Beshivhey Hayom
In Praise of the Day
by Oren Adaf
Israel 2012, 20 minutes
It’s a weird plot. Oren, not obviously a gay man from the first time we see him, urgently wants to make a phone call but has forgotten his mobile. Why on earth is he going in a park to ask people for their mobile if he could easily go to a pub or shop to telephone? If you accept the starting situation with the less crowded park and the lost protagonist, you’ll be a witness of gay approaches in different ways. One of the guys doesn’t want to lend his mobile, the other one, a priest, hustles the protagonist to fast sex – of course he has no mobile either. The third guy he meets is a former lover who offers him a call – but in his nearby apartment. They went to the apartment, where Oren calls his mother to say he won’t be with her for Shabbat. Then, Oren is seduced by the former lover. It’s very hard to make a gay film without boring people who are not gay. Director Oren Adaf (35) captures the viewer with the unusual. His film is not about the coming out but about the time after when you are curious, shy and unconfident. Adaf shows the cruising scene with unusual suspects who want sex right away or are not interested at all and a protagonist who doesn’t really knows what he wants except for calling his mother. The hesitation of Oren is put in a half documentary, half feature situation with shots from a distance. Even the erotic moments are reduced to an everyday life experience.
Berlinale Shorts 