Himmo Melech Yerushalaim

It's been some years since I saw this movie, but now (2024), in connection with a new documentary about the director, I heard "Himmo" was a discouraging flop that he felt ruined his chances of leaving the niche of gay cinema and entering the mainstream. I was surprised, because the film is well put together. And I was also surprised because it by no means breaks away entirely from gayness. But if I had to guess what tha problem was, I'd guess it was the bleakness of the whole thing. After the Six Day War, and even more so after the Yom Kippur War, there was a fear in Israel that even if we win our battles, they're taking too much out of us. "Himmo," which is set in a ward for wounded soldiers, unsparingly puts the price of war front and center. It's believably scripted and acted. Confined as it is, for the most part, to a single room, maybe it's a more natural property for the stage.