Walk on Water

There are a lot of complex issues and plotlines running through director Eytan Fox’s film about a Mossad special agent and hitman (Lior Ashkenazi) who becomes friends with the grandchildren of an assassination target. The movie is quite successful in treating many issues with equal importance and sensitivity, while managing to be a compelling drama (its screenplay is very well organized). Ashkenazi, who reminds a bit of Clive Owen, has a commanding presence that anchors the film. His character is brutish and sensitive at the same time, and comes off feeling very real. Caroline Peters and Knut Berger are excellent as the grandchildren, who are kept in the dark as to agent’s true identity. This movie is stuffed with topics (homophobia, friendship, suicide, the Holocaust, Israeli politics), yet it flows beautifully. The friendship between the Ashkenazi and Berger characters is handled with a kind of grace absent from most films.