One night when seeking his estranged wife, Hoffmann goes to the youth center where she works. The police are there rounding up radicals who frequent the center - Hoffmann runs into the building and ends up being shot in the head. He awakens with brain trauma, partially paralyzed and unable to speak. The police accuse him of stabbing an officer; the radicals herald him as an innocent victim of police brutality. During his slow recovery at the hospital, Hoffmann must piece together his life and struggle to remember the events of that night.
The issue of War widow representation in Israeli cinema is one of the most complex for the local industry for it seems to be unique and with a very local and specific iconography. The war Widow is a difficult character to digest. Because this is an especially painful topic in Israel, its mode of representation is almost always problematic. Gila Almagor in Tofano's siege is one of the first characters of the modern war widows to appear on Israeli cinema screens. The human and social complexity of the status of widows was not represented adequately and personally until her complex and fine appearance in this film. It was mostly Preceded by cliches of heroic women who have sacrificed for the nation with characters to which it was very difficult to get attached, nor to their personal grief. Siege was directed by an unknown Italian director of that period. Although Gilberto Tofano was brought as a professional director on the wings of inspiration made by the French New Wave of those years, he managed to turn out a very exciting work which has caught the Israeli warmth and sense of social siege which surrounds the Israeli widows, including the great expectations from them and the social stigmas. Tofano wrapped his leading lady with lots of warmth and gave a place of honor to Almagor's impressive presence in the film. This is without a doubt one of Almagor's best and most accurate performances. The restraint in her performance plus the shooting and expressive use of angles by Tofano and his soft European touch which was far off from the aggressive local product managed to produce a sense of documenting an authentic tragedy with a tangible personal touch that minimized the national dimension. The result stands the test of time proudly several decades after its creation.
货车司机雅克(让·迦本 Jean Gabin 饰)出生在一个有着酗酒历史的家族之中,他一直十分的自卑,觉得自己继承了家族劣质的基因。某日,在火车上发生了一起谋杀案,雅克是唯一的目击者,他在现场看到了同事的妻子萨维丽娜(西蒙妮·西蒙 Simone Simon 饰),但是出于私心,雅克并没有将这件事情告诉警察。 这件事情让雅克和萨维丽娜一家人成为了好朋友,随着交往的深入,雅克渐渐爱上了萨维丽娜。为了能够和心爱的女人在一起,雅克怂恿萨维丽娜杀死她的丈夫,然而在最后时刻,萨维丽娜收手了。萨维丽娜的丈夫虽然震惊于妻子的所作所为,却依然无法摆脱对她的感情。