Jewish Film Festival Review: Yossi (2012)

Yossi (screening as part of the 2012 Jewish Film Festival) is an Israeli drama directed by Eytan Fox. It serves as a sequel to Fox’s 2002 film Yossi and Jaggar, which introduced audiences to Ohad Knoller’s titular character. He reprises his role here.

 

It is a sad, but hopeful and life-affirming story about 34-year-old Yossi, a former soldier (his service and his doomed relationship with a fellow soldier is covered in Yossi and Jaggar) and now a cardiologist living in Tel Aviv. He is still a closeted homosexual and a sad and lonely workaholic.

He lives a rather pathetic existence; immersed in a morose, boring daily routine. He eats bad food – he is pudgy, unshaven and tired-looking – watches bad gay porn and draws daily sympathy from his co-workers; one a nurse who expresses an non-reciprocated romantic interest in him, and the other a newly-divorced doctor who tries to takes him out partying in an attempt to help him get his mojo back. He tries online dating, but when he arranges a meeting using an old and misrepresentative photo, he is embarrassingly called out on it.

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