Walk on Water (2004)

Director:

Eytan Fox

Writer:

Gal Uchovsky (writer)

Release Date:

18 March 2004 (Israel)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

He was trained to hate until he met the enemy

Plot:

Following the suicide of his wife, an Israeli intelligence agent is assigned to befriend the grandchildren of a Nazi war criminal.

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Israel | Tourist | Nazi | Mossad

Awards:

3 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Lior Ashkenazi	...	Eyal
Knut Berger	...	Axel Himmelman
Caroline Peters	...	Pia Himmelman
Gideon Shemer	...	Menachem
Carola Regnier	...	Axel's Mother
Hanns Zischler	...	Axel's Father
Ernest Lenart	...	Alfred Himmelman
Eyal Rozales	...	Jello
Yousef 'Joe' Sweid	...	Rafik
Imad Jabarin	...	Rafik's uncle
Sivan Sasson	...	Weapons Instructor
Natali Shilman	...	Iris (as Nataly Szylman)
Hugo Yarden	...	Kibbuz Director
Joshua Simon	...	Kibbuz Singer
Tom Rahav	...	Kibbuz Singer

Also Known As:

LaLehet Al HaMayim (Israel: Hebrew title) (working title)
To Walk on Water (Israel: English title) (working title)
Walking on Water (Israel: English title) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some language including sexual references, and for brief nudity.

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

Israel | Sweden

Language:

English | German | Hebrew | Italian | Turkish | Arabic

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich) | Australia:M | Argentina:16 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | USA:Unrated | USA:R | UK:15 | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Fond Européen Média

Trivia:

Caroline Peters, who plays Pia, revealed in an interview on Israeli television that her actual grandfather was a Nazi, just like her character's grandfather in the film

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Eyal arrives Berlin, we see a Lufthansa airplane landing at the airport. However, Lufthansa never flew from Tel Aviv to Berlin, only to Frankfurt. It is also not reasonable that a Mossad agent will not fly with El-Al Israel airlines, which has a direct flight from Tel Aviv to Berlin.

Quotes:

Axel Himmelman: [tries to walk on the sea and falls in]
Eyal: [sarcastically] Bravo. You did it.
Axel Himmelman: You don't understand. You can't just come to the Sea of Galilee and start walking on water. If you could, everybody would be doing it. You need to prepare yourself.
Eyal: And how would you do that? Please enlighten me.
Axel Himmelman: Well, you need to completely purify yourself. Your heart needs to be like it's clean from the inside: no negativity, no bad thoughts.
Eyal: And then?
Axel Himmelman: And then you can walk on water. I'm sure of it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 2005 Glitter Awards (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

Non ho l'eta

Two Opposite Men Unpredictably Learn A Very Personal Detente

"Walk on Water" piles layers of personal, family, religious, cultural, historical, employment, geopolitical, sexual, geographical, guilt and responsibility issues on two men -- and still makes it work as the gripping story of two individuals whose lives affect each other.

I saw an interview with director Eytan Fox where he said he wanted to imagine the two most opposite men possible and make them deal with each other. With writer Gal Uchovsky, he focuses on two men who are almost philosophical constructs of dissimilarity yet they come across as real people whose actions and reactions are unpredictable.

The central character Eyal is the quintessential sabra (Israeli-born native), a craggy, macho Mossad agent unable to discuss his feelings about his ravaged marriage, a child of a Holocaust survivor, fatigued with terrorist attacks and revenge, but in the opening moments efficiently murders a Hamas leader.

He is sent by his mentor/father figure on a rogue mission that annoys him in every possible way -- going undercover to gain the confidence of a young German fully integrated into the EU whose every opinion, action, lifestyle and family background he despises, a continental take on "Donnie Brasco." They personify Faulkner's dictum that "The past is never dead. It's never even past." as each man learns that the measure of a man is not just what he does today and did yesterday, but the genetics and heritage that make up his identity and does influence his choices -- choices that we hold our breaths to see played out.

Lior Ashkenazi captures the screen projecting the relaxed casualness of male camaraderie comfortable from years in the military and then his reactions as he gradually realizes he's been thrust into more complex situations.

Though the situations get a bit too artfully complicated when their somewhat picaresque adventures range from the German's kibbutznik sister to Palestinians to skinheads and a somewhat unnecessary though emotionally satisfying coda, the dialog does refrain from a couple of the most obvious ironies as each man gradually reveals their true nature to each other.

Hearing "Achtung!" amidst Israeli folk dancing is among the unusual juxtapositions in a movie where the characters can only communicate across the divides in English, amidst the three languages they speak among themselves.

While the original music by Ivri Lider is particularly good at emphasizing the underlying emotional content and the diverse cultural environs they find themselves in, the selection of popular music they are listening to adds an additional level of knowing commentary, from the agent's preference for Bruce Springsteen, the avatar of rock 'n' masculinity (particularly the symbolism of him favoring "Tunnel of Love"), to European pop and oldies novelty songs to Israeli folk and popular songs, including the agent's great discomfort at having to translate a poignant romantic song from the Hebrew.