Eyes Wide Open
Directed by Haim Tabakman
Written by Merav Doster
Israel | Germany | France – 2010
Showing at Cinéma du Parc in its second run in Montreal following last year’s limited release, Haim Tabakman’s ‘Eyes Wide Open’ is so overwhelmingly a limited-appeal, art-house offering as to seem almost destined for festival success.
This ineffably implausible man-and-man romance tentatively unfolds deep in the heart of Mea Shearim, Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood, where Aaron (played by the wistfully bearded Zohar Strauss) a Hassidic father-of-many assumes the stewardship of the familial butcher shop after the recent death of his father and hesitantly hires an assistant in the person of Ezri, a stray, toothsome, puppy-eyed yeshiva dropout with a risky-yet-oh-so-enticing penchant for same-sex friendship.
Ezri, the driving force behind the tortuous romance, is in pious Aaron’s own words a masterpiece of G-d’s creation, crossing righteous men’s paths so as to anneal...
Directed by Haim Tabakman
Written by Merav Doster
Israel | Germany | France – 2010
Showing at Cinéma du Parc in its second run in Montreal following last year’s limited release, Haim Tabakman’s ‘Eyes Wide Open’ is so overwhelmingly a limited-appeal, art-house offering as to seem almost destined for festival success.
This ineffably implausible man-and-man romance tentatively unfolds deep in the heart of Mea Shearim, Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood, where Aaron (played by the wistfully bearded Zohar Strauss) a Hassidic father-of-many assumes the stewardship of the familial butcher shop after the recent death of his father and hesitantly hires an assistant in the person of Ezri, a stray, toothsome, puppy-eyed yeshiva dropout with a risky-yet-oh-so-enticing penchant for same-sex friendship.
Ezri, the driving force behind the tortuous romance, is in pious Aaron’s own words a masterpiece of G-d’s creation, crossing righteous men’s paths so as to anneal...
- 6/9/2011
- by Zornitsa
- SoundOnSight
Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****
Eyes Wide Open (Eynaim Pekukhot) made its New York debut early this year, as part of the 19th New York Jewish Film Festival, which was quickly followed by a limited theatrical release. This is the first full-length, narrative film from director Haim Tabakman, in which, as a co-writer, he worked with producer Rafael Katz, their “French connection” David Barrot and the film's original screenwriter Merav Doster. Together they’ve come up with a doozy of a movie about Israeli fundamentalist thinking and behaving.
An ugly film to watch (the settings -- workplace, apartment and "shul" -- could hardly be more drab and unappealing), Eyes Wide Open takes place in Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, in and around a butcher shop in which one of its leading characters, Aaron, labors and which, due to the recent death of his father, he now owns. Into...
Rating (out of 5): ****
Eyes Wide Open (Eynaim Pekukhot) made its New York debut early this year, as part of the 19th New York Jewish Film Festival, which was quickly followed by a limited theatrical release. This is the first full-length, narrative film from director Haim Tabakman, in which, as a co-writer, he worked with producer Rafael Katz, their “French connection” David Barrot and the film's original screenwriter Merav Doster. Together they’ve come up with a doozy of a movie about Israeli fundamentalist thinking and behaving.
An ugly film to watch (the settings -- workplace, apartment and "shul" -- could hardly be more drab and unappealing), Eyes Wide Open takes place in Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, in and around a butcher shop in which one of its leading characters, Aaron, labors and which, due to the recent death of his father, he now owns. Into...
- 11/9/2010
- by underdog
- GreenCine
Distributed by New American Vision, Eyes Wide Open will stay one more week at New York City’s Cinema Village. Directed by Haim Tabakman and written by Merav Doster, the forbidden gay love story set among Israel’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community — where homosexuality isn’t exactly welcome — stars Zohar Shtrauss and Ran Danker. The information below is from the film’s press release. Aaron, a respectable butcher in Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community, is married to Rivka and is a dedicated father of four children. One day, he hires Ezri, a handsome twenty-two year old student, as an apprentice and soon develops feelings for him. As the relationship grows, Aaron starts to neglect his family and community [...]...
- 2/9/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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