Concerned Citizen

Most large cities have neighbourhoods that guidebooks will refer to as hip, urban and a little gritty. Real estate agents may call these districts “up-and-coming”. The city’s residents, however, may simply call the area rough and/or druggy. 

Ben (Shlomi Bertonov) and boyfriend Raz (Ariel Wolf) have relocated to such an area in Tel Aviv. They consider themselves lucky to have beaten gentrification to the punch (while also perhaps hoping to trigger it), since they’d be unable to afford such a large place in the central city. They’re in the process of choosing an egg donor, allowing them to become parents with the help of a surrogate. In an apparently harmless attempt to beautify his new neighbourhood, Ben plants a tree on the street outside their house. Noticing an Eritrean migrant damaging the tree, Ben calls the police, who respond with vicious and disproportionate force.  

The opening scenes of Concerned Citizen bely the tone of the rest of the film. There’s an almost sweet airiness that evaporates the moment the story’s catalyst occurs, with the narrative then taking on a somewhat unfortunate emotional plateau that dominates its runtime. An understandably gloomy mood sets in, with Ben spending an awful lot of time staring hopelessly into the distance as he processes what he’s witnessed – but it’s not as though the story is irreparably dour throughout, and there’s some much-needed lightness with the couple browsing egg donor profiles like they’re on Tinder.

The feature plainly wants viewers to imagine themselves in Ben’s shoes, and wonder whether they would have handled the situation any better. Concerned Citizen isn’t necessarily superficial, but it doesn’t engage with its subject matter as deeply as it could have, which is evidenced in a moment that seems engineered to appease guilt, allowing the story to finally move on to its slightly too convenient conclusion.

Oliver Johnston

Concerned Citizen does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2022 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival website here.