Beyond the Walls (the Israeli title literally translates to "behind the bars") is a 1984 film from Israel directed by Uri Barbash.
It's a prison film set in a high-security prison. Uri is the unofficial leader of the Jewish prisoners in the block. He is serving a sentence for armed robbery, and has a teenaged daughter, Sigi, on the outside. Issam is the unofficial leader of the Arab/Muslim faction. He is serving a life sentence for a terrorist attack. The two factions are held in separate cells, but get on tolerably well, eating food in the same cafeteria.
Shlomo, a Jewish inmate nicknamed "The Songbird", sings songs and plays a guitar. He gets a spot on an Israeli talent show, with the show agreeing to do a live broadcast from the prison. This brings the Palestinian and Israeli inmates together, but the mood in the jail becomes more confrontational again when the news reports Muslim terrorists blowing up a Jewish bus.
Meanwhile, a corrupt prison guard, Herskovitz, is collaborating with an inmate, Hoffman, to sell drugs in the prison. When Hoffman grows too demanding, Herskovitz has him murdered—with surprising consequences.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Jews and Arabs should work together for peace, and resist those who would turn them against each other.
- Allegory: The whole film is a pretty obvious metaphor for the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Jewish and Palestinian prisoners represent the two sides. The prison authorities, and especially Herskovitz, represent the right-wing Israelis who sow dissent and division for their own political ends. This is underlined in a speech by Herskovitz towards the end, as he, who is trying to get the Jewish prisoners to betray the Arabs and end the strike, tells Uri that as Jews they should stick together and that the Arabs are murderers who can't be trusted.
- Blackmail Backfire: After the ugly confrontation with Menache, Hoffman demands better treatment from Herskovitz, and suggests that if he doesn't get it he could tell what he knows about the drug-smuggling ring. This results in Herskovitz having Hoffman murdered, which drives the rest of the movie as Herskovitz seeks to pin the blame on the Arab prisoners.
- Call-Back: At the end, after Issam has stood tall and stayed with his fellow inmates and continued the strike, everyone sings the song that Shlomo sang earlier in the film, on the talent show.
- Dead Man Writing: It turns out that Doron had a note, which he kept clutched in his fist as he was being strangled to death, and which whoever killed him didn't see. As Uri reveals to the prisoners, Doron wrote that he had been asked by Herskovitz to lie and say that he heard the Arabs plotting the murder of Hoffman.
- Dramatic Drop: The prisoners are eating in the cafeteria. Uri deliberately and dramatically drops his tray of food to the ground. Issam, standing next to him, does the same. Several other prisoners either drop their trays or sweep them off the tables. Uri then announces the strike.
- Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Menache, who is part of the drug-smuggling ring with Hoffman, approaches him and acts all intimidating while demanding to know why there's been a delay in supply. While he does so he takes the piece of chicken off of Hoffman's dinner tray and eats it.
- Going Cold Turkey: As a means of breaking the strike, prison authorities withhold methadone for the estimated ten dope addicts on the block. Pitoosi, who is one of them, goes through terrible withdrawal symptoms, and eventually caves and accepts the invitation to leave.
- I Want My Mommy!: Played for drama twice. Doron screams "Help me Mama, I'm dying" as he's being raped in his cell. Later, Pitoosi is crying out for "mama" as he suffers through the pains of heroin withdrawal.
- Left Hanging: The film ends with the strike still ongoing, with no resolution as to whether the prisoners will get their demands met, or whether the deaths of Hoffman and Doron will be investigated.. Of course, that is not strictly the point, as the film's message is about the possibility of peace and cooperation between Arabs and Israelis.
- Loyal Animal Companion: One of the Jewish prisoners has a pet cockatoo that sits on his shoulder literally all the time. Apparently he was sent to the jail from a psychiatric facility.
- Manly Tears: The last shot is Uri in his cell crying tears of pride, after Issam has returned to his cell and the whole cell block has stuck together.
- Prison Rape: Played for drama. Young Doron is raped by Menashe, a significantly bigger inmate sharing his cell. Later, Herskovitz tries to use this as leverage, offering him parole if he signs a false statement pinning a murder on Issam, with the veiled threat of throwing him back in a cell with Menashe if he doesn't play along.
- Rousing Speech: Menache (the rapist and drug smuggler) initially refuses to join the strike. Uri then gives a stirring speech to all the prisoners in the cafeteria, saying that anybody who plays along with the prison administration is a "patsy or stooge", and that they should stand up to the authorities and not "play their game." Almost everyone joins the strike.
- Say My Name: Uri is yelling "SIGI!" repeatedly, after a confrontation about Sigi not showing up at the kibbutz leads to her stomping out of the visitation room.
- Shameful Strip: The film begins with Uri having to submit to the usual strip-search after being let out on leave. Stripping down to his underwear and having his privates checked is bad enough, but when it's time to have an inspection enema, he flips out and pulls a knife on a guard.
- Shower Scene: A whole lot of body hair and homoeroticism as the prisoners shower together in a communal shower, and make jokes about dropping the soap. (One has soap-on-a-rope.)
- Slow Clap: The last tactic by the authorities to break the strike has them bringing Issam's lovely wife and the son he has never seen to the prison, in order to tempt him out. After Issam sees his family and turns back into his cell, Uri starts a slow clap which is joined by everyone left on the block.
- Spiteful Spit: Uri spits blood at Herskovitz as he's being dragged back to his cell after taking a beating.
- Title Drop: A delighted Pitoosi quotes the newspaper article about Shlomo's TV appearance, which says "the muses are there behind the bars, too."
