YOSSI (2012)

Genre: Drama/Romance
Director: Eytan Fox
Cast: Ohad Knoller, Lior Ashkenazi, Orly Silbersatz, Oz Zehavi, Ola Schur Selektar
RunTime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: R21 (Homosexual Content)
Released By: Festive Films & Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/YossiFilm

Opening Day: 1 August 2013 

Synopsis: Returning to the role that won him TFF’s Best Actor award in Eytan Fox's YOSSI & JAGGER in 2003, Ohad Knoller gives another extraordinary performance as Yossi, a gay man living a solitary existence in Tel Aviv. A perennially sad, workaholic doctor, Yossi has his quiet world shaken when a blast from his past returns and jolts his world. Their brief but emotionally charged reunion unnerves Yossi enough to make him spontaneously leave Tel Aviv. It is only then, on the desolate roads of southern Israel, that a chance encounter with a group of lively soldiers ignites Yossi's desire to awaken from his emotional slumber.

Movie Review:

I didn’t watch the first movie that came before Yossi, titled Yossi & Jagger (2002), nor am I thoroughly familiar with the vocabulary of Israeli Cinema and films that deal with homosexuality.

But approaching Yossi with stereotypes or fixed precepts in mind won’t help in any way. Neither is there a need to have watched the first film in order to appreciate this sequel to it.Yossifollows a very authentic and straightforward premise, immersing the audience in an unassuming narrative from the outset.

Cardiologist by profession, Yossi is a lonesome closet gay who nurses a strange sorrow.Actor Ohad Knoller is finely cast as the shy and inhibited character. He plays his part nicely, never reducing his character to a cheap ‘struggling closet gay’ stereotype, yet driving home the intensity of his pain. Knoller’s acting is right-on-the mark, and is quietly evocative in the many scenes that are built around the awkward social situations that Yossi finds himself in on a daily basis. From the sexual innuendoes that the protagonist picks up both at work and in the general public, to the comments made by a colleague who is callously unaware of his sexuality, we get a sense of the stigma that closet homosexuals face in the public eye, and the internal battles that they fight.

Interestingly, Yossi’s melancholia drives instead of drags the film’s rhythm, and the complexity of his persona unravels to humorous effect. The audience is eager for Yossi’s emancipation and emotional release, but even with all these seemingly sentimentally-sticky topics, the film boasts some pretty sharp editing, so you don’t have to worry about the story being too slow or sluggishly didactic.

It’s a fine effort by director Eytan Fox in capturing a genuine, smart script that’s heartfelt yet too-the-point. Despite the story’s surface simplicity, screenwriter Itay Segal doesn’t shy away from fleshing out more complex, thorny and strikingly thought-provoking topics such as the judgement that some homosexuals are subject to even in their assumed cocoon of fellow homosexuals, tearing aside all superficial notions that the gay movement is one big happy family marching to the same beat. The ugly side of humanity it seems, rears its head as it pleases, disregarding the superficial constructs that differentiate us, be it in the relationships we form or the sexual orientation we choose.

My only gripe with the film is the Cinderella-type fantasy that Segal weaves into the story. The saying that opposites attract is exemplified in how the extroverted, chirpy Tom (Oz Zehavi), who is built like a Greek God, is drawn to the brooding and out-of-shape Knoller. His eventual explanation is convincing, but will still raise an eyebrow for many. All in all, if you were staying away from Yossi for its none-too-mainstream topic, rest assured that this film has a lot of simple, life-affirming lessons that are both earnestly touching and thoughtfully presented.

Movie Rating:

(Some very poignant, universal themes about loneliness and being comfortable in one’s own skin make this film a simple and moving portrait of humanity)

Review by Tay Huizhen