one of the gay elements

Thank you Yakyak.

To me, having watched the movie twice, I think that Axel is much less into Eyal than Eyal is into Axel.

First of all, I think in the gay bar in Israel when Axel met the Egyptian (?) gay guy, he just went on, without thinking about Eyal's feeling. He might be talking to the Egyptian guy about how cute Eyal is, but anyway, he didn't seem too much interested at that time. And what is more, he slept with the guy without wondering how Eyal's feeling would be at all. Similar situation on the second day when they are going out shopping. However, Eyal showed a bit of his jealousy.

During the "walk on water" scene, Axel explains the meaning of it, without showing much "love" inside, probably that is also an early stage though. However, Eyal's facial expression, omg, when you look at it, it is so cute, and it shows that something has just developed inside him.

During the visit of Germany, I think that Axel likes Eyal a little bit, but he still thinks that Eyal is straight, which is why Axel has not developed too much interest on him. (PS: to straight guys out there, please don't think that every gay guy will want to sleep with you) I think the most likely reason of why Axel treats Eyal like that is because he is polite. He takes Eyal as a guest but not his male partner as far as I can see.

All those conversations in Germany during outside eating food, in the gay bar, again showed that Eyal is into Axel more than the other way around. Eyal is the person that is active to ask all those questions, and in one point, Axel mentions "you straight boys (?)" which again shows that he has somehow drew a line and does not expect to cross it. And it was Axel to terminate the conversation. As far as my concern, if I like a guy (straight or bi or gay), I will be very unlikely to be the person to terminate those kind of "talks". hehe...

The visit to Germany itself is a proof, too.

And the final scene, Eyal mentioned his dream, and writing a email to Axel, again support my theory.

I found your post very interesting, but I don't agree with your analysis of why Eyal couldn't translate the last few lines of the song. Personally, I feel he probably couldn't have translated the song for a woman. We are told that he grew up in a home with parents who were Holocaust survivors, and he lacked the ability to be emotional. In addition, he's trained to kill, which would disregard feelings. Therefore, I believe he couldn't translate the song because he couldn't deal with the emotions the song is relaying.

Also, I don't believe they had sex in the Judean desert. Maybe they cuddled, but not for sexual reasons. You don't have to be to be an Israeli soldier to know that cuddling on a cold night is helpful to keeping warm. What does it matter whether you think it was really cold. A person can get sunburned during the winter, so the only thing that matters is the director wanted us to believe it was cold.

I'm not discounting the gay element, but I do believe you're reading too much of it into the beginning and middle of the movie. I'll give you the end, though, where I believe a relationship could have started, but I really see this movie as one man's battle with his own nature, and his eventual acceptance of other lifestyles.

I loved it. My friend loved it. And frankly, we loved Lior Askenazi and find him very attractive and an amazing actor. We're straight women. But I've watched this movie 3 times now, and really see this as one man's journey of self-discovery. Read that as sexual if you like, but I think he overcame his upbringing. I am married to a man who parents are Holocaust survivors (I'm second generation American, my grandparents having come to the US in the early 1900s) and these children are different. Because their parents were affected by what happened to them in Europe. I found Eyal very believable.

NRS

"One of my friends says that that was probably the night when they had sex for the first time."

Hi yak

I dont think that makes sense given how many questions Eyad has later about gay sex. If he had already had sex, these discussions would have been had weeks ago....

I do agree though that he wanted to get intimate with Axel. The fact he obviously was unaware that Axel was out loud & proud hilarious.


The trip back in the car was also a very intimate time. Thanks for the heads up on the song. Even without knowing you could tell that Eyad was embarrassed to keep translating "It just goes on like that" he says.

On the subject of language... there were so many clever little language twists in this film. My favourite was Axel the German speaker using the word schnooki-schnooki (?yiddish) to describe sex to Eyad the Hebrew speaker while BOTH of them are speaking a 2nd language (English).

Tim

"One of my friends says that that was probably the night when they had sex for the first time."

Hi yak

I dont think that makes sense given how many questions Eyad has later about gay sex. If he had already had sex, these discussions would have been had weeks ago....

I do agree though that he wanted to get intimate with Axel. The fact he obviously was unaware that Axel was out loud & proud was just hilarious.


The trip back in the car was also a very intimate time. Thanks for the heads up on the song. Even without knowing you could tell that Eyad was embarrassed to keep translating "It just goes on like that" he says.

On the subject of language... there were so many clever little language twists in this film. My favourite was Axel the German speaker using the word schnooki-schnooki (?yiddish) to describe sex to Eyad the Hebrew speaker while BOTH of them are speaking a 2nd language (English).

Tim