| | | He was trained to hate, until he met the enemy.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Subtitled
This enthralling award-winning film by internationally-acclaimed director Eytan Fox explores the motives, strengths, and, ultimately, the humanity of an Israeli assassin sent to rectify a wrong committed five decades earlier. Eyal is a top assassin in the Israeli secret service. He has killed terrorists before, but this time he is sent to eliminate an aging former Nazi war criminal. During his mission, Eyal meets his target's granddaughter and grandson, who inadvertently help him uncover his own troubled history and face his demons, while they discover the ugly truth their family has hidden from them for decades. What began as a straightforward mission, has suddenly escalated in intensity and complexity--thrusting three very different people into a thrilling triangle of murder, friendship and fate.
"A substantial meditation on contemporary politics, sexual and otherwise." Dana Stevens, New York Times
"Hits a bulls-eye." Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
"...uniformly excellent performances..." Sam Toy, Empire
"...a minor movie miracle...with intelligence, imagination and craft a small film can work in really large ways." Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
Editor's Note
Eytan Fox's follow-up to his acclaimed YOSSI & JAGGER is a profound, multilayered drama hidden in the guise of a genre picture. Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi of LATE MARRIAGE) is a successful Mossad special agent whose heartlessness makes him an exceptional hit man. It also hinders his ability to connect with those closest to him. When his wife commits suicide, Eyal is thrown into a mental tailspin. His latest assignment finds him playing tour guide for two German siblings whose Nazi grandfather may or may not still be alive. Pia (Carolina Peters) has left her homeland and family out of shame for what her grandfather did, while Alex (Knut Berger) is an easygoing liberal whose open-mindedness bothers Eyal. Without realizing it, Eyal finds himself forming a close bond with Pia and Alex, until he realizes that Alex is gay. After a bitter farewell, Eyal manages to swallow his pride and visit Alex in Berlin, where he confronts his family's own awful past. In the process, the mystery surrounding Alex's criminal grandfather is revealed.WALK ON WATER is a difficult film to categorize, addressing several major issues at once (homophobia, guilt, reconciliation with the past, politics, and more). Despite its complexity, Gal Uchovsky's assured script and Fox's sure-handed direction keep it together. Ashkenazi, Peters, and Berger also add greatly to the film, effortlessly inhabiting their characters and making them heartbreakingly three-dimensional figures.
| Features | Audio: English, Hebrew, German Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 3/7/2006 |
| Running Time: 103 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 11105 | | UPC: 00043396111059 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Hebrew | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], Hebrew | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
|
| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"Ashkenazi creates a memorable figure..." 03/25/2005 p.54-55Movieline's Hollywood Life
"The political and personal intersect in life-altering ways in the sleeper arthouse hit WALK ON WATER." 09/01/2005 p.102 FilmCritic.com 7 of 10
What keeps Walk on Water from sinking are the performances of Berger and Ashkenazi, who don't act to the film's shifts in tone, but consistently act like two men at an impasse. They want to be friends, but can all of their ideological baggage and prejudices be set aside? When Fox focuses on this uncomfortable human conflict, the movie achieves the relevance he's aches to attain. - Pete Croatto
Boston Phoenix 7 of 10
In Walk on Water, Fox undermines stereotypes with less flamboyance and with more ambiguity, perhaps, or less conviction. The dichotomies he deals with go beyond gay and straight, male and female. They include duty and freedom, revenge and reconciliation, love and loathing. The result is less focused and finished (not to mention half an hour longer) than his first effort. It is less confrontational, if less satisfying. - Peter Keough
|
| |
|
|
|
