
            Homosexuality in the Orthodox community is the subject of a very dark and disturbing Israeli film, Eyes Wide Open (Einaym Pkuhot) which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Aaron Fleishman (Zohar Shtrauss) is a father of 4 who takes over the family kosher butcher shop following the death of his father. Aarons observant world is turned upside down with the arrival of a young Yeshiva student Ezri (Ran Danker). When Aaron and Ezri begin spending time together, Aaron is quickly ostracized within the Orthodox community. Confronted by Rabbi Vaisben (Tzahi Grad), 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. Eyes Wide Open is set during a dark and wet winter in Jerusalem. Rain and the darkness of night are used as metaphors for the ritual of cleansing and the omnipresent pressure to conform in the Orthodox community. It has a strong cast and delivers a powerful message in a country divided by debates about the growing influence of the Orthodox Jewish community.
    

Eyes Wide Open


            Three children are playing hide-and-seek in the woods. One of the girls hides in a cupboard in an abandoned house and is kidnapped by an unknown person. Dror (Rotem Keinan), a school teacher, is suspected of the crime and is arrested by the police. He is taken to an abandoned building where he is beaten by Micki (Lior Ashkenazi) and his colleagues, to try and elicit a confession. Unbeknownst to the police, a teenager witnesses the whole thing and films it on his mobile phone, which he later uploads to YouTube.An anonymous tip leads the police to a clearing in the woods, where they find a girl's body tied to a chair. She has been sexually assaulted and decapitated. The victim's father, Gidi (Tzahi Grad), arrives at the crime scene and has to be held back by the officers. Micki is taken off the case and it is given to his colleague, Rami (Menashe Noy).When Police Commissioner Tsvika (Dvir Benedek) discovers the YouTube video, he is forced to fire Micki, on the understanding that it's temporary and he is unofficially authorised to investigate Dror. Gidi has plans of his own and follows and photographs Dror wherever he goes. He also buys an abandoned property in a remote and undesirable area of town for the purpose of abducting Dror and torturing him in order to extract a confession. We see him installing a chair equipped with belt ties and various tools that can be used for torture in the dingy basement.Dror takes his dog for a walk in the park. Micki follows him and tasers the dog and Dror runs away. Micki gives chase and Dror manages to lose him in a warren of alleyways, but Micki spots him again, corners him and tasers him. He bundles him into the boot of his car and takes him into the woods where he forces Dror to dig a hole. Gidi has followed them and he kidnaps both Micki and Dror and takes them to his remote house. Gidi explains to Micki that he plans to inflict the same torture on Dror as Dror inflicted on his dead daughter. Both men take turns torturing Dror, although Micki is less enthusiastic than Gidi. When it gets too much for Micki and he tries to stop Gidi, Gidi knocks him out, gags him and handcuffs him to a beam to keep him out of the way.The torture doesn't go smoothly, due to several interruptions. Gidi receives a phone call from his mother, who insists she wants to visit, so Gidi feigns illness to deter her. Then the timer for the drugged cake that Gidi intends to feed to Dror goes off, just as he's about to pull out Dror's toenails. Finally, Gidi's father, Yoram (Doval'e Glickman), turns up with soup, made by Gidi's mother, because he's "ill". The prisoners are struggling with their bonds and make noise, which Yoram hears. Gidi tries to say it's nothing, but he's forced to go down to the basement and re-bolt Dror's chair to the floor. Yoram has followed Gidi and Gidi explains what he's doing. Yoram is more than happy to help Gidi to torture Dror and discover the location of his dead granddaughter's head.When they are briefly alone, Micki, who finds a rusty nail on the floor, asks Dror to lie about the location of the girl's head to buy them time to escape. Dror is reluctant, but after Yoram burns him with a blow-torch, he gives Gidi a very specific location to find his daughter's head. Gidi then leaves Yoram in charge of the prisoners while he goes to dig for his daughter's head. Yoram's wife calls to remind him to take his medication, so Yoram goes in search of something to eat. He finds the drugged cake in the fridge and eats a slice, which causes him to collapse in a deep stupor. Micki takes this opportunity to free himself from his handcuffs, but he refuses to free Dror.He leaves the house and borrows a phone from a passing Arab and calls the police department, who tell him that his daughter is missing. He decides that Dror must have abducted his daughter before he was kidnapped and runs back to the house. Meanwhile, having found nothing at the location given by Dror, Gidi returns to the house and starts cutting off Dror's head with a hacksaw. Micki stops Gide and asks Dror where his daughter is, but Dror dies before he can reply.In the final scene, police officer Rami, who is investigating the case, is shown inspecting Dror's house for any clues. He does not find anything and leaves the house. Micki's daughter is shown lying unconscious on a bed in a tiny room behind a false wall.
    

Big Bad Wolves


            
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Tzahi Grad

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