As the Israeli Defense Force prepares to leave southern Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year occupation, a unit of young soldiers stationed at a mountaintop, 12th-century Crusader fort questions everything about their mission.

American-born director Joseph Cedar was with the Israeli army for part of the Lebanon War. His film "Beaufort," named for the imposing castle, often feels familiar: Men gripe, get scared, go a little nuts, die. But there's also a peculiar, fresh quality to the Beaufort unit's situation. Isolated in their heavily fortified redoubt under increasingly severe Hezbollah rocket fire, the soldiers - particularly their dedicated but uncertain 22-year-old leader Liraz (Oshri Cohen) - are alienated in the extreme. More than most troops who wonder what they're fighting for, these guys wonder what they're doing at all.

Though unable to film at the actual site, Cedar ingeniously re-created Beaufort on Israel's side of the border. Warrens of concrete and metal corridors reinforce the otherworldly nature of this particular post. When live lookout duty becomes too hazardous, the soldiers rely on video surveillance from a bunker deep inside the fort, which separates them more.

Adapted from a novel by Ron Leshem and a finalist for this year's foreign language film Academy Award, "Beaufort" often focuses on the daily drudgery of military life. And, although too complex itself to settle for a simple anti-war statement, the film smartly addresses all the issues and ironies related to that specific Lebanon incursion. Beautiful in its way and terrible in its implications, "Beaufort" marks Cedar as a distinctive and impassioned talent.

\>B.S.