Review by Amos Lassen
By: Amos Lassen
One of the most warmly received films at the Cannes Film Festival this year is the story of Boaz (Yoav Eruveni), a young Israeli, a linguistics student who begins to receive anonymous messages? love letters written by another guy and these letters af...
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One of the most warmly received films at the Cannes Film Festival this year is the story of Boaz (Yoav Eruveni), a young Israeli, a linguistics student who begins to receive anonymous messages? love letters written by another guy and these letters affect his sexual identity and interfere with the life he shares with his girlfriend. When he got the first letter, he thought it was a mistake-the long white envelope that was in his post office box. It just had his name on it and said, "Dear Boaz, Don't ask who I am or how I know you. I think about you a lot. I feel quite embarrassed to sit here at my desk and write you this letter, but I don't have the courage for much else. I shall write again." "Dear Boaz, Don't ask who I am or how I know you. I think about you a lot. I feel quite embarrassed to sit here at my desk and write you this letter, but I don't have the courage for much else. I shall write again."
He immediately wadded up the letter but he was surprised and began to giggle nervously. But he also blushes and looks to make sure that no one sees him. He goes to class and somehow forgets about the letter. He comes home to find Noa (Moran Rosenblatt), his girlfriend, baking his favorite cake. Boaz has applied for a graduate scholarship at the Hebrew University (my alma mater) in Jerusalem and has been waiting to hear. He goes to the post office everyday in anticipation but instead of the letter he expected, he got the strange "billet doux". And that was just the first of the letters he was to receive. In these letters, we sense the world if a gay man who is deep in the closet. Boaz wonders who he is and how he knows so much about hm. As the letters continue to come, Boaz becomes more and more sensitive. He suspects every male he sees but what really bothers him is his own sexuality. He has memories of Nir, his fellow solder in the Israel Defense and then there was the German man who above him in a hostel when he was in Europe. He had had moments when he was attracted to other men like those two.
Boaz realizes that his life with Noa is disrupted with these letters and his thoughts. Finally, in the fourth letter, his secret admirer tells him that on the next Thursday at 10:00 P.M. he will be hiding in a place where he can see the windows and that if Boaz wants to continue receiving letters, he should turn the kitchen lights off and on three times. If he does not do so, the letters will stop and he will never be bothered again. As the clock nears 10, Boaz is not yet sure what to do and he is emotionally troubled. What he does not know is that Noa has already met the mysterious letter writer hours before and she knows everything about what has been going on but has kept it all inside.
Boaz realizes that the letters come from someone who is close to him and he feels that his psyche is deteriorating as is his relationship to Noa. In fact, the letters begin to consume his daily thoughts and begin to cause him to fall apart. He becomes paranoid whenever he meets someone and he wonders if that is the person. He becomes consumed by doubt and fragile. He begins a journey to find himself and to find a way to remain stable as he understands that his life is being taken over by this secret admirer. The letters are, in effect, the catalyst for Boaz to deal with the inner demons he has and once he discovers the cause for the way he feels, he has to learn to accept himself.
When the film begins there is a montage of woman, man and snail with each looking like it is going to devour him. It is not just the letters that cause Boaz to unravel but thoughts from his past about his sexuality and his days in the military.
The film is set in 1989 before the freedom that gays now have in Israel was granted to them and times were very different. Gay men were closeted and in hiding back then (I know because I was there then). Life for gays was one of secrecy and repression and gay men met in public parks and in many cases consummated sex there. When we first see Boaz, he was content with Noa and he seems to have no understanding about alternative sexualities. We see him as he broods.
Basic to the success of the central dynamic between sexually confused man and his poor, unaware girlfriend is the genuine chemistry between Boaz and Noa. Noa exudes a quiet confidence and independence and she is never a victim even in the hardest scene to watch. Director Yare Mozer overstates nothing and he gracefully follows effect of suppression and the danger it provokes in both oneself and for others.
Through flashbacks we see Boaz remembering his own doubts with his sexuality and how he feels about it now that the letters upend his life. Each letter pushes him toward frustration and confusion.
The film does not deal with religious or cultural issues that could be integral to the setting. This is about two people in crisis who each struggle with the same idea but from different perspectives.
"Snails In The Rain" looks at the difficulty that closeted men deal with as they who are struggle with their lives which does correspond with what they feel inside. Boaz challenges his idea of self and begins looking at other men and sees other sexual possibilities. Even when he wants the letters to continue, he begins to become somewhat violent. We do not get many movies about closeted men these days but in 1989, Israel had ideas about masculinity and this was a problem for someone dealing with his sexuality.
it seems he can't move without men making eyes at him or offering a sexual possibility. It eems that he is now aware of other men and it also could be that he is seeing something sexual that is not really there.
The film deals successfully with Boaz's conflict-he is both attracted to and repelled by his sexuality. The film beautifully captures the struggle of living in the closet when Boaz's finds his straight life threatened and challenged by the fact that he is not who he really is. This is an intriguing and sexually charged film that shows us the layers of Boaz's character. These conflicting layers as well as the realities of relationships are presented and Boaz has a very hard time to find his place within his family and in the society of Israel that was once.