Release Year: 2005 Rating: R Duration: 104 minutes Other Title: To Walk On Water Director: Eytan Fox Producer: Gal Uchovsky, Amir Harel Distributor: Roadside Attractions
synopsis
A hit man, Eyal, is given the mission to track down the very old Alfred Himmelman, an ex Nazi officer, who might still be alive. Pretending to be a tourist guide he befriends his grandson Axel, in Israel to visit his sister. He wants to convince her to come back to Germany for their father's birthday party. The two men set out on an extended tour of the country during which, Axel's frankness challenges Eyal's rigid, clichéd values. Their friendship grows until he learns of Axel's homosexuality. With this final straw he leaves. To finish his mission Eyal has to go to Germany. He meets Axel once more and succeeds in being invited to the family party where secrets will be revealed.
If you remember anything at all from your high school social studies classes, you may have absorbed the fact that teachers of the subject rely on two devices to try to get students interested. A) Be sure to relate all past events to the present, showing that what happened then is happening now, albeit with a different cast of characters. (Unfortunately students know little about the political present, but you can try.) B) Turn almost every class discussion into a debate, allowing students with opposing viewpoints to discuss controversial issues. New York- born Israeli director Eytan Fox ("Yossi and Jagger") makes an ideal case study. The screenplay he embraces for "Walk on Water" by Gal Uchovsky evokes a controversial issue which can be debated on both sides: Is it immoral for Israeli agents to track down and terminate now-harmless but then high-ranking Nazis who committed atrocious crimes during the early 1940's? (The Eichmann kidnapping, of course, comes to mind.) This issue satisfies both of the above requirements: A) It shows that people in the here-and-now are still working on tracking down Nazi killers who committed their heinous crimes 60-70 years ago; B) It asks the audience to consider the philosophical underpinnings of such "hits".
