Yossi & Jagger

The moving Yossi & Jagger, at 65 minutes in length, has the focused impact and emotional clarity of a fine short story. A multiple award winner (among other prizes, Yossi & Jagger took a Best Actor honor for Ohad Knoller at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival), this unusual love tale, set on a snowy Israeli-Lebanese border facing possible Hezbollah incursions, has an unexpected sweetness and buoyancy. Knoller plays square-jawed, no-nonsense Yossi, company commander of an Israeli Defense Forces unit exhausted from sleepless nights anticipating an ambush. The handsome, fun-loving Jagger (Yehuda Levi), nicknamed for his rock-star appeal, is platoon leader and, unknown to all, Yossi's secret lover. The two arrange trysts by going off together on missions, and while Jagger begs Yossi to leave the army when the former's service is up, Yossi reminds him that real life is not a romantic movie. Meanwhile, the platoon's other characters and a trio of visitors--a colonel (Sharon Reginiano) and his two female soldier-companions (Hani Furstenberg, Aya Koren)--prove to be a lot of fun sorting out everything from menus to love lives before their next, possibly lethal mission. Director Eytan Fox's naturalistic touch, and ability to highlight the expansiveness of mature love even in the most tragic and ironic of circumstances, is something to marvel at. --Tom Keogh