Walk on Water (film)
Encyclopedia
Walk on Water is an Israeli film
released in 2004. It stars Lior Ashkenazi
, Knut Berger
, and Caroline Peters
. It was directed by New York-born Israeli director Eytan Fox
. The screenplay
was written by Gal Uchovsky. Most of the dialogue takes place in English, although there is much in Hebrew and German. Its name derives in part from Jesus
' walking on water
.
, the Israeli security service. He is a hitman
who targets enemies of Israel. His wife has recently committed suicide, and the agency decides that he needs to take on a less challenging assignment: to find an aging Nazi
war criminal and get him "before God does".
In order to track down the old man, Eyal poses as a tour guide and befriends the Nazi's adult grandchildren, Axel and Pia. Pia lives on a kibbutz
, an Israeli commune
. Her brother Axel visits her in order to convince Pia to return to Germany for their father's seventieth birthday. It is later revealed that Pia's estrangement with her parents began when she discovered that they were hiding her grandfather. She shares this information with Axel.
Although he has a job to perform, Eyal truly befriends Axel and Pia. Axel and Pia are decent people who demonstrate that most Germans have gotten beyond the hatred that led to the Holocaust. They spend time together and Eyal enjoys himself, even if he would not openly admit so. His friendship with Axel allows him to display some humanity, letting down his tough-guy machismo. Eyal and Axel even take a mud bath by the Dead Sea
, showering off together in the nude afterward.
When the three are at dinner one night in a Tel Aviv
restaurant, Axel speaks privately to the Palestinian waiter, Rafik, and finds out where the best club in town is. Later that evening, Axel, Pia, and Eyal arrive at the club. Eyal is shocked to discover that it is a gay
club. He sees Axel dancing with Rafik and is taken aback.
Eyal is initially disgusted and disappointed to discover that Axel is gay. He asks to be removed from the assignment, not attempting to hide his homophobia
as the reason. His boss, Menachem, insists that Eyal finish the mission. Eyal visits Germany and comes to realize that Axel's orientation is unimportant. During the visit, Eyal defends a group of Axel's transsexual friends from attackers and, in doing so, reveals that he is fluent in German. He tells Axel that his parents were German, leaving out that most of the Jews in his mother's region of Germany had been killed by Axel's grandfather. Later during the visit, Eyal runs into Menachem, whose family was also killed by the grandfather's Nazi activities.
Axel invites Eyal to his father's birthday party. The guests are uncomfortable about Eyal's nationality and religion, but still polite. After the cake is brought out, Axel's parents surprise the guests by bringing out Axel's aged grandfather. Axel angrily confronts his mother and goes to Eyal's room, only to find a folder full of information on Axel's family. Meanwhile, Eyal meets with Menachem and tells him that they can easily take the grandfather and bring him to Israel to be tried for his war crimes. Menachem reveals that they are the only two on this mission, and the aim is to kill the grandfather. Eyal is clearly conflicted, but takes the case of poisons that Menachem gives him.
Eyal arrives at Axel's house and enters the grandfather's room, unbeknownst to all but Axel. Axel sneaks up behind Eyal and watches as he fills a syringe with poison, doing nothing to intervene. Ultimately, though, Eyal is unable to fulfill the task. He leaves, and Axel tenderly caresses his grandfather's face before turning off his oxygen tank, killing him. He goes to Eyal's room, where Eyal tells him that the suicide note his wife wrote told him that he kills everything that comes near him. Eyal says that doesn't want to kill anymore and breaks down in Axel's arms.
The story jumps ahead 2 years. Eyal and Pia are married with a child named Tom and Eyal and Axel remain good friends.
" sung by Rita Kleinstein
and Ivri Lider
, as well as a remix of Lider's "Mary La'Netzach" ("Mary Forever").
. It opened in Israel on March 18, 2004. It was first shown in the United States on October 24, 2004 at the Milwaukee International Film Festival. It opened in limited release in American theatres on March 4, 2005.
