Yossi

Ten Years Later: This Israeli Film Explores The Road Chosen And The Life Not Lived
What a difference ten years can make! Director Eytan Fox and star Ohad Knoller return to catch up with the titular character Yossi from their powerfully understated 2002 film "Yossi and Jagger." Simply and appropriately titled "Yossi," this sequel-of-sorts is really an entirely different beast. The original film was not just a love story, but a look into the workings and relationships within a small Israeli army outpost. It had an almost documentary feel, a voyeuristic fly-on-the-wall vibe in which you learned about camp life by catching brief exchanges and small moments between all of the characters. In that way, it had a daring simplicity in style (and was not, perhaps, the movie that some people might have wanted). I, personally, think these choices made the film a great and challenging experience. The Yossi and Jagger pairing was woven into a much larger tapestry. So when the movie turned its focus on their fate, it was all the more real and devastating. "Yossi," set...

Ten years of silent private grieving
For all of those who saw and were deeply touched by the 2002 Eytan Fox film, YOSSI & JAGGER, this sequel simply titled YOSSI will resurface all manner of fine memories of the original. Not only is this a fine follow-up film, a glance back at a gay love affair the took place in the Israeli Army that ended in the death of one of the lovers, it offers a story of the healing of grieving as well as the dramatic changes that have taken place in Israel concerning the current acceptance of gay men serving opening in the military. Times are changing, at last.

In the ten years since Dr. Yossi Guttman (the sensitive actor Ohad Knoller recreating his original role) lost his lover in the war while fighting he has become an honored but overworked cardiologist, living alone, having gained weight, and his only social life is connecting with same sex dates on the Internet. One of his dates (who responded to an earlier photo of Yossi) is Yariv (Gil Desiano), a young hunk who when Yossi comes...

A film of great loss and the renewal of spirit
Anyone who has suffered the sort of loss that Yossi has will "get" this movie. Yossi's day-to-day grind with nothing to look forward to, his allowing himself to go to seed, his belief that no one could love him again, his fear that if he comes out of his shell or comes out of the closet, he will be scorned by his friends and co-workers -- all these suggest that he's defeated from the start. But he's not. There's a small flame burning, and this movie follows his painful progression. Yossi reaches an important milestone when he makes contact with Jagger's parents and confesses to them his love for Jagger and the truth of their relationship, something Jagger himself would have done had he lived. This marks the moment of Yossi's actual coming out with mixed results -- Jagger's mother rejects, Jagger's father innately understands. From then on, the changes occurring inside Yossi speed up until he's able to respond to a younger "out" soldier who sees in him the value he is unable to see in...

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