A provocative take on the “Mideast Problem” documentary, August offers a bitterly comic street-level snapshot of the Israeli state of mind during the summer of 2000, just months before new waves of violence engulfed the region. Political satirist Avi Mograbi's variation on the personal diary format finds the camera alternately trained on himself, a badly shaven bundle of neuroses confessing his hopes and fears for his film and nation; on the people in his life, who look oddly like him; and on the citizens of Tel Aviv, who've apparently never met a cameraman they haven't been suspicious of, or a point they couldn't make through all manner of irate screaming matches and other “discussion techniques.” A portrait of a citizenry on the edge, August exposes a nation's paranoia and seething frustrations, using humor as a scalpel and a weapon.