EYES WIDE OPEN (EINAYM PKUHOT)

Eyes Wide Open is a gay love story in the heart of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem.

Aaron (38), a respectable butcher in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community, is married to Rivka (28) and a dedicated father to four children.

After his father’s death, Aaron is looking for assistance in his business when a handsome and homeless Yeshiva (religious school) student, Ezri (19), comes upon the butcher shop by chance. Aaron decides to be Ezri’s patron: he hires him, teaches him the craft of slaughtering, and houses Ezri in the shop’s back room. Aaron invites Ezri to meals in his home and introduces him to the community. When they go together to a remote “Mikve” (a sacred ritual bath), an intimate moment occurs between them.
From this moment onwards, Aaron knows no peace.