YOSSI & JAGGER by Eytan Fox
by Andre Soares
On DVD: A couple of nights ago, I watched Yossi & Jagger (2002), a tragic love story set in an Israeli army camp. Directed by Eytan Fox (Walk on Water) from a screenplay by Avner Bernheimer, Yossi & Jagger is what the much more publicized, more elaborate, more expensive, and ultimately inferior Brokeback Mountain is supposed to be: A subversive film (not surprisingly, the Israeli army refused to give any assistance to the filmmakers) that shows gays as - are you ready - real people whose on-screen relationship feels wholly believable.
Running a little over one hour, the film doesn’t have enough time to fully develop the love affair between the carefree soldier Lior (soap opera star Yehuda Levi), nicknamed Jagger because he exudes the charisma of a rock star, and the more uptight, deeply closeted army officer Yossi (Ohad Knoller), but that shortcoming is more than compensated for by the great chemistry between Levi and Knoller, and by Bernheimer’s straightforward depiction of young lives wasted in an environment of permanent warfare. The film’s final scene, despite the inappropriate pop tune played in the background, is as touching as the final moment in Brokeback Mountain.
Bernheimer, Fox, Levi, Knoller, and editor Yosef Grunfeld must be given credit for making the predictable seem fresh and for skillfully applying their limited resources to create a work of heartbreaking pathos.
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