What happens when two men in the haredi community of Jerusalem fall in love? This topic is explored in all its disturbing depth in the film עניים פקוחות "Eyes Wide Open". Ezri, a young man of about 20 comes into the butcher shop of Aaron, a married father of four children. From the way that Ezri looks at Aaron, we can see immediately that he is attracted to him, but all he says is that he's looking for work and asks if Aaron needs a worker. Aaron hires him and begins to teach him the trade (which he obviously knows NOTHING about initially!). Eventually, Ezri manages to seduce Aaron, and their passion, though tastefully shown, is intense. Although they are very discrete, making love only in the upstairs room over the butcher shop, Aaron's wife and his broader community begin to withdraw from him and then threaten him and Ezri. I won't give away the ending except to say that it does not end well.
Cold rain and a dark atmosphere pervade the movie. There are many moody shots with no speaking at all. When people do speak, it is generally very fast, making it difficult for me to understand the Hebrew (and there were no subtitles!). As a result, I'm sure that I missed some of the finer points of the plot and subplots, but the overall impact was clear. Both the love between the two principal characters and the life of their community were sensitively and accurately portrayed. Despite the sad ending, I can highly recommend this movie.
Our neighbors, Shimon and Hava Har-Even, had invited us to see this film with them at the סינמטק "Cinemateque" just down the hill in Rosh Pinna. They had been to this theater once before, but this was our first time. It's part of a chain of art-house theaters here in Israel showing a wide variety of movies from around the world. We will definitely go back and will probably buy a year's subscription, which is priced very reasonably (with a special couple rate).
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