The Bubble (movie)

[Steven_Draker]

Yesterday, I saw "The Bubble" (original title: "Ha-Buah"). It's a 2006 Israeli movie about the life of 3 gay guys and a girl living in Tel Aviv.

 

http://www.impawards.com/2007/posters/bubble.jpg

 

PLOT:

Vacillating provocatively between romantic comedy and political tragedy, “The Bubble” is photographed with a sunny brightness that belies the gravity of its intentions.

 

Set primarily in the fashionable Sheinkin Street district of Tel Aviv, the story follows three left-leaning 20-somethings (two men and a woman) whose notion of political action is to hold a “rave against the occupation.” But when Noam (Ohad Knoller), a sweet-natured music-store clerk and reserve soldier, meets a handsome Palestinian named Ashraf (Yousef Sweid), their escalating affair forces everyone to face reality in the cruelest possible way.

 

Squeezing a lot of conflict — sexual, ethnic and intellectual — into its 117 minutes, “The Bubble” is about the appeal of self-delusion and the warmth of comfort zones. Noam’s best friend, Yali (Alon Friedmann), a cafe manager, reproaches Noam for habitually choosing unavailable men yet denies his own attraction to casually aggressive partners.

 

Meanwhile, Ashraf’s fond sister (Roba Blal) and her future husband, a Hamas leader aptly named Jihad (Shredy Jabarin), negate Ashraf’s homosexuality by coercing him into a straight relationship.

 

Eytan Fox directs with compassion but also with impatience for his characters’ self-centered naïveté, veering somewhat uneasily between these tones and relying on the competence of his actors to smooth the transitions. And though his ending is more poetic than just, it effectively diverts partisan sympathies toward a more general condemnation of violence. Mr. Fox may be a romantic, but he understands that love is rarely all you need.

 

source: http://www.movies.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/movies/07bubb.html?_r=0

 

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/09/06/arts/07bubble-600.jpg

 

I found it extremely moving and interesting at the same time showing the dilemmas gay people face in different places and cultures.