Late filmmaker, Amos Guttman’s melodrama is the director’s most intimate film — and swan song. About a year after the release of this heavily biographical film, Guttman died of AIDS-related complications. Jonathan (Gal Hoybreger), a young country boy who arrives in Tel Aviv, dives into big city life, headfirst. He discovers Tel Aviv’s eclectic assortment of characters, its sheer wealth and variety, but also the palpable loneliness and alienation of which it is no short supply. Jonathan falls in love with Thomas (Sharon Alexander) who has full blown AIDS and has moved back in with his mother (Rivka Michaeli, who won praise across the board for her performance as a hard-living seamstress) who remains in the dark about his illness. Also living with the pair is Jonathan’s elderly and poorly grandmother (Hinna Rozovska). For a handful of fleeting moments, beyond the deeply complicated and tangled relationships, the characters do manage to offer each other a sliver of true amazing grace.

Guttman’s film went on to win multiple awards, including the Wolgin Prize for Best Film at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and the top prize at Valencia’s Cinema Jove Festival. —Israel Film Archive