THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME! "PHOBIDILIA"

The name alone of this bizarre film should give you some idea of its “train of thought”. Now, I don’t speak Hebrew, but from what I gathered from the film, “Phobi” is phobia and “idilia” is something like “ideal place”. So, a phobidilya is a perfect place constructed by our fears… Confused ? Don’t be. Just ask Regev, the hero of our film. He has it all sorted out…

Regev didn’t always live in a phobilia though. He was a computer programmer, had a job he went to, went out to parties… Then the panic-attack came. Faced with so much fear, he is confined to the house… But this is not a bad thing – the house becomes his kingdom. After all, virtually every need can be ordered to the house on the phone. Sex ? The internet is full of it! Income ? He’s a computer programmer, remember? He can work online! Company, friends? He has Albert his cat and more than 100 TV chanels on satellite. Regev literally doesn’t want anything else. He is perfectly happy and intends to stay that way… Until, one day, he receives two pieces of rather disturbing news… First of all, his friendly neighborhood estate agent turns up, saying that the owner of the flat wants to sell the house and is turning him out. Shortly afterwards, a rather loud sales rep named Daniela turns up at the house, insists he has been selected for a survey and refuses to leave. She’s sort of cute as well, the only problem is that he hasn’t dealt with “3 dimentional girls” for years… These two developments will put Regev on a collision course with the “phobia” part of his phobidilya. The results are sweet, funny, thought-provoking, sad and slightly scary all at once…

Ofcourse, it is easy to see what the Paz brothers (first time directors of a feature – better known in Israel for directing music videos) have tried to do – and succeeded in doing. The character of Regev – the entire film as it happens – is a caricature of things we all suffer from to one degree or another. Fear of rejection. Fear of the world. Fear of change. Seeing them magnified to such a degree in Regev made me think quite deeply about myself at some points, and you may surprise yourself confronting your own fears as well at some point. I say “surprise yourself” because despite its rather bizarre subject and the fact that the locations are confined to Regev’s flat the film is by no means “dark”. In fact, unexpected pieces of humor spring up at you when you least expect it. It’s not until after the movie was finished and I had arrived home that I started thinking, and realizing to my surprise that I had more in common with Regev – in some respects.(For Heaven’s sake don’t get me wrong I don’t have agoraphobia or panic attacks hehe.) The film is very subtle and intelligent in its critique and it’s only in retrospect that you realize that it’s actually a caricature of us all. Ofer Shechter who plays Regev is absolutely stunning and portrays the change in Regev as his state of mind changes and de-stabilizes wonderfully. And the Paz brothers are a very welcome addition to the movie scene as far as your humble author is concerned. I am very much looking forward to seeing more of their work…