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An experienced Mossad assassin is sent to eliminate an aging Nazi war criminal. During his mission, he makes an unusual discovery, uncovering his own past and forging a remarkable friendship.
REVIEW In Eytan Fox's stunning follow-up to Yossi and Jagger, the director tells a story of family and friendship that soars beyond his amazing first feature. Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi) is a hit man for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. After a tremendous personal loss, he's given a more gentle case. He's been assigned the task of hunting down an old Nazi officer, Alfred Himmelman, who is believed to be alive and living in South America. Himmelman's grandchildren, Axel (Knut Berger) and Pia (Carolina Peters) are making a trip to Israel and he's to impersonate their tour guide. The three go out on a tour of the country as Eyal tries to determine the whereabouts of the old Nazi. Axel is gay and he is immediately attracted to Eyal, but for once in his life he keeps that news secret, waiting for the right moment to reveal the crucial fact. Axel is open to new ideas and he's in favor of peace with the Palistinians, something Eyal couldn't bear, being a loyal government agent. One night Axel takes the three of them dancing to a gay club, and in one of the best gay bar scenes we've seen the cat is let out of the bag.
In this 2004 Israeli Academy Award-winner, many questions are asked, and a few answered in this drama you won't soon forget. Does the developing friendship get in the way of the mission? Will Eyal recover from his loss and move on? And even more globally, will the Israeli people make peace with their Palistinian neighbors? These are just a few of the questions posed in this thought-provoking and remarkable film that dares to open up painful wounds of both WWII and the Israeli/Palistinean conflict in one film. (Hebrew with English subtitles)
This is one film that can be best described as one man's roller-coaster ride through LOVE'S total emotional field of dos and don'ts, cans and can'ts, wills and wonts. The audience is subjected to a vast mosaic of emotional love situations as experienced by of all people a MOSSAD assassin. Totally entertaining yet Gothically tragic, this story has its own morality and its own meaning to everyone that sees it. This is a must for your collection. MAN'S SOUL CAN HELD HOSTAGE BY EMOTIONAL LOVE!!! NJMJr!
I found this movie to be a very moving and profound movie experience. “Walk on Water” tackles some very “heavy” issues—the “gay/straight” issue, the Israeli/ Palestinian issue the German/Jewish issue which are all very intense thought provoking things to think about and to deal with. However, in this marvelous movie no definite answers, to the aforesaid conflicts, are given. The movie just reflects human beings coming together and understanding each other a little more than they did before and ultimately becoming better people just by getting to know another human that might be radically different than they are.
The character Eyal, at the beginning of the movie, starts off as a cold, unsmiling, unfeeling, extremely “butch” “hit man” for the Israeli government. One of his assignments is to infiltrate a German family in order to find out the whereabouts of the German family’s old grandfather who was a murdering Nazi during the Nazi era and who has been hiding out in Argentina since the war. His mission, of course, is to kill him. The old Nazi’s grandchildren are in Israel. The granddaughter is, defiantly, living in a kibbutz (she knows of her grandfather’s Nazi background); the gay grandson comes to visit his sister with the idea of persuading her to return to Germany for their father’s 70th birthday. Eyal, the mercenary poses as a tour guide to Axel the gay grandson. Eyal and Axel become unlikely friends. Their friendship ultimately changes the lives of ALL involved.
It really irritates me that some reviewers on other boards have reduced the blossoming friendship of Eyal (a straight man) and Axel (a gay man) to just merely one of sexual attraction. I failed to see the sexual attraction between the two men. I only saw a life changing friendship between the two men. It might come as a surprise to some in our society that it IS possible for a gay man and a straight man to form a deep, lasting and yes an affectionate friendship that is NOT sexual. I KNOW this from experience. Anyway, the friendship between Axel and Eyal changes them both—Eyal becomes more human and moves beyond a “killing machine”—he even learns to laugh and to realize that friendship can be found in someone that is different than him, a gay man! Axel learns to have more understanding of some very deep issues (i.e., the German/Israeli and Israeli/Palestinian conflicts)
The acting by all involved is superb. I can see why Lior Ashkenazi (Eyal) is a big star in Israel. He is not only easy on the eye but a very dynamic actor. Watch his eyes; they express volumes. You can see him go from an unfeeling and unloving person that is capable of injecting poison into a smiling little boy’s father without blinking to a baby bouncing father with sentimental dreams. This great film wonderfully shows this amazing transformation.
If you are into profound movies that make you think, buy this film.
Is it or isn't it......do they or don't they.........?
just a reviewer wrote on 09/10/2005:
((1)) Director Fox and Writer Uchovsky have certainly tackled some huge issues here: the Holocaust, Israel's relations with neighboring countries, and not necessarily least, relations between gays and straights (the latter being about as "mine-field dangerous" as the subject of Israelis connecting with Palestinians). Of course, with over 15 years as apparently loving partners, these two men should have some expertise in at least one of the three issues just mentioned (I'll let you, dear reader, decide which). Not, myself, being in the slightest an expert on the Holocaust or Israeli foreign relations, I believe I'll keep the following comments aimed in the general direction of that third issue. ((2)) There have been tons of conjecture on major movie website Boards as to what was the "real" relationship between Eyal and Axel (and where it might have been heading). Apparently Director Fox has been quoted to the effect that "Walk on Water" is based on a true story of which he'd become aware. That story involved a real-life Mossad agent who had come home one day and found his wife hanging from the ceiling. She'd left a note saying how hard life had become with him, living with a killer who'd turned into someone emotionally closed. The agent cracked on his next assignment, left Mossad and enrolled in university, studying literature and art. There he met a young boy and fell in love with him. Eventually the former agent does meet his lover's sister, falls in love with her, and they begin a family together. ((3)) As a several times viewer of this movie, I've never found much indication that the gay, real-life "near-ending" described by Fox ever made it into this film of his. Nevertheless, perhaps he was leaving a little room for just such speculation when he gave us this film's near-end Berlin bedroom scene between Eyal and Axel. And, when all is said and done, the film does conclude with the two of them back in that Sea of Galilee beach scene, and Eyal's closing it all out with his (what I'll call) "Ode to Axel." ((4)) Lastly though, it does have to be acknowledged that movies with too much of a gay theme are, obviously, hard sells anywhere: US, Europe and Israel, no doubt. Directors and writers have to look out for the old pocketbook....and rightfully so.