Walk On Water

Walk On Water 8pm Tuesday 17.10.06

Dir: Eytan Fox Isreal / Sweden 2004 104 minutes CLUB
Starring: Lior Ashkenazi, Carolina Peters, Knut Berger, Gideon Shemer

Eytan Fox's follow-up to his acclaimed Yossi & Jagger is a profound, multilayered drama hidden in the guise of a genre picture. Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi of Late Marriage) is a successful Mossad special agent whose heartlessness makes him an exceptional hit man. It also hinders his ability to connect with those closest to him. When his wife commits suicide, Eyal is thrown into a mental tailspin. His latest assignment finds him playing tour guide for two German siblings whose Nazi grandfather may or may not still be alive. Pia (Carolina Peters) has left her homeland and family out of shame for what her grandfather did, while Alex (Knut Berger) is an easygoing liberal whose open-mindedness bothers Eyal. Without realising it, Eyal finds himself forming a close bond with Pia and Alex, until he realises that Alex is gay. After a bitter farewell, Eyal manages to swallow his pride and visit Alex in Berlin, where he confronts his family's own awful past. In the process, the mystery surrounding Alex's criminal grandfather is revealed.Walk on Water is a difficult film to categorise, addressing several major issues at once (homophobia, guilt, reconciliation with the past, politics, and more). Despite its complexity, Gal Uchovsky's assured script and Fox's sure-handed direction keep it together. Ashkenazi, Peters, and Berger also add greatly to the film, effortlessly inhabiting their characters and making them heartbreakingly three-dimensional figures. Eytan Fox (born New York, 1964) moved to Israel as a child. He grew up in Jerusalem and after serving in the army studied in Tel Aviv University's School of Film and Television. His first film, Time Off, a 45-minute drama about sexual identity in the Israeli army, won the Movie of the Year Award at the Israeli Film Institute, and first prize in Munich's International Student Film Festival. His first feature film, Song of the Siren was Israel's biggest box office success in 1994. Fox created and directed a drama series for Israeli TV called Florentene, which won first prize at the Jerusalem International Film Festival in 1997. Yossi & Jagger, Fox's second feature film, has received both critical and box office success in Israel.