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AE: But my big disappointment is that they never have sex together.
EF: We thought that might be too much--not for audiences, since I’ve done films that didn’t consider them before--we felt that it might be too difficult for Eyal. Besides, he didn’t need that aspect of the relationship. He just needed to fall in love in a deep, emotional way. He needed to realize what was happening, get all confused with it, but to continue, saying, ‘okay, this is happening to me.’

AE: Gal is also your co-screenwriter. How do you two collaborate?
EF: Sometimes, we don’t talk a lot about the film, because we just know. I’ll sit down and structure the plot, while Gal actually writes the screenplay. He writes wonderful dialogue.

AE: If Israel is so closed up and conservative, how do you guys get funding from the Israeli Film Board?
EF: I guess I’m considered the gay director in Israel, okay?
GU: You are gay film in Israel.
EF: But before me was this guy named Amos Gutman, who died of AIDS 10 years ago. He made 5 feature films. They were strictly gay films. People claimed they were gay-ghetto kinds of films, niche films. Supposedly they had nothing to do with Israel, and they could have taken place anywhere in the world.
GU: His films were very bitter, pessimistic and sad…
EF: But not always. They were beautiful. They always had beautiful men…
GU: But they were all psychologically incapable, and could never keep a relationship for more than four hours. They would go to “the gardens” to seek the love of married men. You know…
EF: That may be the case. But that was the case back then. It was almost an anthropological kind of thing. The Israeli film board said, ‘He’s a gay director. We’ll give him money to do gay films.’
GU: It was very obvious to Israel that he was the outsider. [Sometimes the film board has] problems with our films, because we’re very obviously ‘insiders.’ We’re very established in Israel. We’re very popular. Everybody knows us. In many ways, we’re very ‘mainstream.’
EF: That can make a lot of people nervous, you know? All of a sudden, we’re showing up in central, important places for our ‘righteous and straight society.’ They want to us to stay where we are. It’s much like gay marriage in the US.
GU: Have you ever heard of Dana International?
EF: She’s an Israeli transsexual who used to be a big pop star.
GU: Well, she won a big international competition. When she came back to Israel, she appeared in front of parliament, and was kissed by the president and by the ministers. She shook hands with members of parliament. They all said, ‘oh, this is cool. Sex change? Sure, if you want it, go ahead. But just not for my son.’

AE: Gal, you were named one of the most influential gay men in the Israeli media. Can you tell me a little about your background?
GU: I have a music column, and another ‘personal thoughts’ column for the paper in Tel Aviv. Those columns used to be my job. Now, they’re just my day job. But I like journalism, and writing very fast. [Film scripts] aren’t like journalism, where you read it in the morning and then throw it away. Films stay, so you have to be more concerned about it. A script lasts forever.

AE: But journalism has to be true, where you can embellish in film.
GU: For many people, like me, it’s harder to take responsibility for creating an entirely new world. It’s easier to write ‘through other people.’ It’s so pretentious to ‘invent’ a whole world.

AE: What is the ultimate goal for your films?
EF: Bringing Israel to the world. Israel is very famous. People read about Israel everyday, and see it on television, but it’s a very specific Israel. Our movies present a very different kind of Israel, with a lot of issues: American-like issues, European-like issues, and even Middle-eastern issues. Human issues.

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