The "bubble" in the title of The Bubble refers to the carefree world in which hip young Israelis who hate politics choose to live, disconnected from all the epic historical drama taking place all around them. Of course, a bubble will eventually burst, and that's what happens here. The world intervenes.

Three cool kids share a Tel Aviv apartment and try to make their way in the world. Soft-spoken Noam (Ohad Knoller) works in a record store while his gay friend Yali (Alon Friedmann) manages a café. Noam has a second job as a weekend national guard soldier who monitors border crossings into Palestinian territories. Director Eytan Fox has no problem showing the petty humiliations the Palestinians must suffer as they try to move through territory they consider their own. Naturally they resent living their lives at the point of an Israeli gun. Noam doesn't much like the whole situation either.

As it turns out, Noam, like Yali, is gay, and he has the good fortune/misfortune to find a Palestinian boyfriend, Ashraf (Yousef Sweid). It's a Romeo and Juliet situation, but the two try to get around Ashraf's illegal status in Israel by giving him a Hebrew name and getting him a job in Yali's café. The roommates are not pleased at first but soon come around and embrace their new friend, seeing in their quartet an expression of a happy future in which everyone just gets along and goes to beachside raves. It's all quite fun and sexy.

For a while. The bad news is that Ashraf's sister (Roba Blal) intends to marry a Hamas leader with the unfortunate name of Jihad (Shredy Jabarin), and Muslims aren't big on the whole gay thing. Events race along, and what was a little hipster paradise looks doomed to become just another Middle Eastern hell. It's a depressing message: politics and history seem destined to steamroll over youthful hope and optimism.

The Bubble is jam-packed with relationships, politics, suspense, humor, and even a little sex. It's a fascinating and incisive look at a troubled corner of the world and at the people who live there and try to make the best of it against all odds.

Aka Ha buah, Ha-Buah.



What a glorious day to hug on the roof.