Walk on water
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Walk on water |
| Original title | ללכת על המים, Lalech et al haMajim |
| Country of production | Israel |
| original language |
English , Hebrew , German |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Eytan Fox |
| script | Gal Uchovsky |
| production |
Gal Uchovsky , Amir Harel |
| music | Ivri Lider |
| camera | Tobias Hochstein |
| cut | Yosef Grunfeld |
| occupation | |
| |
Walk on Water ( Hebrew ללכת על המים, Lalechet al haMajim ) is a 2004 Israeli film directed by Eytan Fox and starring Lior Ashkenazi , Knut Berger , Ernest Lenart and Caroline Peters . The script was written by Gal Uchovsky . The dialogues are in English, Hebrew and German. It premiered on February 5, 2004 at the Berlin International Film Festival . It was released in Israel on March 18, 2004 and in the United States on March 4, 2005. The film was shown for the first time in the USA on October 23, 2004 at the Milwaukee International Film Festival .
action
Eyal is a hard-hearted agent for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad and is involved in eliminating Israel's enemies. His wife recently committed suicide. Since Eyal refuses therapy, the management of the secret service decides to entrust him with a less demanding task for the time being. He is supposed to find and kill a German old Nazi who has committed war crimes before he escapes punishment through his natural death.
Eyal, who considers this job to be a complete waste of time, is assigned to the Nazi's two grandsons. Since his parents were German Jews, he understands the German language very well. He pretends to be a tour guide and meets Axel and Pia, the old man's adult grandchildren. Pia lives in a kibbutz where she is visiting her brother Axel from Germany to convince her to return to Berlin for her father's seventieth birthday. Pia despises her father because he is in contact with the Nazi grandfather who has gone into hiding, something Axel only learns about now. In the course of his time as an alleged tour guide, Eyal cannot ignore the warmth of the German siblings, although their enthusiasm for Israeli culture irritates him.
One evening in a Tel Aviv restaurant, Axel found out from Rafik, a Palestinian waiter, where the best club in town was. When the three arrive there later that evening, the place turns out to be a gay club. Eyal doesn't react very enthusiastically, and when he sees that Axel is dancing with Rafik, he realizes that Axel is gay. On the joint excursion to Jerusalem on the following day, Eyal also expresses his aversion to the Palestinians, for which Axel expresses understanding on several occasions. He tries to get rid of his job and explains this to his boss with his aversion to gays .
However, his superior insists on continuing the mission, which is why Eyal has to visit Axel's return trip in Berlin. He is gradually beginning to accept that Axel's sexual orientation is insignificant. Axel invites Eyal to his father's birthday party, where his grandfather, who has gone into hiding and is now seriously ill, appears as a surprise guest. Axel is angry with his mother, with whom he gets into an argument outside the party, who accuses him of having invited Eyal. She suggests that Eyal could possibly be an Israeli secret agent, and accuses Axel of always causing difficulties. Eyal, who also witnessed the grandfather's appearance, leaves the party to contact his supervisor. Axel looks for Eyal in his room. Since he does not find it there, he searches Eyal's luggage with a hunch and finds photos of his grandfather. Axel realizes that Eyal is actually a Mossad agent.
Meanwhile, Eyal receives injection syringes and a poison from his supervisor in a Berlin hotel to kill his grandfather. After returning to Axel's parents' house, however, he does not have the heart to give him the injection. Axel watches him do it, and when Eyal has left the room with nothing done, Axel switches off his grandfather's life-support machines. Eyal later made a confession to Axel: His deceased wife, who had committed suicide, used to accuse him of perishing everything he touched. Confronted with this realization, Eyal sees that he no longer wants to work as an agent.
Two years pass and Eyal is shown as the father of a child with Pia. Eyal wrote to Axel his thoughts on being a father and the time with him in Israel in an email. After Axel had only had relationships with non-Germans so far because he could not bear to be with a German, Eyal's lines reveal that he now has a German friend. This makes it clear that Axel has also overcome the past and was able to free himself from his family history.
criticism
"The story, which lies somewhere between genre cinema, melodrama and drama, reflects on the guilt of fathers and the atonement of children, but remains too attached to the emotional surface."
classification
In his third film, director Eytan Fox wanted to explore the role of the past in the lives of young people today. Fox considers Israeli society to be too masculine and harsh and criticizes the fact that it does not see the suffering of the Palestinians in its fixation on its own victim status and the Holocaust. As in his previous film Yossi & Jagger , Eytan contrasts two radically different types of men in this film.
Awards
- In 2004 Ivri Lider won the Israeli Film Prize Ophir Award for Walk on Water for the best music and the best "original song" and Gil Toren for the best "sound". The film was also nominated in the categories “ Best Film ”, Eytan Fox as best director , Lior Ashkenazi as best leading actor , Gal Uchovsky for best screenplay, Tobias Hochstein for best camera and Yosef Grunfeld for best editing.
Web links
- Walk on Water in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Walk on Water in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed April 8, 2012