Gay Days is a documentary that dives into how the LGBTQ+ community really started to find its voice in Israel. Back in 1985, there were literally only three gay men who were officially out in the whole country, but by 1998, that number had jumped to 3,000. It’s a look at this super short, intense, and dramatic window of time where Israel went through one of the fastest and most vibrant social revolutions at the end of the 20th century. What’s wild is that this whole shift happened without any blood being spilled; instead, it was this rare team-up between professors, sex workers, trans people, singers, barbers, and even military officers. The director, Yair Qedar, was right there filming it all for his own newspaper called The Pink Times . He uses some really cool old footage, personal stories, and his own private diary to piece together this energetic and bittersweet musical mix of a movie. The film follows Qedar’s own path as a kid from middle Israel who moved to Tel Aviv in...
Tana and Eros are a married couple. He runs a small street-front shop. She’s an opera singer struggling to stay engaged in her art. They have a good relationship. But unaware to Eros, Tana starts to frequent a gay bathhouse Copa 181. which starts to become his happy place. That's where we meet a few other characters primarily being transgender Kika who is falling in love with straight and married hustler Leo, who hustles in the gay sauna. We do see a couple of other characters whose scenes just come and go. eros harbors a dream of singing other kinds of songs as well and not just opera. When she eventually gets an opportunity to song at Copa 181, her husband's secret comes out. The film ends with them having a mature conversation around if they are happy or not.
The problem with this film is that it tries to do too much without putting enough focus on certain storylines for them to hold any emotional weight. Even though Eros and Tana are the main characters, we hardly get to know about their marriage and relationship. Why are they unhappy, why does Tana want to move to Japan, why does Eros' father not talk to her etc. Also we see a wee bit of Kika and Leo's character but it is never gone deeper which eventually frustrated me. Eventually, what we do get is how the inner workings of a gay sauna happen, how the make hormones rage inside, the hustling culture and how saunas serve as escape for many men. Visually the film is taught and nice but remains unfocused during the more tender moments between the characters. It just brushes on the surface. There was a lot of potential here from a story perspective which sadly was missed.
Nevertheless, this film is an empathetic tale about love, life, and relationships that doesn’t beat you over the head with any particular message. (5/10)
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