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Most often, the Israeli films that penetrate into the mainstream are about war. Being an experience almost universally shared by Israelis, it makes sense that those are the films in which they excel. Still, it’s refreshing when one is able to explore a different area equally central to Israeli society – the Orthodox [religious] Jewish community and the pressures within it. It is through the lens of a homosexual relationship that Eyes Wide Open chooses to do this.
Set in Jerusalem neighbourhood Mea Shearim, notorious for its exclusive ultra-religious population, the film follows Aaron Fleischman, a kosher butcher and married father of four. He meets young Yeshiva (Torah school) student Ezri, whom he agrees to house in a small room above his shop.
As a whole, the film serves as an overview into this world of modest living with God and Torah as the source of all decisions. It’s made up of mostly short scenes, often with little or no dialogue, that portray mundane activities of Aaron and the surrounding community. It does render it at times too choppy, but it’s also necessary in order to fully display the characters’ pious lifestyles.
Aaron describes his relationship with God as revolving around the effort to not fulfil his desires. We’re thereby not surprised when Ezri tries to kiss him and is met by resistance. “God has granted us with a challenge,” Aaron tells him, acknowledging his feelings but insisting that it is their religious duty not to succumb. Nevertheless, following a study group's discussion on seeking forgiveness, we see the two give in to their lust for each other. As their affair continues, Aaron appears to be awakened from his sleepy life, even proclaiming at one point that he was “dead” before he met Ezri.
When rumours of Ezri’s sexuality begin circulating, the unfolding events become sinister, including threats by local Yeshiva students to Aaron for housing him and violence directed towards Ezri in the street. It is the harsh reality of this community; everything you do is scrutinised, whether in public or private, and if one’s not conforming to God’s laws (or what they interpret as such), you must be cast out to not taint anyone else.
But is it that black and white? A parallel storyline displays an affair between two minor characters, Sara and Israel. Along with providing some rare comic moments (Aaron is persistently pestered by a gossipy member of the community within earshot of Sara’s father), it demonstrates a double standard; the rabbi and the community talk openly about the affair, going so far as to stage an intervention at Israel’s home. Yet we end up witnessing the rejoicing when Sara marries her pre-approved fiancé, and her ‘sins’ quickly forgiven. Homosexuality on the other hand is so taboo no one even says it out loud, and it’s addressed with such hostility that it seems impossible to ‘atone’ even if one wants to.
Despite its slow pace and at times inconsistent editing, what the film succeeds in portraying is this Orthodox pressure cooker of conformity and that the characters, despite their endless pursuit of pleasing God, exhibit hypocrisy and can’t even simply be good to one another.
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