America

Q&A with filmmaker Ofir Raul Graizer

Following the international success of his acclaimed romantic drama The Cakemaker, writer, director, and editor Ofir Raul Graizer presents an enveloping and visually sumptuous story about sexual identity and personal trauma, following a man whose return to Israel triggers a series of life-altering events. Having lived in Chicago for a decade, Israeli swimming coach Eli (Michael Moshonov) goes back to Tel Aviv after the sudden death of his estranged father. While there, he visits his childhood friend Yotam (Ofri Biterman) and Yotam’s fiancée, Iris (Oshrat Ingedashet), with whom he runs a flower shop; however, the reunion leads to a shocking turn of events that will affect everyone’s lives forever. The patient storytelling style Graizer forged in his previous film is in full evidence in America, a penetrating, tactile study of the inner lives of three people who will forever be physically and emotionally entwined, set in dramatic natural locations.