I accidentally came across this film. Being sick, and at home from work. At the sofa watching daytime telly, this film was shown. I was totally drawn to this simple, strong tale about love between to men. I rarely see so honest and well done films like this, and extra special that it is a film from Israel. They are seldom, at least in my country. I won't give anything away from the story. It is very powerful, in it's simple and quit way. Very strong performances from the actors, and it shows strong emotions, and a hopeless love affair, that the environment just won't allow. I surly will check out more films from Israel after this very good drama. I recommend it. Maybe it should be shown in schools too, in a educational purpose?

While I am not involved in Hollywood film production, I am involved in independent film production in Texas. I found the topic very interesting and powerful, though I did find it difficult to sit through the film. More than half the film past before I began to feel a dramatic development in the action of the film. There were subplots like the other unacceptable relationship which were a big stretch to understand how it was connected to the film. Many scenes had slow pan shots and took too long and left me waiting for what is next. And as a composer myself, I was surprised by the little original music used in the film - especially since there were so many scenes with little to no dialog. A few spots of seemingly pure synthesized music that had no dramatic sound or direction to it. It is not until the end titles we even get to hear a piano. Perhaps directors in Israel (or at least this one) do not fully understand the benefits of music and sound effects. I can understand at least the total lack of Israeli commercial music as perhaps a shoestring budget but there are so many starving artists in Israel (I have a cousin who writes and performs in Israel) who would do it for just credit.All in all, as a film watching experience, this may be what viewers in Israel expect, but here, at least in Texas, this is the sort of film I would perhaps expect from a new Indie filmmaker - not a full fledged theatrical release.

.....Passion.........then carried along through the mores and strictures of a religious sect foreign to most of us, until we reach a Devastating Ending. The devastating (only word that fits) sense of loss and despair breathed by Shakespeare into a centuries earlier "Romeo & Juliet" is in no way greater than the sense of loss and despair created by the religious, non-accepting fervor we see directed at the two "Romeos" of this film. It is enough to make any understanding viewer weep.(( Because, what do you do.......what can you do.....when in those first few instants of meeting, you know.....absolutely know, "The Temptation" is there?! ))As an aside, if you're considering watching a movie like this, then possibly you are of a "certain persuasion." That being perhaps the case, please play a little simulation with me.....a little game of suppose or what if. Alrighty, then. Now, consider yourself and someone you've come to know, perhaps a longtime friend or fellow worker.....maybe a member of your club.....your pick-up sports group. You're in a little game of one-on-one, possibly out on a hike, swimming in a stream pool together, sharing a tent.....when.....Suddenly, you begin sensing a difference in your thoughts about him---maybe even feeling that something similar is occurring on his part.....OR, as in the case of this film's story, you find yourselves in a 2-person workplace, alone and away from the eyes and ears of others, just trying to get the job done. AND, in helping each other move equipment and work supplies around, you notice your fingers touching in handing items one to the other.....there is a brushing of arms as you pass. THEN comes a stillness and closeness in the space you're occupying with this other person.....and those sensations begin magnifying, pushing you into a mentally agitated state.....your eyes sweep around, but always return to that other person.....you have to move and nervously pace a bit.....all these things occurring as you feel your senses jumping into overdrive. Even more, there's a thrumming within your body which is growing.....growing; your skin nerve-ends begin experiencing, like, tiny electrical waves. Uncontrollably, your eyes are drawn, as by magnets, to those of the other person.....you cannot look away.....and it seems neither can he. It is now that you find yourself moving toward the one who has become the center of everything happening to you. At last, in this very instant, the two of you are reaching out with your hands, eyes locked.....FINALLY, they touch........And then it happens.As for some specifics on this movie, at its heartrending core are a main and a secondary lead whose performances could hardly be bettered. They wonderfully play two men for whom the briefest and smallest of smiles seems the norm for expressing some bit of happiness in their closed-in existence. Yet there are rare in-public times (but only when they are together) when we witness instances of laughing camaraderie, which seem to lighten their societally controlled lives. And, yes, there are times we cry for them as we realize their moments of "bliss" in coupling are likely to be short-lived.A couple of things to specifically watch for:-- The most heart-stopping moment in the film comes as our main lead is being pummeled, shouted at and questioned by his own religious leader over what's seen as his "unacceptable relationship and activity" with another. Then, of a sudden, Aaron surges back, blurting out: "I WAS DEAD......AND NOW I'M ALIVE!"-- A group bullying scene, as the film's last 10 minutes begin, will break your heart. To this viewer, it not only "symbolizes" the beginning of the end (in the very worst sense), but actually "is" the beginning of the end. Watching the eyes and body positions assumed by our leads in these filmed moments will tear you apart----for the realization hits us that a tearing apart is precisely what is happening. There is only one DVD Special Feature to speak of---a Director Interview (possibly English not being a first language accounts for a less than smooth presentation of ideas). Consisting of a series of questions asked, they include: director's background (non-gay and non-religious individual), to include his filmmaking history / the philosophy and thinking behind this film / effect of low budget on sticking to script / political and national implications of the film within the Nation of Israel. Nothing is provided concerning interrelationship of the two male leads during filming----something that would have been of interest to, at least, this viewer. Sadly, there is no during-the-film commentary.****

Understated, impressionist drama in which the two central performances and the effective, naturally-lit photography are let down by too many scenes of stilted silence; it's quite alright to make a point of people not understanding one another, but too much contemporary art cinema seems to rely on an affected Bressonianism that doesn't quite gel with surrounding authenticity. The starkest example here is a scene in which a character tries to explain the excitement he feels from an adulterous affair: "I was dead," he says. "Now I feel alive." Even excusing the trite phrasing, the line doesn't quite ring true given how flat, lifeless and unchanged the character has previously seemed. Perhaps, of course, that's the point; but that doesn't make the film any stronger.