The historical thriller Monument will screen at the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival on Thursday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m. at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The screening will feature a special in-person appearance by Jon Voight, who will also be recognized by LAJFF “for his enduring commitment to Israel and the Jewish people.”
Directed by Bryan Singer, whose credits include Bohemian Rhapsody, the X-Men films, and The Usual Suspects, Monument stars Joe Mazzello, Jon Voight, and Alon Aboutboul in his “final American performance.” The film is set in 1999, during the final stretch of Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, and dramatizes the true story of architect Amnon Rechter and his father, Yacov Rechter, as they are commissioned by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to create a monument honoring soldiers killed in southern Lebanon.
The project requires Yacov and Amnon to make “nearly a dozen trips into Lebanon’s security zone,” a dangerous buffer strip known locally as “Death Road.” Amnon pushes his father to create “something that transcends nationalism: a sacred space for Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike.” As the younger architect works with the South Lebanon Army and encounters civilians trying to survive the conflict, “the project becomes less about architecture and more about conscience.”
The film’s themes are pitched as sharply relevant to the present day. Monument asks, “At what cost safety? What does empathy require?” The film is described as “propulsive, urgent and relevant,” blending “archival news footage, reconstructed scenes, and the physical act of building into a single visual language.” In the film, architecture becomes “metaphor: every draft and stone is a negotiation between creation and destruction.”
“an engaging and dramatic look at an unknown true story,”
As both a historical thriller and a moral inquiry, Monument asks “whether peace can exist as more than a hope, whether it can be built into today’s world as something literal, visible, and shared—and what it means when that possibility collapses.”
Film Threat previously called Monument “an engaging and dramatic look at an unknown true story,” adding that “the cast is wonderful, led by an outstanding Mazzello,” who is “superb, bringing warmth and understanding to a part that could’ve been boring in the wrong hands.” NY Movie Guru called the film “a powerful protest against war, and a protest for love, compassion, peace, equality and tolerance in a world that’s still filled with hatred, intolerance, war and inequality.” Every Movie Has a Lesson urged viewers to “let the movie and its highlighted history come to you unencumbered for an honest chance.”
Joining Mazzello, Voight, and Aboutboul in the cast are Aviv Pinkas, Ori Pfeffer, and Igal Naor. Monument was written by Alena Alova and produced by Singer, Jason Taylor, Guy Shalem, and Yariv Horowitz. The film was shot in Greece in summer 2023 by cinematographer Ziv Berkovich, with production design by Aaron Haye, editing by Benj Thall, costumes by Yam Brulovsky, and music by Kenneth Lampl.
Monument screens at the Museum of Tolerance, located at 9786 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035, on Thursday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m. The film will continue its “festival, community, and theatrical journey throughout 2026.”
