The Bubble - A love in Tel Aviv
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Bubble - A love in Tel Aviv |
| Original title | הבועה |
| Country of production | Israel |
| original language | Hebrew , Arabic |
| Publishing year | 2006 |
| length | 115 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Eytan Fox |
| script |
Gal Uchovsky Eytan Fox |
| production | Gal Uchovsky Ronen Ben-Tal Amir Feingold |
| music | Ivri Lider |
| camera | Yaron Sharp |
| cut |
Yosef Grunfeld Yaniv Raiz |
| occupation | |
| |
The Bubble - A Love in Tel Aviv ( Hebrew הבועה Ha-Buah ) is an Israeli film directed by Eytan Fox . It deals with the homosexual relationship between the Israeli Noam and the Palestinian Ashraf and also deals thematically with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict . The film also shows parallels to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and to the play Bent by Martin Sherman , an excerpt from which can be seen. The film was released on June 29, 2006.
The title “The Bubble” refers to a popular name for the easy life in fashionable Tel Aviv in the sense of a “pleasure bubble ”. The title thus also aims at the carefree character shown in the film, which is contrasted with the reality of a country marked by ethnic conflicts, wars and terrorism. Director Fox worked autobiographical elements into the film, such as the childhood experiences in Jerusalem described .
action
The occupants of a Palestinian bus, including the Ashraf family, are checked at an Israeli-Palestinian border crossing . When a pregnant woman's amniotic sac bursts, border guard Noam can provide makeshift first aid. The emergency doctor who is called can only determine a stillbirth; a riot breaks out, which is suppressed by the officer. Soon after, Noam is released from military service and arrives at home in Tel Aviv, where he starts working again in a record store. He shared a flat with Yali, the owner of a small restaurant, and Lulu, an employee in a cosmetics shop . Ashraf visits the three of them in their apartment, and Noam takes him to a balcony, where they become sexually closer. Meanwhile, Lulu spends a night of love with Editor-in-Chief Sharon, and Yali goes on a date with Golan. The next morning, Ashraf and Noam talk about the experience at the lockdown. A little later, Ashraf telephones his sister, who he pretends to be living with a friend in Jerusalem , and talks to her about her plans to marry the extreme Hamas leader Jihad. The trio finally helps Ashraf to build a new identity: He is provided with clothes, is now called Shimi and is employed by Yali as a waiter. Over dinner, Ashraf talks about growing up in Jerusalem, which is why he speaks accent-free Hebrew.
All four are part of a team planning a rave against the cast . After an organizational meeting, the flat share residents go to a bar together. Golan later comes by and tells of his past as a soldier. When Lulu watches Sharon exchange tenderness with another woman, she leaves the bar. That same night, Yali and Golan have loud sex in the shared apartment. The next morning, the four residents hand out flyers for the rave in downtown Tel Aviv. This leads to a scuffle with some passers-by. Lulu then goes to Sharon in his office, where she vented her anger over his infidelity. In the evening Ashraf and Noam attend a performance of “Bent”, in which Lior Ashkenazi and Yossi Marshek take on the two main roles and play a pair of concentration camp inmates who have sex with each other without any contact. Afterwards, Ashraf notices that he found the line across the eyebrows as a sign of mutual love. Both then talk about their youth in Jerusalem, and Ashraf talks about the reluctant move to Nablus . Yali later had a conversation with Noam about Ashraf, in which he admits to him that he had a strange feeling about their relationship. The next morning, Sharon shows up at Yali's restaurant where he asks Ashkenazi for nude photos for his magazine. He eventually reveals Ashraf to be a Palestinian by asking for a report with his view of Tel Aviv. He, in turn, runs away and passes the Noams record shop. With a stroke over the eyes he leaves the scene.
From now on Noam is lethargic . The flat-share residents learn of attacks in Nablus on television, whereupon Lulu decides to travel to Nablus with Noam as a journalist. She gets press cards and a car from Sharon. At the border crossing they watch how Ashraf's sister is checked and has to show all her wedding luggage. They reach Nablus and pretend Ashraf's family to want to shoot a report for French television. Noam and Ashraf are given the opportunity to kiss in a chamber but are watched by jihad. Ashraf begs him not to tell anyone who doesn't want to do so while Ashraf marries Jihad's cousin Samira. After the bride has finally arrived, Lulu and Noam leave the city for Tel Aviv. Lulu is able to convince Ashraf to come to the rave during a phone call. Noam's mood lifts when Ashraf actually shows up at the party. Both spend a nice night together, and Yali and Golan, as well as Lulu and Shaul, can grow closer. In a joint conversation, Noam recounts an experience from his youth. The day after, he also sings his mother's favorite song to Ashraf. Then both have intense sex with each other. The next morning Shaul makes a love confession to Lulu and they kiss passionately.
