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One of Us

Name: One of Us
Director: Uri Barbash
Released: 1989
Duration: 110 min

Representation Score

4.0/10

Limited

1989

Director

Uri Barbash

Runtime

110 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

One of Us is a psychological drama that prioritizes moral ambiguity over traditional heroism. It succeeds in deconstructing institutional integrity by focusing on the friction between personal ethics and systemic pressures. The film's strength lies in its refusal to offer easy resolutions. It explores how individual morality survives within a rigid, high-stakes military social order. However, the film remains anchored in a traditional masculine hierarchy. The female presence serves more as a plot device for male tension than as a fully realized character with independent ability to act.

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Category Breakdown

Does One of Us have LGBTQ+ representation?

Minimal

The film does not explicitly show queer identities or same-sex intimacy. The story revolves around interpersonal attraction between male characters and a female soldier.

How does One of Us portray gender?

Fair

The story centers on a male-dominated military environment. A female soldier acts as a catalyst for tension, but her role remains secondary to the male-driven conflict.

How racially and ethnically diverse is One of Us?

Fair

The film explores the friction between Palestinian and Israeli identities. It avoids monolithic portrayals by focusing on the human impact of geopolitical tensions in the occupied territories.

How does One of Us represent religion and culture?

Good

The narrative uses moral relativism to critique institutional justice. It examines the tension between personal loyalty to friends and the systemic duties of military authority.

Does One of Us include disability representation?

Minimal

There are no visible or invisible disabilities depicted within the film's context.

Present on Screen

Provides a nuanced study of situational ethics and institutional truth.
Avoids monolithic portrayals of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Challenges conventional heroic clichés through moral ambiguity.

Limited or Absent

Lacks a significant role in driving the story for female characters within the military setting.
Provides no representation of LGBTQ+ identities or narratives.
Does not feature any characters with visible or invisible disabilities.

Official Synopsis

A few Palestinian guerilla's break into an Israeli camp in the occupied territories. They kill a few Israeli soldiers before they are killed, apart from one who dies in the camp after being captured alive. The Israeli military dispatch an investigator to the camp to see if there was cold blooded murder (people at the camp had claimed he was shot while trying to escape). It turns out that the investigator dispatched is a friend of the camp commander - the rest of the plot is basically about the position of both of these characters as regards being honest or faithful to ones friends. There is unbearable tension, increased by the fact that they are both very strongly attracted to one of the female soldiers on the camp.

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