MOVIE REVIEW

A new generation of Jews and Germans must come to terms with the past in a complex and compelling drama.

By Kenneth Turan, Times Staff Writer

The new Israeli film "Walk on Water" is complex and paradoxical, at times frustrating but always involving. Something like the country that produced it.

Extremely wide-ranging in what it hopes to capture in its net, "Walk on Water" touches on cultural, political, historical and even sexual issues. The past collides, pinball-like, with the present, and suppressed emotions careen into those readily available — all of which may make you wish that director Eytan Fox and screenwriter Gal Uchovsky had been somewhat less ambitious. But then this wouldn't be the film it is.

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"Walk on Water" takes its title from the pureness of heart one would theoretically need to duplicate Jesus' celebrated action. It deals, in general terms, with the consequences of giving an enemy a human face.

At first, though, "Walk" has the feeling of a more conventional espionage thriller. We watch as Eyal, a top agent for the super-secret Mossad, coolly and efficiently goes about his risky business overseas.

As played by the darkly charismatic Lior Ashkenazi (who starred in the splendid "Late Marriage"), Eyal manages to be likable as well as a merciless hard case, someone who is used to keeping his emotions under tight control.

But when he returns home to Israel, Eyal has to confront a personal tragedy. Though deeply shaken, he is gung-ho enough to be eager to return to work. However, Menachem (Gidon Shemer), his handler at Mossad, is not so sure and wants to use Eyal for purposes of his own.

It seems Menachem has been tracking an escaped Nazi mass murderer named Alfred Himmelman for decades. Now it turns out that the man's granddaughter Pia (Carolina Peters) has moved to Israel and her brother Axel (Knut Berger) is coming for a visit.

The siblings have requested a tour guide and Menachem wants the German-speaking Eyal to show up, plant an electronic bug and eavesdrop on their conversations in hopes of getting a line on Himmelman's whereabouts.

If this sounds complicated, it is only the setup for "Walk on Water's" over-elaborate plot, which tries, mostly with success, to walk the line between holding our interest and giving in to melodrama.

Also a bit of a problem is that, since Eyal's knowledge of German is to remain a secret, the only language he and the siblings can acknowledge having in common is English.

A good part of the film's dialogue is in that language, which, understandably, does not show the actors in their best possible light.

Balanced against this are the fascinating areas of contemporary tension and conflict that "Walk on Water" has the spirit to investigate, starting with the difficulties today's descendants of Holocaust-era Germans and Jews have in finding common ground.

This situation spills over into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Axel determined to befriend the Palestinians, and Eyal, who refers to him privately as "a patronizing German peacenik," enraged that he cares.

"Think of how desperate these people must be," says Axel of the suicide bombers, which leads to the furious rejoinder, "There's nothing to think about, they're animals." The possibility that Israelis may be using sufferings of the past to blind them to painful current realities is one of the points this film clearly wants to make.

Yet another area of tension between the men is sexual, with Eyal smolderingly heterosexual and Axel unapologetically homosexual.

Director Fox's last film, "Yossi & Jagger," dealt with the romance between two male Israeli soldiers, and it's nice to see him using sexual difference as one element in a more wide-ranging scenario.

While there's likely no way all these topics can fit smoothly and comfortably into the same film, it is fascinating to watch them try.

"Walk on Water" does not always convince, but with its interest in a range of issues that matter, it always has our full attention.

'Walk on Water'

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Adult subject matter

Lior Ashkenazi...Eyal

Knut Berger...Axel Himmelman

Carolina Peters...Pia Himmelman

Gidon Shemer...Menachem

Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films present a Lama Films production, released by Samuel Goldwyn Films. Director Eytan Fox. Producers Amir Harel, Gal Uchovsky. Screenplay Gal Uchovsky. Cinematographer Tobias Hochstein. Editor Yosef Grunfeld. Costumes Rona Doron, Peter Pohl. Music Ivri Lider. Art directors Avi Fahima, Christoph Merg. Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes. In limited release.