Movie night at JCO

“Zero Motivation” is a dark comedy about a unit of female Israeli solders at a remote desert base biding their time as they count the minutes until they can return to civilian life. Like Catch-22 and M*A*S*H, it explores the understated banalities, vulgarities and absurdities of military life. The loosely connected characters see their predicament as some sort of purgatory by which a better life lies just beyond their reach. The story of the film is divided into three vignettes: the first a duo returning from furlough; the second is one woman’s quest to lose her virginity with disastrous consequences on her unit, and the last shows the unintended results of constant schemes to leave for a cushy position in Tel Aviv. The film first opened in 2014 and became an award-winning box office hit in Israel. It reflects a much different time in Israel before…