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| Plot Synopsis An Israeli agent with a license to kill is thrown off his game by two people who challenge his deeply held assumptions in this drama. Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi) is an agent with Mossad, the Israeli intelligence and security force. A man capable of making snap moral judgments but unwilling to reveal his emotions, Eyal has been burying himself in his often bloody work since the death of his wife. Eyal's latest assignment is to try to learn the whereabouts of a Nazi war criminal; as it happens, his granddaughter Pia (Carolina Peters) is in Israel spending time on a kibbutz, and when he learns that her brother Axel (Knut Berger) is coming to visit her, Eyal goes undercover as a tour guide in order to get to know them without arousing suspicion. Eyal finds himself taken with Pia, who displays a warmth and openness he's never expected to find in a German. At the same time, Eyal discovers Axel is gay and doesn't care who knows about it, and as Eyal gets to know him he finds himself torn between his genuine fondness for Axel and his long-standing homophobia. Walk on Water was directed by Eytan Fox, who earned international acclaim for his story of two gay men in the Israeli army, Yossi & Jagger. - Mark Deming Reviews JACKIE LOOHAUIS Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Posted: May 12, 2005 Eyal is an assassin who can't cry. Or maybe it's just that he won't cry. Hard to tell. An agent of Israel's Mossad, Eyal's a professional killer who thinks nothing of poisoning a terrorist in front of the man's little son. He also seems strangely unmoved by his own wife's suicide His doctor prescribes artificial tear drops. But it's not only an ophthalmic problem that keeps Eyal's eyes dry. Still, in the award-winning movie "Walk on Water," Eyal finds his harsh world-view clouding. His new assignment is to track down and kill an aging Nazi war criminal. Why bother, Eyal asks his superior. The old man is half-dead anyway. "I want to get to him before God does," his Mossad boss answers. So Eyal poses as a tour guide and ingratiates himself with the old man's German grandson, who is in Tel Aviv visiting his sister on, oddly, a kibbutz. It's just a matter of time before the grandchildren slip up and reveal the old man's whereabouts. But Eyal isn't the only one who's rather different from what he appears. The grandson emerges as not only what Eyal calls "a peacenik," but he's also gay. He takes a Palestinian lover and Eyal becomes enraged. As the youth's sister conceals her family's dark secret, there seems no way any of these people can connect with one other. But as Eyal closes in on the grandfather, connections do appear. And those links are what make "Walk on Water" so watchable. The history of this film sparkles with fresh thinking. "Walk" is a rare German-Israeli co-production with an international cast that includes Germans and Palestinians. Some of the film is daringly set in Wannsee, site of the horrific conference where Nazi officials sealed plans for the Jewish "final solution." As Eyal, Lior Ashkenazi, one of Israel's top actors, packs his star power to every scene he's in. Cold, immutable, he portrays the hit man of every intelligence agency's dream. Then, as once-unthinkable thoughts breach his armor, he conveys his revelations with moving subtlety. Not everything Israeli director Eytan Fox tries works. "Walk's" ridiculously low $1.4 million budget is apparent in its graininess and thrift-store decorated interiors. A few of the scenes come across as ideas that must have seemed delightful at some point, but which a discerning director would have trashed eventually. We would have gotten the close brother/sister relationship without the "Cinderella Rockefeller" duet, thank you. And some plot twists seem just too feel-good. But maybe in the Middle East, feel-good's time has arrived. When the old Nazi finally materializes, his ghostly form evokes ghastliness both past and present. The message of "Walk on Water" is that while we can never forget these specters, we can and must find ways to end their hold on us - a sentiment for the future that's not na�ve but visionary. SHLOMO SCHWARTZBERG Boxoffice Magazine A prototypical tough Israeli intelligence agent (Lior Ashkenazi) is assigned to hunt down an aging Nazi war criminal, a mission that brings him into contact with the man's liberal grandchildren--a gay Berlin teacher (Knut Berger) and his sister (Carolina Peters), who lives on an Israeli Kibbutz. The most ambitious film yet from gifted Israeli director Eytan Fox ("Yossi & Jagger"), "Walk on Water" attempts--and mostly succeeds--at capturing the complex historical threads connecting Germans and Jews today and how the prejudices and perceptions each has of the other affects the different generations. While the film's Nazi subplot is something of an awkward fit into the whole, "Walk on Water" is a highly accomplished drama that also allows room for some humor, poking fun at both the macho Israeli archetype and the German penchant for propriety. Superbly acted, and blessed with subtle and deep characterizations, "Walk on Water" is one of the finest Israeli films of recent years. Awards Film Presented - -2004 -Berlin International Film Festival Film Presented - -2004 -Toronto International Film Festival |
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| WALK ON WATER 2003 - Israel - 104 min. - Feature, Color AKA -Lacelet al Hamaim (Original Foreign title) Director -Eytan Fox |
| Genre/Type -Drama, Psychological Drama, Road Movie, Gay & Lesbian Films MPAA Rating -NR Keywords -hitman, homosexual, Israeli [nationality], license-to-kill, Nazi Themes -Assassination Plots, Assumed Identities, Hired Killers Tones -Atmospheric, Ominous, Intimate, Tense Moods -In a Minor Key Produced by -Lama Films / United King Films Release -Mar 18, 2004 (Israel) / Mar 4, 2005 (USA - Limited) Released by -Celluloid Dreams (Israel) / Roadside Attractions / Samuel Goldwyn Films Genre -Drama, Psychological Drama, Road Movie, Gay & Lesbian Films DVD Street Date -Aug 30, 2005 Languages -English, IW, GER Subtitles -English Screen Formats -Letterbox for 16x9 TVs, COLOR Sound -Dolby Digital 5.1 Aspect Ratio -1.85:1 (DVD) Studio -Columbia TriStar Region -1 (USA & territories, Canada) DVD Sides -1 Cast Lior Louie Ashkenazi -- Eyal Knut Berger -- Axel Himmelman Carolina Peters -- Pia Himmelman Gidon Shemer -- Menachem Carola Regnier -- Axel's Mother Ernst Lenart -- Axel's Father Gidon Shemer Yousef -- Joe Eyal Rozales Hanns Zischler |
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