Love among the black hats – Eyes Wide Open

For much of the 1990s Toby Ash was a regular media commentator on Middle East and international affairs, before descending unexpectedly into the murky world of business and commerce. The Dabbler is pleased to announce that he has now miraculously reappeared on the most south-westerly tip of England from where he writes tasty morsels on a variety of subjects in between trips to the farthest reaches of the earth delivering emergency aid on behalf of Cornish charity ShelterBox.

On the face of it, a film about two male Orthodox Jews having it off does have a bit of a minority interest feel to it. But this directorial debut from the young (straight and secular) Haim Tabakman is a well-executed and perfectly-paced piece of cinema that gives a rare and absorbing insight into an often closed section of Israeli society that is increasingly defining the character of the Jewish state.

The story is set in an Orthodox neighbourhood of West Jerusalem. Aaaron (Zohar Strauss) is in his mid-30s, married with four kids and has just taken over the butcher’s shop from his recently deceased father. He is a good man who works hard and studies in his spare time. He is a Tzadik – a righteous man – respected by all in the community.

Righteous in the eyes of those around him he may be, but Aaron carries a heavy burden. His religious devotion comes at the cost of personal happiness. “Worshipping God is an everyday duty. It means loving the difficulties,” he tells his Rabbi. “Being a slave to God means loving the hardship.” That hardship and denial proves rather too much when religious student Ezri (played by the handsome Ran Danker) comes in to his shop looking for work and shelter.

An ultimately doomed but passionate and tender love affair unfolds that threatens Aaaron’s marriage and expulsion from his community.  This stranger Ezri enters his ordered, devout but loveless world and turns it upside down. “I feel alive now. I was dead before,” Aaron confesses to his Rabbi, who promptly slaps him across the face.

As engaging as the personal drama is, the film is made all the more compelling because of its setting among the hardim, Israel’s most conservative religious community. Eyes Wide Open gives us a glimpse into a devout and insular segment of Israeli society that seems a million miles away (rather than 40) from the largely secular Tel Aviv with its beaches, bars, and boutiques. It also has to be one the very few Israeli films where the words ‘Arab’ and ‘Palestinian’ are never uttered, a reflection of the otherworldliness of many of the ultra-Orthodox in Israel, who are exempt from military service and rarely venture out of their districts.

But with their very high birth rate compared to secular Israelis, these Orthodox communities are set to wield more influence and power in Israel. This will have profound consequences for a country whose founders sought to create a state based upon western European democratic principles.

Eyes Wide Open shows a world of unquestionable religious observance and complete gender separation that reduces women to little more than baby-producing machines. We see the streets patrolled by young religious thugs acting as self-proclaimed morality police. We see religious elders wielding far more power and influence than any government official. What we see, in fact, is something akin to everyday life in many other Middle Eastern countries. It’s much the same product, just a different label.

But in a region of intolerant religions, there is one clear difference between Israel’s religious conservatives and those of its neighbours. Eyes Wide Open’s unwelcome and controversial depiction of their way of life has been largely ignored by Israeli religious groups. While Tabakman can live free from the fear of retribution, it is unlikely that a director in a next door country would be so lucky if they made a film on a similar theme.  Ali Gets Pally Down The Madrasah? Now that’s one title unlikely to hit the Cannnes film festival anytime soon.

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About Author Profile: Toby Ash

A former journalist, Toby now works a consultant in the private and humanitarian sectors. When not in deepest Cornwall or darkest London, he trots the globe taking stunning photos which you can see on his Instagram account - @toby_ash

5 thoughts on “Love among the black hats – Eyes Wide Open

  1. Gaw
    November 15, 2010 at 13:47

    Great review. I’m always astonished at how they wear all those clothes – a dress originating in the chilly Eastern Europe of a couple of centuries ago – during the Israeli summer. That’s commitment.

  2. andrewnixon@blueyonder.co.uk'
    November 15, 2010 at 16:54

    Sounds like controversial stuff…Perhaps it could do for Orthodox Jews what Brokeback Mountain did for cowboys, or what Franck Mesnel has done for rugby…

  3. johngjobling@googlemail.com'
    malty
    November 15, 2010 at 17:15

    I blame that Rabbi Lionel Blue, he started the movement, turning the poor old four be two’s into pooftahtwo’s, if you will pardon the overtly racist comment.

  4. wormstir@gmail.com'
    November 15, 2010 at 19:34

    I’ve always been interested in the weird world of the orthodox jews since living in east london and seeing them wandering about in Clapton and places like that. As a vain young 20 year old I was normally just amazed that people could actually believe in a god so much that they were prepared to wear really terrible clothes.

  5. fchantree@yahoo.co.uk'
    Gadjo Dilo
    November 16, 2010 at 07:06

    Yes, great review, and it sounds like a fascinating film. I spent a week in West Jerusalem living with Orthodox(-ish) Jews when I was attending a friend’s wedding there. The experience was interesting and ultimately, errr, costly. Also, I’m kinda on a Hasidic trail right now, having just read about the Klausenburg Hasidic dynasty that originates in the town where I live and that some of their members now live in Stanford Hill, London, where I am due to be on Saturday. Mazel tov, etc…

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