Ten years after Yossi and Jagger, Eytan Fox’s drama about two Israeli soldiers in a clandestine love affair on the Lebanese border, Fox checks back in with Yossi (again Ohad Knoller), now a heart surgeon who has closed off his own heart since the death of his lover. Yossi hasn’t come out to his co-workers (though there are rumors), and he lives like a self-imposed exile in Tel Aviv, convinced he’s neither desirable nor deserving.
A sad teddy bear of a man, the likable but distant Yossi spends his evenings numbing himself with TV or Internet porn. The script walks us through his anxieties and fears in episodic snapshots more intent on making a point than illuminating his character. Then Yossi gives a ride to a quartet of young soldiers and his eyes lock with the fit, funny, and handsome Tom (Oz Zehavi). Instantly attracted, he books a room at the beachside resort where the soldiers are on leave. He’s not stalking him, really (he can’t even make a pass), but it’s no coincidence that Yossi’s vacation reading is Death in Venice: another old man lusting for youthful beauty.