Ruth Pribar’s ‘Asia’ was a big winner at Israel’s Orphi Awards (their Oscars equivalent) ,and is that country’s entry this year for the Academy Awards. It’s a relation ship about a young mother and her daughter. Alena Yiv plays Asia, a Russian immigrant in Jerusalem raising a teenager, and is running against time – her daughter Vika (Sira Haas) has a degenerative disease. It’s a depressing film – you just know situations will just get worse and yes, it does. I don’t know if I was in the right mood when I saw this, and the film just made me reallys ad and depressed afterwards. It has great performances from the two female leads, but in the end, it just wasn’t for me.
A couple, Yoav and Dan (Oded Leopold and Udi Persi) is celebrating their fifteenth year anniversary. But there’s trouble brewing. All their friends are wanting to have children, and Yoav’s friend Alma is just announced that she is pregnant. This causes a whirlwind of events that spiral downwards for Yoav, a mid life crisis of sorts. Yuval Hadadi’s ’15 Years’ is kind of timely. Ever since marriage equality, a lot of gay couples have been starting families, and it is upsetting the status quo for some guys – do they join the mainstreaming of gay life, or hold on tot heir ‘individuality’? I wish the film went deeper in that, but we only see the surface in Yoav is feeling, and at times, it makes you feel unsympathetic towards the character. the acting is good, and it will more or less make you believe the situations they are in, but you can’t help but try to understand.
Tomer Heyman has fashioned a ‘rise and fall’ documentary titled ‘Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life,’ about the gay porn star of the same name (his real name is Elkana Yonatan Langer) I wish I could say that Agassi’s story is quite unique, but I know that this story is a little too common for for gay adult performers. Agassi rose to fame via Michael Lucas’ production company and at one point was the most popular star of the genre, even winning Best Actor at Huslaball awards. The documentary is pretty straightforward and the bet part of it for me is his close relationship with his mother. his low point was a little hard to watch, but it was nice to know that he for the most part recovered from it. As a documentary, it really did not offer much of anything new for me.
I didn’t know what to make of the beginning part of ‘Orpheus Song,’ but I kept on watching. Basically two masc guys working out together at the gym. Then they go to Greece for a vacation, then they have an encounter with a Greek God (I Think the story went there) and then they start to fall in love. Or did they? I loved the last part of teh film when both are faced to confront their feelings, and what do you know, this has a feel-good ending that will make you shout for joy.
Nadav Lapid’s ‘Synonymes’ is one of the weirdest, oddest movies I have seen this year. And I did not sense that from the very beginning. I did not know anything about the film upon seeing it, but something about it beckoned me. I thought for some reason that it had gay content (maybe because the lead, Tom Mercier, is very attractive, or I was attracted to him) but there wasn’t really anything explicitly gay about it, although it had a lot of homoerotic energy in it. It’s the story of Yoav, who moves to Paris after serving in the Israeli army. (This is apparently partly based on the director’s life) Just right after being in Paris, he loses all his worldly possessions and is helped by a couple (Quentin Dolmaire and Louise Chevillotte) who clothe him and helps him gets settled. At some point you can sense there is some ulterior motive there, but then the movie goes to a totally different direction. Lapid uses Yoav body liberally – showing us all of it, and so much of it that we get to know it as intimately as we get to know what is on Yoav’s mind. But as much as we get to know him, I found that Yoav is still a puzzle towards the end of the film – the pieces we get to know don’t really all fit, and the last part of the movie got more and more bizarre. My takeaway from the film is varied – I don’t know if I was supposed to laugh, or get annoyed. One thing is for sure, though, not a second of the film was boring.
For me, it is interesting that after all these years, there are still very interesting stories being told about the second world war. And I myself am more into them like before – perhaps old age has done this to me. I recently saw a film from last year, ‘The Keeper,’ which is an Anglo/German co production. It tells the true story of Bert Trautmann, a British POW who became a football hero for Manchester. It is a great story, and the film, co-written and directed by Marcus H Rosenmuller, is a great watch. It shows how Trautmann overcame being a Nazi sympathizer to become a football hero. There are great performances here, anchored by David Kross’s charming portrayal of Traumtann (In some markets, that is the title of the film) I think I gravitated towards it because of the great love story between him and Margaret, the British woman he married (played by Freya Mavor) I got caught in the story instantly, and I this in the end feels a little more than just a football romance, it gives us a lesson on humanity and love. Much recommended.
There was certainly a lot of thought in Avi Nesher’s ‘Past Life.’ It’s a story of a young woman who finds out secrets from her family history. For me, this is a more interesting picture than an enjoyable one – there is too much exposition and the payoff was a little limp. Still, this has some vivid characters that you will want to know, and some good performances, especially from Joy Rieger as Sophi. I also thought the production values were well done, as this is a period piece set in 1977. It felt like so.
#Metoo has been going on for as long as men have been in power over women, and it is sometimes astonishing to think there aren’t a lot of these stories in film. From Israel, Michael Aviad’s ‘Working Woman’ tries to fill that void in this timely tale of workplace sexual harassment.
Closing out Pride month, I am writing about, for me, the best ‘gay’ film since last year’s ‘Call Me By Your Name.’ Written and Directed by Ofir Raul Graizer, ‘The Cakemaker’ is one of those movies that got to me. After seeing the movie, I wanted to just get home and think about it in silence. It’s the story of a German baker Thomas (Tim Kalkhof, looking like a German Jonathan Groff) who falls in love with an Israeli businessman who travels monthly to Berlin. When the businessman suddenly dies in a car accident, Thomas flies to Jerusalem and gets involved in the life of the man’s widow Anat (Sarah Adler)
I have always been fascinated with foreign films. To me, there’s something really comforting about seeing that even though human stories are flavoured with individual cultures, essentially they are all the same – they appeal to our hearts and our souls in the same exact manner. I just wrote about the brilliant 
While I like what the film has to say, I don’t really know if I really liked the film. It has a lot of parts that are quite moving, but I also found it painfully slow. There were times when I found myself checking the time. Could it be because I was not in such a relaxed state? I watched this after a particularly stressful week, plus this annoying woman sat next to me and she spoke with her companion throughout the film, as if she were watching the film in her living room. I think how you feel while watching a movie definitely affects how you view a film. But there’s no mistake the power of what is being said here, though, and perhaps I could do a second viewing of this and I may feel differently.
Luha Thoughts 