Cinema of Israel
Cinema of Israel refers to movie production in Israel since its founding in 1948. Most Israeli films are produced in Hebrew. Israel has been nominated for more Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film than any other country in the Middle East....
released in 2004. It stars Lior Ashkenazi
Lior Ashkenazi
Lior Ashkenazi , is an award-winning Israeli screen and stage actor.- Biography :Lior Ashkenazi was born to Sephardi Jewish immigrants from Turkey who moved to Israel in 1964. He grew up in the Neveh Yehoshua neighborhood in Ramat Gan. His father, Shmuel, worked as a printer. His mother, Victoria,...
, Knut Berger
Knut Berger
Knut Berger is a German actor. He was born in 1975 in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. He played Axel Himmelman in the 2004 Israeli film Walk on Water.-External links:...
, and Caroline Peters
Caroline Peters
Caroline Peters is a German actress. She played Pia Himmelman in the 2004 Israeli film Walk on Water.- Awards :* 2007 : Won the Adolf Grimme Award for Arnies Welt in Germany...
. It was directed by New York-born Israeli director Eytan Fox
Eytan Fox
-Biography:Fox was born in New York City and moved with his family to Israel when he was two. His father, Seymour Fox, was a Conservative rabbi and a leading professor of Jewish education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His mother, Sara Kaminker-Fox, was the head of the Jerusalem city...
. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was written by Gal Uchovsky. Most of the dialogue takes place in English, although there is much in Hebrew and German. Its name derives in part from Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
' walking on water
Walking on water
Jesus' walks on water, or Jesus walking on water, is one of the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels. Accounts of the miracle appear in three Gospels: Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52 and...
.
Plot
Eyal is an agent in MossadMossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
, the Israeli security service. He is a hitman
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
who targets enemies of Israel. His wife has recently committed suicide, and the agency decides that he needs to take on a less challenging assignment: to find an aging Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
war criminal and get him "before God does".
In order to track down the old man, Eyal poses as a tour guide and befriends the Nazi's adult grandchildren, Axel and Pia. Pia lives on a kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
, an Israeli commune
Commune (intentional community)
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...
. Her brother Axel visits her in order to convince Pia to return to Germany for their father's seventieth birthday. It is later revealed that Pia's estrangement with her parents began when she discovered that they were hiding her grandfather. She shares this information with Axel.
Although he has a job to perform, Eyal truly befriends Axel and Pia. Axel and Pia are decent people who demonstrate that most Germans have gotten beyond the hatred that led to the Holocaust. They spend time together and Eyal enjoys himself, even if he would not openly admit so. His friendship with Axel allows him to display some humanity, letting down his tough-guy machismo. Eyal and Axel even take a mud bath by the Dead Sea
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
, showering off together in the nude afterward.
When the three are at dinner one night in a Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
restaurant, Axel speaks privately to the Palestinian waiter, Rafik, and finds out where the best club in town is. Later that evening, Axel, Pia, and Eyal arrive at the club. Eyal is shocked to discover that it is a gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
club. He sees Axel dancing with Rafik and is taken aback.
Eyal is initially disgusted and disappointed to discover that Axel is gay. He asks to be removed from the assignment, not attempting to hide his homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
as the reason. His boss, Menachem, insists that Eyal finish the mission. Eyal visits Germany and comes to realize that Axel's orientation is unimportant. During the visit, Eyal defends a group of Axel's transsexual friends from attackers and, in doing so, reveals that he is fluent in German. He tells Axel that his parents were German, leaving out that most of the Jews in his mother's region of Germany had been killed by Axel's grandfather. Later during the visit, Eyal runs into Menachem, whose family was also killed by the grandfather's Nazi activities.
Axel invites Eyal to his father's birthday party. The guests are uncomfortable about Eyal's nationality and religion, but still polite. After the cake is brought out, Axel's parents surprise the guests by bringing out Axel's aged grandfather. Axel angrily confronts his mother and goes to Eyal's room, only to find a folder full of information on Axel's family. Meanwhile, Eyal meets with Menachem and tells him that they can easily take the grandfather and bring him to Israel to be tried for his war crimes. Menachem reveals that they are the only two on this mission, and the aim is to kill the grandfather. Eyal is clearly conflicted, but takes the case of poisons that Menachem gives him.
