The Portland Jewish Film Festival into its 2nd week brings” Out in the Dark” to unsettle,make uncomfortable,make memorable the price the people of Israel and Palestine pay for the hell they find themselves in the ongoing hatred and war we dub the israeli/palestinian conflict.
There are thousands of painful stories. This one is about gay men…who in the midEast of the world find conflict anyhow..here made worse by the political account. Not a happy movie, but an exceedingly well told one.
Nimr, lives in Ramallah, and is a psychology student going to Birzeit University in Ramallah. He has received a permit to take a once weekly class at Tel Aviv University taught by a renowned professor. He is very excited about this..it is part of his plan to excel, to get a scholarship to Princeton or other ivy league university in America ,practice a profession he loves, and most of all, freedom.
His home has Mother, sister and brother who do not share his vision of happiness. His mother and sister hope that he will fail so he won’t leave them, and his brother claims that he is where he is because God put a smart head on his shoulders, and the Jews are not a help in his search, but quite the contrary, have only proven to be disaster for him.This family doesn’t have a notion that this talented family member happens to be gay or if they do, it so denied as to be not available to them.
With the excitement of enriched education and freedom of entry to Tel Aviv, he goes into a gay club one night and meets a young lawyer. The environment is heady. He goes here because he is friends with Mustafa, a Palestinian , who acts in the club as a sort of hostess. Mustafa wears heavy makeup and dresses with lots of flamboyant feminine touches,which highlights his exuberance of life.He is a joyful and happy character,and he is much loved in the club. Mustafa introduces him to the young lawyer at the bar next to him, who has all ready been trying to make contact. There is instant attraction between them.
The lawyers name is Roy Schaeffer; he is beautiful and wants very much to develop a romance with Nimr.
Roy works for his father, a well respected lawyer. Roy wants to know if Nimr works for his Dad. No, Nimr’s father died when he was eleven. Roy gives him his card and invites him to his workplace.
Nimr takes the card and a few days later finds the elegant office where Roy works . Roy is just finishing a business session with an underworld boss who is so thankful that Roy helped his brother, evidently with a seeming insoluble problem that he tells Roy he will help him with anything Roy might ever need him for. Roy wishes to keep this simply a business deal and with cool politeness dismisses the grateful client. He also can hardly wait to end this session , so delighted is he to see Nimr.
Roy and Nimr become lovers and their joy with each other softens the realities they daily face.
Roy’s parents somewhat accept his homosexuality…that is they aren’t intolerant…but to say they are comfortable and happy with it is not quite the truth either. Roy brings Nimr to meet them and have dinner at his childhood home but it doesn’t go too well. The issue seems to be that Nimr is a Palestinian, but one feels the homosexuality is the greater issue. Outwardly they are polite..although in the kitchen, alone with her son, the mother shows a more intolerant face.She tells her son that they have worked very hard to accept his choices in life. Roy tries to keep his cool, but he is angry, and he snaps, “its not a choice”. Roy apologizes to Nimr, but they have far worse problems ahead of them.
Alone in the dining room, the father offers conversation to Nimr…”I was in Ramallah once…as a reservist I was stationed there.” He gives the exact date. He explains he remembers it because it was in 1993, the date that Arafat,Clinton and Rabin shook hands on the White House Lawn amid much cheering. Nimr and the Dad just look at each other following this disclosure. One might remember, it was also reported that before the ceremony on their own, Rabin and Arafat did not shake hands, and it is not the politicians who decide the course of history , but the people.The people,similar to politicians can also be unpredictable, and devious.
Reading past history can be fascinating, and reading of current history fraught with concern and insecurity.Concern and insecurity might also describe the conditions Roy’s father and lover are feeling in this time left alone,but together at the table.
Besides their very active lovemaking, Roy and Nimr have become soul mates, and there are scenes we view that show us the intimacies and observations of life that they share. Roy tells Nimr of the first time he fell in love. He was 13 and so was the boy with whom he fell in love. Nimr is surprised that Roy knew at 13 the sexual role that was his. Roy is equally astounded. Well, of course, he tells Nimr.
But one understands the dangers that acknowledgement would have made to Nimr. Repression and denial was the far better choice for him. At 13 he would not have had the strength to cope with the attacks and loss of family he would have had to face.That history makes its claim on the man Nimr became…one partner open in his feelings and enjoyment of life, and one protective,defensive and silent with a constant fear of loss…that we see as the story unfolds.
Back at home,there is increasing tension,distance and hostility between Nimr and his older brother,Nabil.Nabil has become involved with a hardline extremist group and is stashing guns in the basement of their home. Nimr asks him what happened to the peace seeking idealistic brother searching for democracy that Nabil once was, and Nabil scoffs contemptuously at lost dreams as belonging to a child’s world that is never going to happen. He hates the Jews, and hates his brother for going to Tel Aviv for a desired education.
The mother is the head of the family and doesn’t relate to this son of hers, but she doesn’t know why.He has also, a younger sister,who looks up to her intellectual brother, but also doesn’t understand him.She is focused on her mothers decision to make introduction of her daughter to a selected man for a marriage proposal.Nimr spends his time at home alone in his room studying. He loves and is loyal to his family, but it isn’t a home for him. His needs and his identity are not acknowledged. There is no awareness at all. His real life is in Tel Aviv.He is moving back and forth between these worlds with pain and fright. He is especially angry at his brother who is putting the family in great jeopardy but only stirs up more anger when he says anything to Nabil.
