Toronto International Film Festival 2009
 

 Synopsis
 In an old apartment building on the wrong side of the tracks, two women, unknown to each other, live across the hall on the second floor. Galia is an assassin involved against her will with the local sex-traffic mafia. All she wants is to reunite with her daughter that she left back home in Ukraine. Elinor is a grocery store cashier and a battered wife. She dreams of winning the lottery and running away from her abusive husband. Galia and Elinor don’t know each other, but as neighbors they share two things: an adjoining wall and a strong need to plan their escape.

Program Note
 Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise originated the plot of average housewives pairing up, going on a trip, and being in possession of a gun. Walls is probably the Israeli version of Thelma and Louise.

 Galia is involved with the Russian mafia based in Israel. She is dying to return to Ukraine and reunite with her daughter. She accepts the last proposal of the Mafia and becomes an assassin to get the money and her passport back. She resides in a crummy apartment and soon finds out her neighbor Elinor is the victim of domestic violence. Galia’s child was taken away by her husband and Elinor has an abusive husband. This common denominator builds a strong bond between the two. Galia hesitates to carry out the order which targets the mistress to the head of the rival mafia because it means she has to kill a woman. It must be tough to build up the story on the bond between women while the cardinal rules of action movies cannot be overlooked. Eventually, as Walls implies in the beginning, Galia and Elinor risk their lives to escape from their oppressors and the story heads toward the grand finale. If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Once an escape is made, there will be a consequence whether or not it is a success. Will the twosome find their freedom? Walls is the cold-blooded tale of two women pointing a gun at the cold-blooded world. (KWON Eun-sun)