Walk on Water (Lalecet Al Hamaim) 
Israel
2004
Opening 12 May 2005
Directed by:
Eytan Fox
Writing credits:
Gal Uchovsky
Principal actors:
Lior Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, Caroline Peters, Gideon Shemer, Hanns Zischler
In a story of prejudices and their consequences, Israeli director Eytan Fox’s Walk on Water follows Mossad agent Eyal (top Israeli actor Lior Ashkenazi) in his attempts to find an elusive Nazi criminal. Posing as a tour guide, Eyal accompanies the German’s grandson Axel (Knut Berger) on a trip through Israel where he visits his sister Pia (Caroline Peters), who is living on a kibbutz. Eventually, Eyal’s search takes him to Berlin, where he not only learns more about the Germans he has grown up despising, but more about himself.
Water does a good job of demonstrating the role the past still plays in the lives of young Israelis and Germans, for better or for worse. The film not only touches on Israelis’ feelings about Germans and vice versa, but also explores how the strained Israeli and Palestinian relations may have grown out of reactions to the Holocaust. Although the film’s ending is a bit over-the-top (and generated several questions at the press conference after the film’s screening at the 2004 Berlinale), the acting is good, the scenery is interesting, and the themes are universal. (Kirsten Greco)
