User reviews

This movie was billed as a film about a Mossad agent going after a war criminal. One would suspect something along the lines of The Bourne Identity or Munich. You would be sorely disappointed.

This is a film about life and about people. It is about forgiving and forgetting. It's about "getting over it." It is about acceptance of others regardless of their national origin or sexual orientation.

This film is full of surprises and it is how people deal with those surprises that is what is so fascinating about it. It is about generational differences and how the same thing affects the young and old.

If you are interested in Holocaust films or Israeli-Palestinaian relations, then this is a film you will certainly enjoy.

Eyal is a Mossad agent who specializes in terminating those that his agency deems enemies. Upon returning from a mission in Istanbul, he finds that his wife has committed suicide. Until he has been evaluated by a therapist Eyal cannot return to his regular field assignments and is given the task of getting close to the grandchildren of one of the last surviving Nazi war criminals in hopes of finding out where the old man is. The old man has recently disappeared, the man's son is nearing his 70th birthday and his grandson is coming to Israel to visit his kibbutznik sister.

Eyan poses as a tour guide and is quickly accepted by Axel, the grandson and Pia his sister. Eyan spends most of his time with the charming, spontaneous and open Axel but starts forming a friendship with both grandchildren.

Between his emotions over the death of his wife and his growing feelings for the two grandchildren Eyan has a crisis of conscience. Can he violate the trust the two have placed in him? Can he kill again?

Overall this is a well written; many faceted story, remarkably well told. I personally didn't care for the ending but I can't explain too much without giving away what happens.

"Walk on Water" piles layers of personal, family, religious, cultural, historical, employment, geopolitical, sexual, geographical, guilt and responsibility issues on two men -- and still makes it work as the gripping story of two individuals whose lives affect each other.

I saw an interview with director Eytan Fox where he said he wanted to imagine the two most opposite men possible and make them deal with each other. With writer Gal Uchovsky, he focuses on two men who are almost philosophical constructs of dissimilarity yet they come across as real people whose actions and reactions are unpredictable.

The central character Eyal is the quintessential sabra (Israeli-born native), a craggy, macho Mossad agent unable to discuss his feelings about his ravaged marriage, a child of a Holocaust survivor, fatigued with terrorist attacks and revenge, but in the opening moments efficiently murders a Hamas leader.

He is sent by his mentor/father figure on a rogue mission that annoys him in every possible way -- going undercover to gain the confidence of a young German fully integrated into the EU whose every opinion, action, lifestyle and family background he despises, a continental take on "Donnie Brasco." They personify Faulkner's dictum that "The past is never dead. It's never even past." as each man learns that the measure of a man is not just what he does today and did yesterday, but the genetics and heritage that make up his identity and does influence his choices -- choices that we hold our breaths to see played out.

Lior Ashkenazi captures the screen projecting the relaxed casualness of male camaraderie comfortable from years in the military and then his reactions as he gradually realizes he's been thrust into more complex situations.

Though the situations get a bit too artfully complicated when their somewhat picaresque adventures range from the German's kibbutznik sister to Palestinians to skinheads and a somewhat unnecessary though emotionally satisfying coda, the dialog does refrain from a couple of the most obvious ironies as each man gradually reveals their true nature to each other.

Hearing "Achtung!" amidst Israeli folk dancing is among the unusual juxtapositions in a movie where the characters can only communicate across the divides in English, amidst the three languages they speak among themselves.

While the original music by Ivri Lider is particularly good at emphasizing the underlying emotional content and the diverse cultural environs they find themselves in, the selection of popular music they are listening to adds an additional level of knowing commentary, from the agent's preference for Bruce Springsteen, the avatar of rock 'n' masculinity (particularly the symbolism of him favoring "Tunnel of Love"), to European pop and oldies novelty songs to Israeli folk and popular songs, including the agent's great discomfort at having to translate a poignant romantic song from the Hebrew.

This is a unique film that has several layers all happening at once.

The clash between gay and hetro men. The Israeli-Arab conflict. Bringing Natzi criminals to justice. All this and more while undergoing a sight-seeing tour north and south of Israel with its beautiful scenery.

