nature, existing only to facilitate the drama between the Living people, who of course are all that really matters. It’s
the End of the World as We Know It, and guess what? They don’t feel fine.

The novelty therefore wears off fast, but at least it’s a short poke in the eye rather than a feature length one.

For relegating Zombies to the status of props and once again reviving the tired Zombie Apocalypse trope, the ZRC awards
Closure our second-worst ranking, that of ‘Anti-Zombie’.

Israeli cinema has let the green man down.

Tags: Movies, ZRC Reviews

This entry was posted by John Sears on Friday, December 3rd, 2010 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.