In order to completely understand this film, a viewer needs to understand Israel. For those who do not know Israel as a real place and Israelis as real people this film should be instructive.

It is a coming-of-age film about members of a Kibbutz (communal farm) in 1977. The characters are all young adults coming home from their military duty having experienced combat. Israelis are drafted after high school with few exceptions. It should not be forgotten that Israel has existed under threat of war for its entire history.

These young people are decompressing from their combat experience and just beginning to move on with their lives. Few Americans have experienced combat and fewer still are in communities where everyone has experienced it. This is not, in that sense, like the coming-of-age films we are familiar with in this country. The film also includes women characters who are finding their identities as women.

It should be noted that Kissufim is a real place. It is one of the communities massacred on October 7 last year.

A group of young Israeli army graduates volunteer to work on a kibbutz close to the gaza border.

Most of the movie is abut the complex relationships these young people have with each other, with very different memories they have of their army service, and with the reality of being very close to a troublesome border.

Some of the movie is in English because a group of non-Jewish volunteers from Europe come to also work on the kibbutz, they don't speak Hebrew and English is the common language.

There is the development of a love relationship, there is a very angry situation of a girl friend apparently being snatched away by another man, the girl is probably the least attractive of the young women in the group and by making herself freely available to the men she gains popularity.

She is a contrast to the central "heroine" of the movie, the prettiest of the women, who is also still a virgin to everyone's surprise.

The climax of the movie comes with the reality of where they are located, and in very typical Israeli movie style, the viewer is left rather empty, it is not a "hollywood" ending with everything tidied up neatly.

Though some of the women characters come through strongly - not enough is made of them - and the male leads have so much potential for development but are under-developed.

Kissufim is a remarkable film. It captures the deep complexity of growing up in a conflict-ridden zone like Israel.

The kids in Kissufim have to maneuver the same traditional coming-of-age issues of any kids in the world: love, sex, career path, how they are perceived by others in the group. But these kids have to do it while inside a warzone - with weapons, enemies, and potential danger lurking around each corner.

What struck me is that kids already have enough to worry about when they are simply trying to avoid getting whacked in the butt by a senior ("Dazed and Confused"), but to layer on the backdrop gives this story a very real-life backbone.

Solid film.