He brings Palestinian food to Mustafa, and enjoys pleasant exchanges with him on views of life…this is the only Palestinian he can talk to. But it is short lived. Mustafa is discovered to be in Israel illegally, and is sent back. He is picked up by men in Nabil’s extremist group.
Nabil picks up his brother one evening, and says there is something he must do before they go home. He drives to a hidden garage, where his friends have abducted Mustafa and are savagely beating him up.
Sitting and waiting in the car, Nimr wonders what is happening and walks in on the scene where Mustafa is being beaten. The men call him a collaborator and have decided to kill him. But not until they have beaten him to a pulp.All through this savage beating they yell at the unconscious man, whore, prostitute, and obscenities directed at his sexual behavior. Their unleashed sadistic savagery is horrible to see..and when Mustafa is nearly dead they shoot him.Nimr is horrified and tells his brother to get the guns out of the house. The brother is wild with anger at this suggestion, and Nimr sees a similar fate in store for him if found out.
Big troubles begin when Nimr’s pass into Tel Aviv is revoked. Roy doesn’t take this too seriously, he says they can retrieve that through channels that allow another consideration. Nimr is very fatalistic about it, and knows that isn’t going to happen because he hasn’t told Roy that it was the Israeli Security Department that revoked it. They had learned about the pile of guns in Nimr’s home, but hadn’t yet finalized plans to confront the family. However they knew that one son was going to Tel Aviv University, and the security chief certainly did not want him walking the streets of Tel Aviv. Nimr couldn’t tell this to Roy…he had too much past conditioning to allow himself freedoms, and he knew that it would remain revoked and because of those guns and his brothers affiliations he was in deep trouble.
Now at home more, with escalating anger, Nabil wants to know why Nimr had such late nights in Tel Aviv and actually didn’t come home for days. He is incensed that Nimr is despondent over not being able to go to Tel Aviv. He learns the truth. The mother screams at Nimr that he has brought dishonor on the family , and no one will marry his sister. He has destroyed the family. They throw him out of the house and never want to see him again. He goes back to Roy by illegally going to Tel Aviv. He tries to call his mother but she hangs up on him…we see him saying again and again…hello and we see her tear stained face but she will not talk to him.
He continues to see Roy as he best he can, but now only with illegal entry. He can’t risk being seen so they must stay in the apartment, and cannot venture out. Nimr is very depressed and fearful of the future, and Roy remains optimistic, but blind. But the situation is eating away at the relationship. The tension , fright and depression are taking hold. Nimr says he must leave Israel…they must leave now. He is a marked man. Roy says where would we go? You don’t have a passport. How can we leave?
One night they go to a quiet restaurant, and on the tv, Nimr sees armed police breaking into a home and confronting a frightened woman and her young adult daughter.
The brother is arrested. There are pictures of the soldiers removing huge stashes of guns.
Nimr says that is my home. Roy cannot believe that Nimr never told him about this situation. what to do?
The security police have found where Nimr is living. He is trapped and doesn’t know where to go. Roy says he will safeguard him. He will take care of it. He calls the client from the earlier scene that we know to be a gangster, and says he needs help.
The gangster arranges for Nimr to go to a yacht at an appointed time. They will pick him up and take him to France. Roy says he will meet Nimr in France…and after a little time we will somehow make our way to America.Nimr is reluctant to go without Roy.
The doorbell rings. It is the Security Chief. They know Nimr is there. Roy denies it, and when they see him, Nimr breaks for a run. A chase begins. Roy catches up with Nimr and they outrun the Security police…but just to a point . they are cornered.
Roy says give me your jacket. I will run out. they will think it is you, and they will chase after me. this will give you a chance to get to the yacht.If Nimr doesn’t do it, he may be killed so he reluctantly gives Roy his jacket..
It works. When the security police catch who they think is Nimr and discover it is Roy he is furious. He yells at Roy that I am going to bury you, and not your father or your friends in high places can help you.You will pay for this.
And we see Nimr on the boat sailing for France.
The director is Michael Mayer who is Israeli but went to film school at USC and is based in Los Angeles. This is his first major film. It has a beautiful subdued musical score, and the chase scenes are done with hand held camera so it is intense, and very personal. The film is beautifully photographed, well acted. It was written by Michael Mayer, and his co writer Yael Shafrir. It has been shown in Germany at an international film festival,at the Haifa film festival, and made it into America for the Toronto Film Festival.
Michael Aloni plays Roy Schaefer and Nicholas Jacob who grew up in Haifa of Arab/Italian parents plays Nimr.
Its no news that politics changes lives and it is no news that the pain and dilemmas of Israel/Palestine destroy lives,and this film joins hundreds ..no thousands of unhappy tales, but it is told well, we are saddened and moved. Each story gives us new insights, or added insight into a plight we have seen/ they often focus on the change of character that happens within the self in a tragic political environment, and importantly they are the soul of that which makes people come together to fight for change.The stories somehow become the source of hope.