To summerise... A must see film. Not your usual expected Hollywood drama but a true multi-cultural story with dynamic and evolving characters.

I won't bother to summarize the movie, because many of the existing user comments give very detailed descriptions of the plot (much more information than someone who hasn't seen the movie yet would want). I just want to encourage anyone who hasn't seen the movie to check it out. It's a provocative movie, exploring a bunch of interesting themes, including Israeli relations with both Palestinians and Germans. I also found it to be an engaging film, with interesting characters and many involving story lines. It's almost a fable or fairytale, which the title alludes to. Go in the right frame of mind and you'll enjoy the movie very much, as I did.

Walk on water has all the ingredients to make a good film but one, script. The film looks promising in its first half. However, the low credibility of the script in supporting the main characters causes the ending of the film look somewhat phony. The main flaw is failing to build up the emotional process that the leading character, Eyal (played by the talented Lior Ashkenazi), is going through after the death of his wife. It seems that the writer preferred discussing different aspects of male persona (primarily straight vs gay), was on the expense of managing the complex relations between the interesting characters he invented. In my view: 6 out of 10.

Sometimes the opening credits predict a great deal about the film itself. Sometimes it's a deliberate decision of the director and sometimes it's a plain business decision. James bond's movies always began with silhouettes of highly attractive women holding guns in a "I'm having a seizure" postures (a long and annoying tradition that stopped only on "Die another day") , Ed Wood films opening credits were presented as epitaffs on graves (indicating that people would see the films over their dead bodies) etc.

This film's credits are pretty conventional, only they are in English. This is more than slightly perplexing since this film is not only shot, mainly, in Israel but also because it deals with a topic that is highly charged and controversial among Israelis, namely, the collaboration with modern day Germany, in light of the not so distant past of the Holocaust.

Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi in a terrific performance) is a Mossad agent, returning from Turkey after an efficient and clean assassination of a Terrorist only to find that during his absence his wife, Iris, committed suicide. Eyal, an obtuse individual who only benefited from it in his work, seems unaffected emotionally by such a tragic loss and the worried powers that be demote him (to his dismay) to gather information about a Nazi criminal that lives a clandestine life in an undisclosed location. Eyal poses as a tour guide for Axel, the Nazi's grandson, visiting his sister in a Kibbutz (a once glorified and now decaying socialist community) after she disengaged herself from her parents.

The "Spying" mission turns soon enough to be a "Roman a clef", a self discovery voyage where Eyal deals with his upbringing in a house of Holocaust survivors and the flaws of his character that made him a first rate assassin but a third rate human being. Axel, the German tourists who starts as Eyal's nemesis (not only because of his origin but also due to his gay tendencies and his merry and merciful personality), ends up as the one who turns Eyal's life around.

The relationship with modern day Germany is still a touchy subject in Israel and will probably remain so for many decades to come. Till this day, many families don't travel to Germany or even buy German products and although I believe that no generation is born with a debt, I never judge those who boycott Germany considering the demons they have to face as a result of the never too distant to be forgotten Holocaust. This movie deals with the dealing of both Israelis and Germans with their past and with each other by the impossible friendship between Eyal and Axel.

The Latin credits, as I said before, are the prophecy for the filmmakers' intention for foreign viewing. It begins with the almost apologetic mentioning that Eyal's assassination "victim" is a terrorist , continues with the too PC and not very plot-essential coexistence with the Israeli-Arab population and the atmosphere of the gay night life.

Moreover, the film conveniently deals with another controversial subject, Palestinian Terror, in a manner that is easier for the European "creative stomach" to digest. At a certain point, its over flown with excessive self-righteousness that is rarely identified in a terror ridden country.

That reservation is the film's only major flaw and, altogether, the collaboration between the writer, Gal Uchovski, and director, Eitan Fuchs, spawns one of the best written and directed Israeli films I came across. Aided with wonderful acting and well constructed plot, this film encounters its major controversial issue bravely and authentically which I assume, atones the writer and driector's failure to do so in its minor one.

8.5 out of 10 in my FilmOmeter.

I have seen this movie a few days ago, and I am still thinking about it. I believe this is one of the best films I have seen in a very long while. The film has a rare combination of being fun to watch and amusing at times, combined with a real deep movie with real deep characters and sophisticated.

