Ma'Ariv - Novermber 25, 2002
Hanoch Daum

That`s what TV is for

Channel 3 If it wasn't a true story, I would be very crossed with screenwriter Avner Bernheimer. To kill off Jagger, the first homosexual that even the religious Jewish sector can almost love. You simply shouldn't do that. But Yossi & Jagger is a movie based on a true story. And more importantly, it is told like a true story: The moment that Yossi, the platoon commander, looks at his watch, marks the time, and only then starts to go over the itinerary, I realized the accuracy level the movie has maintained. I was there, at those melancholy snowed-in outposts. But the moment that I saw that nuance, I went right back there again in my memory. Accuracy, more than anything else, is the element that allows you the full pleasure of the drama that is happening underneath the harmony.

Many things separate Yossi & Jagger from other TV productions that have been made here recently (director Eytan Fox and director of photography Yaron Scharf), but it seems that the ability to tell a human story in a funny and moving manner, is what makes the movie a thorn that gets stuck in your side for a very long time. After a few not-so-glamorous months of original creation, it was great fun last night to see that one can write, even in Hebrew, fast, reliable, addictive dialogues, and that it is not impossible to cast, for a single project, more than three actors that maintain a high acting level through all of the movie.

The Original Creation Strip has opened in a bang last night. It was very enjoying to sit at a wintry evening and watch the all-Israeli story. All we have to do now is wait and see if this is just the beginning, or if that is an unusual success that will not be repeated.

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