Liron Ben-Shlush and Menashe Noy in Working Woman (Zeitgeist Films)

 This Israeli drama about sexual harassment is particularly compelling because of how believable it makes the main protagonist’s willingness to endure it. Orna (Liron Ben-Shlush), who has never worked in real estate, nevertheless lands a job with an aspiring luxury housing builder in the beachfront town of Netanya. Whatever Orna lacks in experience, she makes up for in being smart, well-organized, and charming, and before long she has helped sell a unit to some acquaintances from France—exactly the market that her boss and wannabe mogul, Benny (Menashe Noy), is aiming for.

She definitely looks like a smart hire by Benny, who had been her commanding officer in the Israeli army. They have good professional chemistry—Orna’s wide-eyed enthusiasm and sincerity offset the older man’s gravitas nicely—but there are signs early on that Benny has a controlling personality. He makes an offhanded comment that she should wear her hair down, but then he asks her opinion of his own hairstyle, making the exchange seem like not that big a deal.

Benny, however, proves to be a sociopath and worse, making an unwanted advance one afternoon when the two are alone. Orna rebuffs him and is ready to resign the very next day, when he apologizes and begs her to stay on. The constant tension in the film comes from his playing nice—he’ll tell Orna how good she is at her job and what a promising future she has—and then behaving like a total creep. Orna does her best to physically distance herself from him, but as the owner of the company, he always makes sure they work closely together.

Meanwhile, at home, Orna is raising three children with a restaurateur husband, Ofer (Oshri Cohen). Although the couple are physically affectionate toward each other, it’s clear that not everything is perfect: business at the restaurant is slow, they have trouble making ends meet, and there are moments when he doesn’t seem to take her career seriously: when one of their daughters gets sick, Ofer expects Orna to stay at home.

None of this is intended to make Benny seem like a better alternative. Rather, by including scenes of Orna’s domestic life—and in particular, the money woes—the narrative explains why she doesn’t just quit, Benny’s assurances that he will never make another unsolicited pass at her be damned. Meanwhile, seeing how humdrum things can be for Orna at home, we totally understand why she wants to keep her job, which allows her to, among other things, travel to Paris in an attempt to market Netanya to Jewish clients there. At one point, we see her walking through the City of Light with a genuine feeling of joy on her face. Unfortunately, Benny is also in Paris, and things between them reach a breaking point. Director Michal Aviad shoots it as a single, unbroken take that feels absolutely brutal, although it is not particularly prolonged or exploitative. What is worse is the aftermath.

Told in a clear-eyed style that emphasizes realism, Working Woman is an effective social critique, no more so than when Orna tries to convey not just what happened in Paris but her entire experience with Benny to friends and family. Her own mother automatically assumes that anything between her daughter and another man had to be partially of the former’s volition. Although this is disheartening to see, it is not completely unexpected. Interestingly, even Orna is quick to ponder her own culpability following Benny’s initial pass at her. One of her first actions afterwards is to check herself in a storefront window, as if to question if the way she dressed gave the wrong impression.

Ben-Shlush is terrific as Orna, whose large and expressive eyes convey naiveté and optimism, which is eventually ground down into seething anger and despair. Equally effective is her co-lead, Noy, as Benny, whose boisterous presence gradually gives way to cruelty and malice, especially once he realizes Orna may not bend so easily to his whims. In this era of #MeToo fallout, he’s exactly the type of abusive male figure whom we would hope receives a much-deserved comeuppance, but instead, Aviad takes a route that is probably more true to life. Nevertheless, this is a powerful and relevant film that has an eye and ear for the injustices that have been all too familiar.