Uber-fantabulous New-York based foreign film distributor Film Movement fully gets with the times regarding the February 2017 selection (which hits real and virtual shelves on February 7, 2017) of the Movement Film of the Month Club. The 2015 Israeli film "Blush" (nee "Barash") tells the tale of 17-year old suburban Jewish girl Naama Barash having worldly bad girl Dana arouse lesbian desires.
The awesomeness of this film relates to the plethora of Unreal TV reviewed sensitively presented gay-themed films with universal themes. The primary observation regarding this is that these films are easily translatable to movies centering around heterosexual couples.
The international accolades for "Blush" include the Best Actress and Best Screenplay awards at the 2015 Haifa International Film Festival and the Grand Jury Best Film Award at the 2016 Milan International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. It is worth noting as well as "Blush" is an extension of two earlier short films by writer/director Michal Vinik.
The following YouTube clip of the "Blush" trailer chooses wisely in highlighting a scene that perfectly conveys the charm and humor of the film.
Naama is an All-American girl in that she hangs with her two best friends, restricts her drug use to limited marijuana smoking, and seems to get decent grades. This begins to change on aptly meeting aggressive new girl Dana in the school bathroom. Dana being everything that Naama wishes she could be is the primary basis for that attraction.
This bad-egg soon has our girl skipping school to do hard drugs, partying at a lesbian night club in nearby Tel Aviv, and learning that girls can provide as much (if not more) sexual pleasure as boys. One predictable source of drama is that all this means more to newbie Naama than to "experienced" gal Dana.
This tale of seduction is a well-established one and often played out in the context of a doe-eyed freshly scrubbed high-school boy falling in love with a bad boy only to have his heart (at least temporarily) broken. Further, the vast majority of teens from a large portion of the world can relate to making strong efforts to conceal being in an altered state of reality from their parents. A helpful hint regarding this is that yelling up the stairs and finding excuses to stay downstairs after coming home with a distinct odor ain't fooling anyone.
First-time feature-film writer/director Vinik adds good additional substance to this story via Liora Brash, who is the older sister of Naama. Liora is a secretary in the Israeli army at a base near the family home.The family not hearing from her for a few days escalates to discovering that Liora is missing and that this does not distress army officials.
The Barashes soon learn that Liora has an Arab boyfriend and may have gone to his village with him. Naama and her father then travelling to that village really puts the Israeli conflict in perspective in ways that range from the patriarch quietly removing a Star of David hanging from the rear-view mirror of his car to his abusive treatment of an Arab police official.
The strong racial tension in the United States and other countries show that national politics aspect of "Blush is as universally relevant as the central story.
As always regarding Club selections, Movement awesomely augments "Blush" with an aptly chosen short film. The choice this time is "This Is You and Me," which tells the tale of an unhappy 20-something woman bringing home a female bar hookup only to have everything go terribly wrong. This incident and the afterrmath seem as universal as the "Blush" themes.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Blush" or "You" is encouraged either to email me or to connect on Twitter via@tvdvdguy.
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