Isak Kohaly | Shots / 2014

the eyes locked upon one another

by Douglas Messerli

 

Isak Kohaly (screenwriter and director) Shots / 2014 [7 minutes]

 

A woman (Danielle Angel) picks up two men at a bar to join her in a threesome, presumably in her apartment. The men, Idan (Ido Zecharya) and Elad (Ori Paniri), are apparently both straight, neither of them having had much experience with threesomes, although Elad admits afterwards that long ago he’s had sex together with girls.

 

     But this time something strange happens. As the girl twists and turns between, moving back and forth as she kisses them both, and going down on one of them, they discover that they attending more to one another than to her, that their eyes meet in an intense gaze that they don’t truly comprehend. At one moment, while she is fellating one of them, it almost appears the two men are ready to kiss, until she pops up between them. But still their gaze at one another doesn’t completely cease.

     After sex, the two men in bed with the woman now asleep between them, share in a rather incoherent conversation, beginning, in fact, a little bit like a Beckett play. “So?” “What?” Neither of them can sleep, Elad suggesting that he never can after sex, although it is well-established that for many men sex often ends in an exhausted sleep. The woman, in this case, has obviously passed out. But then, these men have something else on their minds.

   They talk, as straight men often do, mostly about the woman. How they met her and complementing bodily appearance, particularly her tits.. Yet, they also offer up much praise of each other, Idan suggesting that Elad seems to be experienced, Elad returning his compliments by suggesting that Idan must be attractive in general to women.

     Yet, when Elad asks Idan if he enjoyed the sexual experience, his answer is fairly noncommittal, “Yeah. A little.”

      What they can’t say is more important than what they can speak about. And finally, it is only when Idan where Elad lives, that a true communication between them begins. Idan lives nearby. As they finally turn out the light, Elad mentions that Maccabi Haifa (an Israeli soccer team) is playing on Saturday.

      “Could be….could be nice to watch the game together.”

       Idan eagerly agrees, suggesting that it is a good idea.

       One can only imagine that at the gathering they will further explore those feelings that came up during their sexual adventure.

       I suspect that heterosexual men explore such sexual detours far more than is ever reported. Surely, heterosexual threesomes, gang sex, and orgies are not just about fucking women, but the mutual attraction that the men also feel for one another, enhancing their pleasure.

      Yet these two men seem willing, given they surprised feelings, the explore things a bit further, and Israeli director Isak Kohaly seems interested in where that might take them, without offering us any answer or even clue of how their meet-up might turn out. Nonetheless, I would argue that you could describe their plan to watch soccer together as closely resembling what we usually describe as a first date.

 

Los Angeles, September 9, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2024).