It is safe to say that the film is not clean of some logical flaws, but they do not disturb the flow of the film. I loved everything about this film, from the script to the acting and to the excellent photography (which, I have to admit, is rare in Israelie movies, at least until the last few years).

Although I do understand that Israelies and Germans are more likely to connect to this film, I recommend it to everybody. I think it can be appreciated by anyone who likes quality cinema.

Ofer.

I don't know why other reviewers characterize the Eyal character as "racist" (just because he calls suicide bombers "animals" which is too good an epithet) or "homophobic" (just because he is asking about some technical details about gay relations). In my humble opinion, the movie is a fair description of Israeli realities, and German (or European) softness for terrorists. Being familiar with both Israeli and German realities I found was fascinated by the director's insights and by the fine acting of the three principals as well as the supporting actors. The music by Esther and Abi Ofarim and the nice mixture of German, Englicsh and Hebrew made the movie most enjoyable.

This films was a pleasant surprise for me. I was expecting a one-sided look at life in Israel, but the filmmaker made considerable effort to deal with difficult themes with a welcomed, distant perspective. I like that he does not choose sides in the Arab/Israel conflict but rather chooses to make both sides human. Thus both story and characters have shape and dimension that makes for interesting development. The acting is overall consistently good although some of the dialog is over-written. The worst part of the movie is in the ending where the filmmaker wraps characters and story up into a nice, happy, and forgiving ending--one in which a romance and forgiveness occurs that has no basis whatsoever for believing. To me, the ending was very disappointing and hurts the movie because it stoops to a "Pretty Woman" ending. It is not credible and, given the story's progression, undeserved.

"Walk on Water" from 2004 is the story of two men from different cultures.

Eyal is an Israeli Mossad agent, and his assignment is to locate an old Nazi officer, Alfred Himmelman, and kill him. Though he's supposed to be dead, there is intelligence that he is still alive. Eyal is emotionally closed off. He is the child of a Holocaust survivor, and his wife has recently committed suicide. In the beginning of the film, we see him murder a major figure in Hamas.

He objects strenuously to his latest assignment, which is to locate an old Nazi, Alfred Himmelman, and kill him. This means he has to go undercover and befriend Himmelman's grandson, a gay German. At one point, Axel suggests that Eyal visit Germany, and Eyal tells him that's not going to happen.

Axel is in Israel to see his sister Pia. Eyal's cover is that of a tourist guide.

As the story unfolds, both men learn a lot about themselves and each other, and how their cultures have influenced them. The friendship they develop changes both men.

This is surprisingly a low-key film, with the characters acting very naturally. Lior Ashkenazi is excellent as Eyal, as is Knut Berger as Axel. As a result, the characters come across as very real and it makes the story believable.

The director, Eytan Fox, worked with the writer Gal Uchovsky to create two men so diametrically different, it's impossible to think that they could be friends.

There are some very powerful scenes, particularly the one in Axel's home. I imagine a lot of people don't like the ending, which seems pat, but I liked it anyway.

Thought-provoking film, well acted, well directed, and well photographed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It was entertaining, educational, and thought provoking... enough so for me to register with IMDb and write about it here.

This film takes on a multitude of social issues, some of them very superficially. However, because it has a solid plot, excellent character development, and top-notch acting, I found myself engrossed in the film.

The only downside of the film is that it asks many many questions, but only really examines one or two of them. It might have been better to not confuse the theme of the film by introducing so many issues. But, for whatever reason, it works.

This film touches on Israeli-German relations, Israeli-Arab relations, homosexual relationships, heterosexual relationships, marriage and family life, terrorism-counterterrorism, and generational conflict. Of these, it really examines Israeli-German relations and homosexual relationships in most detail and leaves a lot of open questions on the other issues.

If you're thinking at this point that the film sounds like it might be a bit too heavy, think again. It does a good job of providing you with an entertaining experience while masterfully weaving in each of these issues. I would highly recommend it.

