Lior Soroka | Banim (Boys) / 2020

running to love

by Douglas Messerli

 

Lior Soroka (screenwriter and director) Banim (Boys) / 2020 [14 minutes]

 

In Israeli director Lior Soroka’s Boys, 17-year-old Nadav (Eitan Gimelman) is determined for his compulsory military service to fight in a combat unit, despite his mother’s strong arguments that given his studies in Arabic he would be far better off in the Intelligence Corps.

     The film begins with his military checkup and the officer’s reminder that before he can serve in the combat forces he must get the permission form signed by his mother (Keren Tzur), who continues to argue that it just doesn’t suit him, Nadav clearly angry about that assertion and what it might suggest.

      He leaves the house to join in a workout with his running coach and several other boys, apparently an extracurricular activity having nothing to do with school. Nadav seemingly performs quite well until one of the others argues, during a rest that stop, that he runs “like a pussy.” The boy grows angry, and for a few moments they push one another, Nadav landing on the ground with a slight hand injury.

      The coach (Itamar Eliyahu) gets him some ice for the hand, and they chat, the coach wondering why the boy is so angry. Nadav’s only response is “he pissed me off,” before finally admitting that he had just fought with his mother over his military sign-up. 

     There is something gentle and pleasing about the coach, Nadav looking at him with a mix of fatherly worship and sexual longing.

     We see Nadav in his bed masturbating soon after, the very transition of the film hinting at a link between the coach’s gentle ministrations and Nadav’s desires. His mother knocks on the door to check up on him, ruining the moment as her son quickly turns out the light.

      In the car on the way to school the next morning, Nadav hands the form to his mother, who again refuses to sign it, Nadav arguing that all of his friends are serving in the combat group, she suggesting that he has nothing to prove, the boy growing even angrier, insisting that she “must” sign it before leaving the car abruptly, his mother attempting to call him back.

     Nadav soon after stops in his tracks, texting the coach to ask if he might come by, meaning to his house. It’s apparent that he’s seeking a father’s approval. But we also recognize that there is something else happening to Nadav that even he can’t explain to himself. The military decision is an irrational one based on a macho conception that he evidently feels he must live up to. While his mother suggests he has nothing prove, it appears that in Nadav’s mind he has a great deal of proving to do.

       The boy shows up quickly at his mentor’s door. They talk for a few moments about the man’s short-lived military career, before he suggests that perhaps Nadav’s mother is right. “Those intelligence geeks make loads of money in civilian life.” A moment later, the coach asks about his hand, and a second after that we see him tenderly stroking it, as the two suddenly move into a deep kiss, repeating it again and again.

        The camera shows Nadav running down the middle of a street; but with the film’s continual return to the sexual moment—their intense kisses and the looks of pleasure on their faces—we recognize that Nadav is not running away from something but toward his own future. The sexual encounter has freed him, and when he returns home, with his mother’s invitation he joins her on the bed, she writing out sentences on his back as she did when he was a young child.

         He reads her words: “I luv you,” and smiles, feeling comforted. When he returns to his room, he notices that she has signed his military permission form. But from the look on his face, now having something to live for and nothing to prove, we feel he may not seek out combat duty after all.

         This is another of the few handfuls of films that openly embrace the idea that sometimes a young boy needs the love of a slightly older man, a gay mentor to show him that out of the lonely and oppressing adolescent years that all LGBTQ individuals, in one way or another, suffer.

         Since his graduation in Film and Television from Tel Aviv University in 2019, Soroka has directed and acted in several noteworthy films, and is certainly a new talent to watch.

 

Los Angeles, June 20, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (June 2023).