LEADERS IN GAY CINEMA

Over the past 20 years, Israeli filmmakers have made some of the world’s most dynamic gay-themed movies. And it’s not just because Israeli men are knee-weakeningly hot. QX film critic Jack Leger explores how this happened…

In 1985 there were only three openly gay people in Israel. So it’s no wonder that the four movies made by pioneering gay Jewish filmmaker Amos Guttman in the 1980s focussed on gay men struggling to live on the fringe of a hostile society. But things started changing soon after Guttman’s Aids-related death in 1993 at age 38.

It was only a year later that young film student Eytan Fox made his graduation short Time Out (1994), based on coming to terms with his own homosexuality during his military service, that “shrine of Israeli masculinity”. Fox credits Guttman with his desire to become a filmmaker in the first place. But he couldn’t identify with these men who hid from the world and contributed nothing to society.

“As opposed to men in Guttman’s films,” he told QX, “I went to boy scouts. So I wanted to have gay characters who were closer to my life and part of mainstream society.” And all of his films have done this, from the groundbreaking army love story Yossi & Jagger (2002) to its much darker sequel Yossi (2012), as the jaded older soldier confronts a younger gay man’s confident openness. In between, the hit drama Walk on Water (2004) addressed Mossad surveillance, Nazi war crimes and suicide bombings, while The Bubble (2006) was a twisty love story between an Israeli and a Palestinian.


“What touched me was the fact that people from both sides of the fence are collaborating not because of a political agenda but because of a shared experience of being minorities in their own communities.”

Intriguingly, his films are never issue movies, always focussing on realistic people caught in fascinating, sometimes shocking situations. And Fox is happy that there is now a variety of Israeli filmmaking voices speaking out on queer themes in feature films, documentaries and television.

One of the rising stars of Israeli cinema is Michael Mayer, whose first feature Out In The Dark has just opened in the UK.

This involving Israeli-Palestinean gay romance takes a similarly personal approach to a volatile issue. “A friend told me that the BBC estimated that there were 300 to 350 gay Palestinians hiding in Israel at any given time,” he said. “I was blown away! I had no idea that this was happening.” So he started researching the situation, with the idea of making an issue-based film about an important political reality.

“But when I met these people, both in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, I realised that these are not political activists,” he said. “These are not people who go out and demonstrate for gay Palestinian rights. What touched me was the fact that people from both sides of the fence are collaborating not because of a political agenda but because of a shared experience of being minorities in their own communities. That’s when I realised that this would not be an issue film, but rather a personal story about loyalty, family and love.”

This approach is clearly working, because Israel’s gay-themed films are often big box office hits in their home country, as gay characters address real issues for a mainstream audience. Clearly the American and British film industry are learning from this model, as evidenced by crossover hits like Weekend or Behind the Candelabra, which don’t make sexuality the main issue. American distributors may have thought Behind the Candelabra was “too gay” for mainstream audiences, but the UK has proved that wrong.

And Fox is hopeful that Israel will continue to break new ground. “There is so much wonderful work being done by many gay film directors now,” he says. “I hope this only continues and grows.”


• A Gay Israeli Filmography

FEATURES

Yossi & Jagger (Eytan Fox, 2002)

Walk On Water (Eytan Fox, 2004)

The Bubble (Eytan Fox, 2006)

Japan Japan (Lior Shamriz, 2007)

Antarctica (Yair Hochner, 2008)

Eyes Wide Open (Haim Tabakman, 2009)

August (Eldar Rapaport, 2011)

Yossi (Eytan Fox, 2012)

Out In The Dark (Michael Mayer, 2012)


SHORTS

Post Mortem – Boys on Film Vol 4(Eldar Rapaport, 2005)

Steam  – (Eldar Rapaport, 2009) – Boys on Film Vol 4

The Traitor – (Tomer Velkoff, 2009) – Boys on Film Vol 7

Watch Over Me – (Mysh, 2010)– Boys on Film Vol 7

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