Director Fox and Writer Uchovsky have certainly tackled some huge issues here: the Holocaust, Israel's relations with neighboring countries, and not necessarily least, relations between gays and straights (the latter being about as "mine-field dangerous" as the subject of Israelis connecting with Palestinians). Of course, with over 15 years as apparently loving partners, these two men should have some expertise in at least one of the three issues just mentioned (I'll let you, dear reader, decide which). Not, myself, being in the slightest an expert on the Holocaust or Israeli foreign relations, I believe I'll keep the following comments aimed in the general direction of that third issue.

There have been tons of conjecture on major movie website Boards (such as this one's) as to what was the "real" relationship between Eyal and Axel (and where it might have been heading). Apparently Director Fox has been quoted to the effect that "Walk on Water" is based on a true story of which he'd become aware. That story involved a real-life Mossad agent who had come home one day and found his wife hanging from the ceiling. She'd left a note saying how hard life had become with him, living with a killer who'd turned into someone emotionally closed. The agent cracked on his next assignment, left Mossad and enrolled in university, studying literature and art. There he met a young boy and fell in love with him. Eventually the former agent does meet his lover's sister, falls in love with her, and they begin a family together.

As a several times viewer of this movie, I've never found much indication that the gay, real-life "near-ending" described by Fox ever made it into this film of his. Nevertheless, perhaps he was leaving a little room for just such speculation when he gave us this film's near-end Berlin bedroom scene between Eyal and Axel. And, when all is said and done, the film does conclude with the two of them back in that Sea of Galilee beach scene, and Eyal's closing it all out with his (what I'll call) "Ode to Axel."

Lastly though, it does have to be acknowledged that movies with too much of a gay theme are, obviously, hard sells anywhere: US, Europe and Israel, no doubt. Directors and writers have to look out for the old pocketbook....and rightfully so.

"Walk on Water" is courageous film, confidently directed by Eytan Fox based on the screenplay written by his partner Gal Uchovsky and well acted. Its subject is a Mossad's agent whose new mission is to hunt the former Nazi criminal who lives nowadays somewhere in South America. In order to trace him, Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi) takes a job as a tourist guide for the grandson of war criminal - sociable, open, friendly young German, Axel. Axel arrives to Israel to visit his sister Pia who chose to live in Israel and work in a kibbutz and to talk her into reconciling with their parents. Eyal drives Alex in his SUV, shows him the country. They sit on the coast of Dead Sea, both smeared by celebrated therapeutic mud from neck to toes. In another scene, Alex tries to walk on the water of Kinarteth (the Sea of Galilee); three of them visit the gay- bar in Tel Aviv - Alex does not hide his sexual orientation.

The characters are interesting and compelling. The story is engaging and I feel connected to the movie the way very few movies make me. I recognize the places I've been to and I've come to love and to dream of seeing them again and again. The film starts in Istanbul, Turkey on the boat over the Bosphor and the guide talks about the bridge between Europe and Asia. I've been on the boat like that and I saw the bridge. Then the action takes place in Israel and I was happy to recognize Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, The Sea of Galilee (Kinereth), The Dead Sea where one just floats without swimming, the desert.

The plot moves from Israel to Berlin where Eyal is visiting with his new friend's family. Alex's and Pia's father celebrates his anniversary and for the first time, a helpless dying old man arrives to Berlin, the Nazi criminal, Axel's and Pia's grandfather, Eyal's target. The film explores the moral dead ends of the modern society full of hostility and old unpaid debts. Eyal remembers the history of his country and its people, he knows not from the books about Holocaust. He is a soldier and must be merciless but he has to learn something about understanding from his young German friend. Film attracts by the non-standard approach to the familiar themes of religious prejudices, homophobia, neo-fascism, newest terror and other sources of the hatred, which destroys the world. It would not surprise me to find out that the film has many detractors in Germany, Palestine, and in Israel. The final is a little too neat and belongs to the modern fairy tale genre. I see it as the director's dream that he wanted to come true - the people with different backgrounds, mentalities, history, and preferences would understand one another and would come toward one another with the open hearts and clean thoughts. Dreams, dreams...

Walk on Water is summarised well in many reviews. Some of them avow and generate extremes by using terms like "Terrorist". The film grapples with extremes of prejudice. The Mossad agent Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi) assassinates a Hamas leader at the start of the film returning home to find his wife has committed suicide. Eyal is detached. He has to be to do his job. His boss Menachem gives him a safer temporary job of pretending to be a tour guide for the grandchildren of a Nazi war criminal, Alfred Himmelman, with the idea that the tourists will lead him to their grandfather.

