Gay love across the Israeli-Palestine divide was done before (“The Bubble”, 2006) to mixed reviews.
Mayer’s take involves similar components: a liberal Israeli, lawyer Roy (Aloni) and an ingénue Palestinian, psych student Nimr (Jacob) who studies in Tel Aviv and keeps a low profile at home. Setting and tone, however, are consistently and powerfully darker here, conveying a stronger sense of sexual identity threatened by politics, religion and convention – and what it takes to survive those odds.
Out in the Dark | Directed by Michael Mayer (Israel, USA, Palestine 2012) with Nicholas Jacob, Michael Aloni, Jamil Khoury. Starts May 9