Eyes Wide Open

Einaym Pkuhot

Israel, France, Germany

2009

91 Min

Color

1.85:1

Hebrew, Yiddish

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
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PROD David C. Barrot, Rafael Katz

CAST Zohar Strauss, Ran Danker, Tinkerbell, Tzahi Grad, Isaac Sharry, Avi Grainik

Cannes (Un Certain Regard), Toronto (Contemporary World Cinema), London (World Cinema), Ghent (Competition): Grand Prix, Stockholm (Competition), Athens, Chicago, Rotterdam (Bright Future), Transilvania (Focus Israel), Belfast

Eyes Wide Open is a gay love story in the heart of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem. Aaron (38), a respectable butcher in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community, is married to Rivka (28) and a dedicated father to four children. After his father’s death, Aaron is looking for assistance in his business when a handsome and homeless Yeshiva (religious school) student, Ezri (19), comes upon the butcher shop by chance. Aaron decides to be Ezri’s patron: he hires him, teaches him the craft of slaughtering, and houses Ezri in the shop’s back room. Aaron invites Ezri to meals in his home and introduces him to the community. When they go together to a remote “Mikve” (a sacred ritual bath), an intimate moment occurs between them. From this moment onwards, Aaron knows no peace. Spending more and more time with Ezri, Aaron starts neglecting his family and community life until he is completely swept away in a whirlpool of love and lust for Ezri. While Rivka suspects that something is wrong with Aaron, Rabbi Vaisben, (56) a family friend and the head of the community, tries to warn Aaron of the future to come if he won’t expel Ezri. But Aaron refuses. Unwilling to tolerate Ezri’s presence, the “Modesty Guards”, a radical authority in the Ultra-Orthodox community, threaten Aaron. Under enormous pressure that Rivka and the community operate on him, Aaron comes to a decision to commit an irreversible act…. —Cannes Film Festival

Katya Kazbek

3Mar13

Among different cultures and religions, love and hate remain the two only constants, always clashing with each other, crumbling lives. This is a beautiful and devastatingly sad story, which could have happened anywhere in a society of intolerance. It also offers some very interesting insight on the lifestyle of Orthodox Jews.

Wariaz

28Feb13

We walk the plank, with our Eyes Wide Open... With our Eyes Wide Open, we walk the plank... (...You just get used to living in fear. Or give up. When you can't even picture your future...)

wendy and lucy likes this

andrew misler

27Oct12

hey, this was really dull.

Edwin N

2Oct12

It's tragic, really, to come face to face with the heavy, gashing weight of tradition, religion and the sacred feeling of acceptance in a community. 'Eyes Wide Open' demonstrates that and repressed desires in an intimate and very subtle way..