Eyes Wide Open (2009)

From NetFlix:

Married Jerusalem butcher Aaron (Zohar Strauss) takes pity on homeless student Ezri (Ran Danker) and hires him to work in his shop. But when romantic sparks fly between the unlikely pair, Aaron’s wife, Rivkeh (Tinkerbell), becomes increasingly suspicious. The stern Orthodox community disapproves, and a menacing group of “modesty guards” monitors Aaron’s every move in this tragic drama, an official selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Who knew that Israel had “Thought Police” ? Let us assume that this quiet, sad, well-acted Israeli film truthfully portrays life among the conservative Jews. What we see, besides an obsessive religious observance, is neighbor spying on neighbor with often violent results. There are two parallel developments. On the one hand a young woman, betrothed by arrangement, is having an affair with a different young man. Eventually the neighbor Vigilantes of Righteousness confront and threaten the young man. The butcher ironically is part of this gang at the same time as in the second parallel stream he is having a homosexual affair with his assistant in his butcher shop, which affair has come under the Thought Police radar. Eventually the affair catches up with the pair. I will spoil no further.

In Hebrew with subtitles.

Sad revelation about conservative Israeli life.

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