I think the idea behind this movie was really interesting and different. It tells the story of a brutal attack on a gay man in Chile, which is a very serious subject, similar to the Matthew Shepard case in the US. However, it feels like the people who made the film weren't quite sure how to tell the story. The movie wanders around a lot, and many scenes are confusing because it's hard to tell what point the director is trying to make. The first part of the movie was actually quite good and I was excited to see where it went, but then it completely changes. It spends way too much time showing the dad being sad and frustrated, and the most annoying part is that the movie doesn't really have an ending or any answers. The story is about a teenager named Pablo who is around 17 or 18. He lives with his dad, Juan, who is a single father and always busy with work. Pablo loves to dance, hangs out with his best friend who is a lesbian, and is practicing for a drag show audition. When...
What happens if you're a married man with children in an ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem and you fall in love and lust with a beautiful young man? A very very different film that probably will shake your beliefs.Aaron leads a very quiet life. Each day he heads from his tidy apartment where he lives with his four children and his wife Rivka to his butcher-shop to his synagogue to pray. His father recently passed away and now he has to take care of it. Enter Ezri, a 20 something guy who is looking for shelter in Aaron's shop on a rainy day. We soon find out that Ezri has come to the town to look up for an ex-boyfriend. As the days pass Ezri and Aaron develop a relationship. Something more happens as sexual desire develops between the two men. Ezri wants to kiss Aaron, but Aaron tells Ezri that it's a challenge for them to pray about. Ezri takes Aaron to a spring outside the city, and desire bubbles to the surface between the two men. As their gay love is consummated, the love between Aaron and Rivka becomes troubled. This doesn't remain hidden and soon the close knit community. Aaron is quickly ostracized within the Orthodox community. Confronted by Rabbi, Aaron declares he was dead before meeting Ezri. We see how quickly social control turns violent and ugly in the Orthodox community when Ezri is forced to leave and Aaron has to deal with everything on his own.
This is a powerfully moving and a humane Jewish film that portrays forbidden love in an orthodox Jewish community. The main actors have done their part very well. The beauty of the film is that it doesn't glorify either gay experience or orthodox Jewish life and yet it coolly shows the beauties of both. You can see the closeness and security of the life. Aaron's physical pleasures with Ezri are equally simple, and intense, with a passion lacking in his ritual under-the-sheets couplings with his wife.
Definitely a worth watch. (6/10)
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