Eyal arrives at Axel's house and enters the grandfather's room, unbeknownst to all but Axel. Axel sneaks up behind Eyal and watches as he fills a syringe with poison, doing nothing to intervene. Ultimately, though, Eyal is unable to fulfill the task. He leaves, and Axel tenderly caresses his grandfather's face before turning off his oxygen tank, killing him. He goes to Eyal's room, where Eyal tells him that the suicide note his wife wrote told him that he kills everything that comes near him. Eyal says that doesn't want to kill anymore and breaks down in Axel's arms.
The story jumps ahead 2 years. Eyal and Pia are married with a child named Tom and Eyal and Axel remain good friends.
Main characters
- Eyal, a MossadMossadThe Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
agent (Lior AshkenaziLior AshkenaziLior Ashkenazi , is an award-winning Israeli screen and stage actor.- Biography :Lior Ashkenazi was born to Sephardi Jewish immigrants from Turkey who moved to Israel in 1964. He grew up in the Neveh Yehoshua neighborhood in Ramat Gan. His father, Shmuel, worked as a printer. His mother, Victoria,...
) - Axel Himmelman, a young German man (Knut BergerKnut BergerKnut Berger is a German actor. He was born in 1975 in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. He played Axel Himmelman in the 2004 Israeli film Walk on Water.-External links:...
) - Pia Himmelman, Axel's sister, who lives on an Israeli kibbutzKibbutzA kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
(Caroline Peters) - Menachem, Eyal's boss (Gideon Shemer)
- Rafik, a young PalestinianPalestinian peopleThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
man with whom Axel 'hooks up' (Yousef 'Joe' SweidYousef (Joe) Sweid-Acting career:Sweid is a graduate of the theater department at Tel Aviv University, and took his first steps in theater when he joined the Arab-Hebrew Theater in Jaffa...
)
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack included a rendition of the classic Esther and Avi Ofarim hit "Cinderella RockefellaCinderella Rockefella
"Cinderella Rockefella" was a novelty single written by Mason Williams and Nancy Ames, and most famously released by the Israeli duo group Esther and Abi Ofarim, a married couple, in 1968.The song features yodelling and a somewhat 1920s style lyrics and music...
" sung by Rita Kleinstein
Rita Kleinstein
Rita Yahan-Farouz is an Iranian-born Israeli pop singer and actress.-Early life:Rita Yahan-Farouz was born in Tehran, Iran. Her family emigrated to Israel in 1970.-Musical and acting career:-1980s:...
and Ivri Lider
Ivri Lider
Ivri Lider is an Israeli pop rock singer-songwriter. He is one of the biggest-selling contemporary artists in Israeli music, and has won the Male Singer of the Year honor from major Israeli national and local radio stations since entering the Israeli music scene in the late 1990s...
, as well as a remix of Lider's "Mary La'Netzach" ("Mary Forever").
Release history
Walk on Water premiered on February 5, 2004 at the Berlin International Film FestivalBerlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
. It opened in Israel on March 18, 2004. It was first shown in the United States on October 24, 2004 at the Milwaukee International Film Festival. It opened in limited release in American theatres on March 4, 2005.
Won
- Best Music - Ivri LiderIvri LiderIvri Lider is an Israeli pop rock singer-songwriter. He is one of the biggest-selling contemporary artists in Israeli music, and has won the Male Singer of the Year honor from major Israeli national and local radio stations since entering the Israeli music scene in the late 1990s...
- Best Music, Original Song - Ivri Lider
- Best Sound - Gil Toren (tie)
Nominated
- Best Film
- Best Actor - Lior Ashkenazi
- Best Director - Eytan Fox
- Best Screenplay - Gal Uchovsky
- Best Cinematography - Tobias Hochstein
- Best Editing - Yosef Grunfeld