It chronicles the daily routine of a group of soldiers positioned at the 12th-century Crusader stronghold of Beaufort Castle, their feelings and their fears, and explores their moral dilemmas in the days preceding the withdrawal and end of the 18-year of Israeli occupation of South of Lebanon.

Ziv Paran, a soldier in the bomb disposal unit, joins an outpost mission named "Operation Cabinet" to deal with a Hezbollah explosive blocking convoy routes.

As IDF withdrawal preparations begin, Liraz resists accepting it, symbolized by his refusal to evacuate non-essential equipment and the outpost dog, Nemruska.

The website's critical consensus states, "Beaufort is a deeply observant and meditative war film, masterfully rendered by director Joseph Cedar".

[3] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave it an A, calling it "a movie of tremendous power—nerve-racking, astute, and neutral enough to apply to all soldiers, in all wars, everywhere".

[4] A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote: "Even if it does not entirely rise above cliché, 'Beaufort' has an earnest, sober intelligence that makes it hard to shake.

[11][12] Effi Eitam, an Israeli war hero who was an Israel Defense Forces high commander in Lebanon (he was replaced by Moshe Kaplinsky several months before the withdrawal), said that the film "successfully depicts, in great detail, the military experience".

[13] Linda Barnard of the Toronto Star notes that "Liraz can't protect his men and is visibly diminished each time they face danger and death."

As well, he "faces his last order [to destroy the fort] with resolve mixed with bitterness and anger over the useless sacrifice of those who died to defend what the army is about to wipe out".

[3] Andrea Gronvall of the Chicago Reader calls it a "blistering antiwar film"; she states that "the absurdity and terrors of their situation are compounded when the squad receives orders to evacuate and blow up its bunker—something the enemy has been trying to do all along.

He states that "at its core[,] Beaufort is about the heroism of withdrawal, the guts it takes to reject the militaristic mindset that believes any retreat is a weakness.

The Band's Visit's status as a foreign language film in the Academy Awards was rejected because it contains over 50% dialogue in English, which caused the runner-up Beaufort to become Israel's submission instead.