This German brother and sister with their own issues open up the eyes of Eyal to his own prejudices; he is challenged by Axel Himmelmans (Knut Berger) sexuality. He is also challenged by Axel's sister Pia (Carolina Peters), a German lass who lives and works on a kibbutz in Israel.

I saw this film on television. I chanced upon it with no reviews or prior knowledge and got quite gripped by the tensions of the main character. Other reviewers have said that Lior Ashkenazi is an attractive actor.

What intrigued me was the struggle to let go of being hurt. I've been working with a couple who can't let go of their anger with each other; of the hurt that comes through being violated in different ways. I'm not sure that love overcomes everything is quite the answer. I'm not sure that this film answers that question although it does highlight it so well.

It felt like a film in black and white; lots of deep shadows and in the end...

well go see and decide

Eytan Fox ('Yossi & Jagger', and others) is an important director to watch. Born in the USA and emigrated to Israel at the age of two, Fox understands the art of cinematic storytelling and in WALK ON WATER he brings this impressive tale of universal and personal forgiveness written by Gal Uchovsky with collaboration by actors Knut Berger and Caroline Peters, and Andreas Struck to the screen with finesse, subtlety, and grace. His in a name to watch.

Films dealing with the aftermath of Hitler's annihilation of the Jews and their subsequent formation of the haven Israel have been many and variably successful, primarily because the Jew vs Nazi histories have been so polarized to appeal to all audiences who need to have good guys vs bad guys easily identified for them. This beautiful film refuses to go there, but instead mixes the young people of Germany and Israel in a manner that finally enlightens us as to the process of letting go, of forgiveness in order to move ahead with living.

Eyal (the dashingly handsome and sensitive actor Lior Ashkenazi) works for the Israeli group headed by Menachem (Gideon Shemer) whose life's work it is to track down and kill all remaining Nazi perpetrators of the concentration camps. Eyal is a damaged man, his wife has committed suicide partially because of his job as hired assassin of anti-Israeli people, and he has finally grown weary of Menachem's obsession to exterminate all living Nazis. Yet he is assigned one more 'victim', an old man who is the grandfather of two German young people - Pia (Caroline Peters) who happily lives in an Israeli kibbutz and her brother Axel (Knut Berger) who has come to Israel to plead with his sister to return to Berlin to her estranged parents for her father's birthday. Pia knows of her grandfather's Nazi war crimes and resents that her parents had helped him escape from being tried as a war criminal.

Menachem assigns Eyal to be Axel's 'tour guide' in Israel, hoping to find a path to their grandfather, the war criminal. Axel is gay and during his time with Eyal touring the sites of Israel the two grow warmly as friends, Eyal asking many penetrating questions about Axel's gay lifestyle. Pia, Axel and Eyal become friends and when Pia refuses to join Axel in returning to Berlin for the father's birthday, Eyal 'consents' to accompany him. Several incidents occur both in Israel and Berlin that bond Eyal and Axel and that unveil some of Eyal's shaky demons of Arab hate, homophobia, and guilt over his wife's suicide. Yet for the first time Eyal has a man with whom he can relate and he grows fond of Axel.

In Berlin Eyal is warmly accepted into Axel's vast home. At the birthday party Axel displays his love for Israeli folk dancing as a gift to his father, engendering kind feelings from Eyal. But suddenly the grandfather is wheeled into the room by his attending nurse, repulsing Axel, and Eyal leaves: Meachem has followed him to Berlin and tells Eyal to terminate the old man. Eyal returns to the house and is unable to carryout his task, and the resulting resolution of the 'deed' and the manner in which Eyal and Axel come together is one of those magic moments of storytelling, one that equates with the miraculous ability to walk on water.

The cast is superb, always allowing us to see the hidden corners of intent, motivation, and lasting resentment as well as the opening of the doors of ultimate forgiveness and life. WALK ON WATER is a thriller, an espionage film, an historic moment, and a love story told with richly detailed sensitivity and bravura. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp