Joe + Belle

The film opens with Joe traveling from Bangkok to Tel Aviv, smuggling drugs into Israel. This dangerous mission sets up her illicit life and introduces the stakes of her work. She carries out the delivery to a local dealer in Tel Aviv.

Abigail receives the drugs from Joe in Tel Aviv and instructs her to meet at the Dark Eighties club later that night to sell more. The club will become a focal setting for the evolving dynamics between the characters and the ensuing crime. Joe's path begins to cross with Belle's in this sequence.

Belle, a young French Jewish immigrant, is released from Tel Aviv Psychiatric Hospital into her mother's care. After learning her pet Fred has been discarded by her parents, she runs away, setting the stage for a dangerous course of events.

Belle climbs onto a building roof to attempt suicide and then forces her way inside a building through an open window. She ends up in Joe's bathroom, clutching a straight razor. This sequence puts the two women on a perilous collision course.

Joe returns home to find Belle in the bathroom, the razor at the ready. Belle is immediately drawn to Joe and asks to go to the Dark Eighties together, despite the risk. They begin communicating in Hebrew due to language barriers.

Back at Joe's apartment, Belle is locked out briefly but is let back in. While Joe goes out for cigarettes, Belle discovers a gun hidden in the microwave and trades it for her razor. She then goes to sleep on the couch, hinting at the dangerous tools they'll wield.

Matan, Joe's ex-boyfriend, arrives and mistakes Belle for Joe. In a tense exchange, Belle shoots him, and when he wakes, Joe shoots him in shock. The killing draws immediate attention and raises the threat level for both women.

Abigail leaves a threatening voicemail suggesting Joe and Belle are involved in Matan's death and possibly infidelity. Her message heightens the pursuit and intensifies the sense that they are being watched. The chase begins to tighten around them.

To move the body, the women attempt to steal a car and exchange for its use. They cannot drive, so they abandon the vehicle and wrap the body in blankets, then arrange to borrow Abigail's van, setting in motion the disposal. The plan reveals their improvisational crisis management under pressure.

They dump Matan's body in a river. During the aftermath, they talk about past lovers, and Belle reveals that she is a lesbian, deepening their bond as they confront their shared danger. The moment marks a turning point in their relationship.

At a nightclub they panic when police lights appear; they escape to a hotel where Belle seduces and then knocks out a police officer who arrives, cuffing him to the bathtub. The pursuit tightens as law enforcement closes in on their location.

The duo hops a bus toward Eilat to lie low, while Abigail, Lt. Tzedek, and Shlomtsi rush to Eilat to arrest them. A rocket siren disrupts their journey in Sderot, and a plan to quit drug dealing begins to form. Their escape leads them to a new life together in Sderot amid ongoing rocket attacks.

Abigail is arrested in Eilat based on the evidence of the murder. Joe and Belle rent an apartment in Sderot and perform at an open mic where Joe sings to Belle, signaling a fragile, hopeful life together amid ongoing rocket attacks. The film ends with them living in Sderot, embracing their romance despite the danger.