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Ma'Ariv - August 2, 2002
Irit Shamgar
Lovers Delight
The all-Israeli story of Yossi & Jagger, a 65 minutes drama that screened at the Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, starting yesterday night, and will be broadcasted on channel 3 on cables, is the frame that gives the movie its strength and uniqueness. It is a tragic Israeli love-story, about a couple that dreams of going together to a trip and a king-size bed, but ends in pain and great longings. The difference between Yossi & Jagger and other dramas startes with a small, yet crucial detail that sheds a special light on the movie: It is a love story between two men.
Yossi is a Brigade Commander in an outpost on the Lebanese border, Lior (Jagger) is one of his officers and they are lovers. The director Eytan Fox handles the story by Avner Bernheimer in accuracy and beauty. Jagger, the outgoing one, wants to tell the world about their love, but Yossi is more restraint. Obviously the fear to show mail affection publicly derives from the very machoistic military environment, where the word "gay" is a curse, but the movie is not in any way a 'how difficult it is to be a homosexual' type of movie.
I completely identified with Yossi & Jagger, with their love, their carefulness, their fears, their joy, and their embarrassment. You'll fall in love with them. Aside from the beautiful personal love story, Yossi & Jagger examines Israeli myths, believes and the society's need to believe in them. He puts under the cinematic microscope femininity, masculinity, military hierarchy, and friendships and their place in the military system that defines the Israeli society.
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