The Bubble

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Sheikin Street is one of Tel Aviv's hippest and chicest areas. Sheikin Street's fashionable shops and galleries give it the appearance of being on another planet to the rest of the Middle East. The inhabitants of this peaceful soap bubble manage to keep an oblivious distance from the conflict all around them. Among them are three young Israeli flatmates: Lulu and a gay couple named Noam and Yali. Lulu works at a Body Shop, Noam at a record store and Yali runs a café. The trio's predictably cool lifestyle takes a sudden turn when Noam meets a young Palestinian named Ashraf. Noam is drafted to serve as a guard at a border point on the West Bank, whilst Ashraf becomes a birth attendant nearby. The two men later meet in Tel Aviv and start having an affair. Lulu and Yali also have affairs, but Noam and Ashraf's relationship is something special; it is like a symbol for mutual understanding and peace. For this reason, the young Israelis decide to help Ashraf stay on in Tel Aviv illegally. They dress him up a bit, give him a Hebrew name and put him to work in Yali's café. They all decide to celebrate their peaceful coexistence at a beach party calling for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories. But in the end, the young people's utopia is engulfed by the political and social realities of the Middle East and the constant outbursts of violence. 
>>> Watch Trailer on YouTube (english subtitles)

details

  • Runtime

    115 min
  • Country

    Israel
  • Year of Presentation

    2007
  • Year of Production

    2006
  • Director

    Eytan Fox
  • Cast

    Ohad Knoller, Yousef 'Joe' Sweid, Daniela Wircer, Alon Friedmann, Zion Baruch, Zohar Liba, Oded Leopold, Ruba Blal, Shredy Jabarin, Lior Ashkenazi, Yossi Marshak
  • Production Company

    Uchovsky Fox
  • Berlinale Section

    Panorama
  • Berlinale Category

    Feature Film
  • Teddy Award Winner

    TEDDY Readers Award

Biography Eytan Fox

 What is it like to be young in Israel, particularly in the "bubble" called Tel-Aviv? How can you be gay in this country, even in the macho Army named Tzahal? How can you fall in love in a tiny tension-filled country? Can you consider the Palestinians as friends rather than enemies? All these are questions raised by Eytan Fox's films and TV films, from his first Time Off (1990) to his last to date The Bubble (2006). Born in New York in 1964, he is two tears old when his parents decide to emigrate to Jerusalem where he grows up. After studying filmmaking in the Tel Aviv Film School and serving in the Army, Fox makes his debut in 1990 with a medium-length movie, Time Off (1990), dealing with the question of sexual identity in the Army. His first feature, Song of a Siren (1994), a comedy set in Tel Aviv during the First Gulf War, was a hit in his country. After working for three years for Israeli TV (Gotta Have a Heart (1998), a musical drama, and Florentine (1997), a series about the post-Army years of a group of friends in Tel Aviv), Eytan returns to the big screen with Yossi & Jagger - Eine Liebe in Gefahr (2002). Two years later, he directs the masterful, unforgettable _Walk on Water (2004)_ , about the ambiguous relationship linking a Mossad agent and the grandson of a former Nazi officer, which brought him international recognition. His most recent work, The Bubble - Eine Liebe in Tel Aviv (2006) is remarkable as well, synthesizing all his former films and reflecting the contradictions of Israel in a unique blend of comedy and tragedy. A key figure of Israeli cinema, Eytan Fox is someone nobody can get away from, either in Israel or abroad.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Guy Bellinger