Ashraf has meanwhile started the journey home again. He meets his sister, talks to her and confesses his love for Noam to her. Rana, on the other hand, reacts horrified and stunned. The wedding will take place soon afterwards. While the festivities are ongoing, Ashraf speaks to Samira at Jihad's request. The two get along well, but the conversation does not provide any concrete result. When Ashraf dances with his sister, she almost bursts into tears next to her brother. That evening, at Jihad's behest, a suicide bomber blows himself up in the Tel Aviv café where Yali has arranged to meet Golan on a date. Noam and Lulu rush to the hospital where Yali was admitted, but he is only slightly injured. Golan soon passes by there and confuses Yali's relatives with a kiss. Noam later expresses her deep friendship with Yali. The morning after their wedding night, Rana is accidentally shot dead by Israeli forces searching for those responsible for yesterday's attack; she dies in the arms of her crying brother. The flat-share residents find out about this accident on television.
During a round of condolences for his family, Jihad consoles Rana’s father by saying that Rana died a martyr. Ashraf later holds the wedding dress of his deceased sister in his hands and weeps. Jihad comes to him, holds up the rest of a poster for the rave party and promises not to say anything. He again asks Ashraf to marry Samira and have a large marriage, then he sets off to shoot a video that confesses his revenge suicide attack . Ashraf's situation now seems completely hopeless. He goes to Jihad, interrupts the rotation and now wants to carry out the attack in his place. Ashraf is later seen walking the streets of Tel Aviv. Noam is in Yali's restaurant ordering food for his other roommates. Ashraf stops in front of the restaurant, sees Noam, but activates his explosives belt anyway , then moves away from the restaurant again. Noam runs towards him, can still reach him. Ashraf turns and detonates - not knowing that Noam is directly behind him - the bomb. The world around them both shines brightly and they kiss. At the moment of death they find each other. At the hospital, Yali wakes up with a strange feeling. While you can hear Noam speaking off-screen, how he talks about their love, which in principle was hopeless and without a chance, and condemning the Middle East wars , you can see how they both played together as children on a Jerusalem playground.
Awards
The film won various awards. These include the CICAE Prize and the Victory Column Readers' Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival 2007 . The Bubble also won various audience and jury awards at film festivals in Bremen , Los Angeles , Miami , Philadelphia , Toronto and Turin .
criticism
The majority of the film received a positive response, and the good workmanship of the complicated material was often pointed out. Above all, the portrayal of the discrepancy between hedonistic flight from reality and bitter everyday war life was praised.
“ The Bubble tells of the complex interweaving of political and cultural conflicts, describes the Tel Aviv scene in a fun and entertaining way and makes ample use of clear signals of an internationalist consciousness. The film has brilliant, fast-paced and allusive dialogues and a soundtrack that, with Bright Eyes, Bebel Gilberto and Keren Ann, has everything that is good and trendy. "
“In the no man's land between trendy hedonism, sometimes somewhat naive-seeming political activism and well-founded social criticism, Eytan Fox ( Walk on Water ) paints in his new film The Bubble / Ha-Buah the image of a superficially carefree generation of young Israelis who are ultimately the Cannot escape the realities of the Middle East conflict. If their life initially differs only marginally from that of their peers somewhere in the western world, in the second half of the film the great politics, the bombs and the everyday terror incessantly invade the air bubble of a carefree life and the young people become actors in it a game that goes on in the same fateful way with or without them. That may be a realistic view of things, but the turn of the story in the end gives little hope that the senseless killing, the spiral of violence and counter-violence will ever be broken. "
Trivia
The film originally had the working title "Romeo and Julio". Fox initially planned an adaptation of the Shakespeare drama in the same scene, but then decided against it. Still, he adopted many elements of the acting.
Web links
- Official German website for the film
- The Bubble - A Love in Tel Aviv in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Bettina Spoerri: Romeo and Julio in Tel Aviv . In: NZZ . September 17, 2007, ISSN 0376-6829 ( online ).
- ^ Critique of Ulrich Kriest's film for film-dienst ( Memento from August 31, 2007 in the web archive archive.today ).
- ↑ Joachim Kurz review of the film. kino-zeit.de