Star Rating:

Eyes Wide Open

Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001

Running time: Germany minutes

This sombre tale of love illicit love in an intolerant and insular community boasts powerful and understated performances from all involved. Please - no Brokeback Butcher jokes.

Aaron (Shtrauss) is a Jerusalem butcher who has lived his life not for himself, but for his family and his devotion to duty and God. When his father dies, he takes over his father's shop and, needing help, employs drifter Ezri (Danker) whom he houses in the shop's tiny upstairs apartment. Initially distant, Aaron and Ezri become close, which turns into a love affair that threatens to tear their worlds apart. Battling with his emotions, Aaron believes that this is a challenge from God, something to be overcome but his attraction to Ezri can't be ignored...

The opening scene sets up the theme: Because he doesn't have keys, Aaron breaks into his father's shop using a rock; substitute 'father' with 'God' and 'shop' with 'house' and we have a statement that religion should welcome homosexuality as much as it does heterosexuality, and highlights the paradoxical teachings of the Talmud. At one point his Rabbi (Grad) preaches: "He who dwells in abstinence is a sinner. A man who prevents himself from drinking wine is a sinner... He shouldn't cause himself sorrow... Why did God create the world? For the catharsis of the soul... We have a mission. The Lord didn't create broken tools. There is no such thing as broken." Later, he says: "The closer to sin, the closer to God." But Aaron is a hypocrite too: in a subplot he's called on by the morality police to take to task a young man who insists on seeing a woman who has been promised to another.

Haim Tabakman, in his directorial debut, veers from the subtle to the obvious. To emphasise the differences between the two men's personalities, Tabakman has Aaron undress awkwardly while Ezri strips off with confidence when the two visit a spring. But then he belies the delicate nature of his film with obvious metaphors: the setting of a butcher's allows the director to include too many shots of meat being sliced. The director is unable to elevate the love affair beyond physical attraction either.

Shtrauss, who also steals the show in this week's Lebanon, delivers a powerful if understated performance - there's no hint of the rage or the confusion that must be bubbling under the surface. He plays Aaron as a man old before his time, a quiet and reserved ordinary man who has suddenly discovered an aspect of himself - an aspect he abhors. It's a difficult role to get right and Shtrauss can't be faulted in it.