Admittedly, this could have been a good film.

Upon reading the synopsis, this came as a good story, worth telling: two gay men meet at a chekpoint, one is an Israeli, the other a Palestinian, and they fall in love. Interesting starting point, which is why I watched the film. This opened the possibility to explore so many different subjects among which the strain between the two communities, the latent homophobia of Muslim societies, and the consequences these two aspects can have on a relationship seemed particularly worth developing.

And yet, it seems to me the film failed to eschew the clichés related to so many films set in this particular part of the world and dealing with the matter of Israeli-Palestinian relationships... The Palestinian family that turns out to be full of Islamists, the completely arbitrary and unfair treatment of the Israeli army, the targeting and death of an innocent woman, the suicide bomber... aspects which, no doubt, derive very much from examples which can be found in reality... all joined up together in one single story, make for the building of a caricature, and blurrs the rest of the story...

Despite some very good things (the use of Bent for example, albeit in a quite artificial and clumsy way), some very touching moments between the lovers, and the Noam-Yali friendship... the film fails to convince, sadly. A disappointment, really.