A few years ago filmmaker Eytan Fox was flipping TV channels in his Berlin hotel room when he stumbled on the Eurovision Song Contest. "Suddenly, I realized that I didn't even know who was representing Israel that year," he says.
A lot had changed in the four decades since organizers of the annual music competition had first invited the small Middle Eastern democracy to join its pop parade. Back then, in 1973, as a kid growing up in Jerusalem, Fox's parents "had invited all of our neighbors over to our apartment to watch the contest." Six years later, as a 14-year-old reporter on an Israeli TV show run by kids, Fox was sent to cover that year's Eurovision contest. "I was very proud of myself that I was part of this supposedly very glamorous world of Eurovision," he says.
Eytan Fox (left) with Ofer Schechter
Courtesy of the Washington Jewish Film Festival
In the decades since, Fox had mostly forgotten all about Eurovision, with notable exceptions, such as in 1998 when transgender singer Dana International won representing Israel. Also in that time Fox, who is gay, has become one of Israel's most popular filmmakers, responsible for several hit series on Israeli TV. His feature films constantly travel the international festival circuit, particularly hitting LGBT and Jewish film festivals. In 2006 the Washington Jewish Film Festival (WJFF) presented Fox with an award for his contributions to the field of Jewish cinema.
Fox's films, which include 2002's Yossi & Jagger, 2004's Walk on Water and 2006's The Bubble, chiefly focus on contemporary Israeli life, always present gay and straight characters as close friends, colleagues or neighbors -- often all three. Most notably, these gay-inclusive films are always made with funds from the Israeli government. "The country has been supporting my films since the mid-'90s," says the 49-year-old. "Films that always have gay characters, gay themes, gay love stories, gay sex scenes."
Fox's latest, the sweet and uplifting Cupcakes, which closes the WJFF Saturday, March 9, was inspired by Eurovision. The focus is on a group of Israelis -- three straight women, one lesbian and one gay man -- who compete at a Eurovision-style competition. The group's leading competitor is a Russian husband-and-wife duo, as fake and manufactured -- among other things the husband is a closet case -- as this ragtag Israeli group is authentic, even innocent.
The Israeli group competes by performing a song originally written by Scott Hoffman, otherwise known as Babydaddy from the Scissor Sisters. "Scott is a friend of mine and my family," Fox explains. "At some point I said to him, 'Do you have a Eurovision-like song that you maybe wrote once and never published or anything?' And he said, 'You know what? A few years ago we sat together, we had some drinks, we were kind of tipsy, and we decided to write an ABBA-style song.'"
For Cupcakes, Fox made this song, originally called "Right Back," "sweeter, more sentimental, more kitsch." And "Song for Anat" is sung in Hebrew, a nod to what Fox said the competition used to be.
"It used to be, you came from Spain, you sang in Spanish. You came from Germany, you sang in German," he explains about Eurovision. "And now, everyone sings this funny, bad English. Bad accents and bad lyrics. So it's become more and more of a joke."
METRO WEEKLY: How would you describe Cupcakes?
EYTAN FOX: Well, it is, more than anything, your classic, feel-good movie. It's a film about friendship. How a group with a sense of community can do a lot for each other. And it's about the journey that a group of neighbors take together. It's a very sweet, but complicated, story.
I have films of mine that I consider more serious, more relationship stories. That are usually more politically oriented, have to do a lot with Israel's situation in the Middle East, and its relationship with its neighbors. And masculinity in Israel. Gay identity in Israel.
And then I have the lighter side of my filmmaking. Audiences at the WJFF saw Mary Lou four years ago -- my television miniseries, which was called in Washington an Israeli Glee. So I have the sides in me that are more fun and games, music, dancing, happy, colorful gay and straight characters. Cupcakes definitely falls under that section of my filmmaking. It's somewhat of a musical. I grew up to parents who came from the states and moved to Israel when I was a kid. And my mom loved American musicals, so a lot of my influences come from there. Classic MGM musicals from the '50s. And a lot of other influences, like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a group of French musicals by a director called Jacques Demy.
MW: Cupcakes focuses on a Eurovision-style contest. Explain the significance of that annual competition to you.
FOX: The Eurovision Song Contest has been something very significant in a strange way in my life. It used to be an amazing song competition or contest, where wonderful songs and singers from all over Europe would come together and perform. When I was a kid there was ABBA and Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton-John and Celine Dion -- all these wonderful artists who started their careers in this competition, with beautiful pop songs. I grew up in a very nationalistic country, where any competition outside of Israel where Israel took part, everyone was so into it. It didn't matter if it was the Olympics or Eurovision or the Nobel Prize. As long as Israel was competing, everyone was really into it. I remember the first year of Eurovision where Israel participated. And it was all of us together. All the neighbors came together and watched the competition and really cared about Israel and the Eurovision Song Contest.
MW: I remember the transgender singer Dana International winning Eurovision for Israel in 1998.
FOX: That was an amazing experience. Israel, again, it's a very nationalistic place, so in the beginning when we chose Dana International to represent us in the Eurovision Song Contest, so many people were criticizing that: "How can you send a transsexual to represent our holy land of Israel?" That was what they were saying. And they were demonstrating in the streets against her going to Eurovision. Then she won! That was such a big thing. After she won and came back to Israel, she went to the Parliament, to the Knesset. And all these members of Parliament who were against her shook her hand. Because who cares? She won. It doesn't matter if she's transsexual, or this or that -- she won for Israel. That was a big thing. A lot of people in Tel Aviv were sitting watching this competition, being very proud of the fact that Israel sent a transsexual to this competition, which was very unusual at the time. And she was so good, and she won. And all of us went down to the square in the center of the city -- with rainbow flags. And we danced and sang. And it was an amazing experience. And the funny thing was, the same night, the most macho, even homophobic, soccer team in Israel won the championship of Israel. The same night! And they went to the same square. Guys with their soccer team flags. And we're all dancing together for the first time in our lives. It was really a wonderful, kind of communal experience.
MW: In preparing for this interview, I noticed that Dana International went back and competed again for Eurovision in 2011.
FOX: Yeah, for some strange reason. This competition is really changing in ways that I don't know how to explain. But for some reason she didn't do that well. MW: Has she had a successful career otherwise?
FOX: After Eurovision, Sony/BMG signed her up and tried to create a career for her in Europe and internationally. It didn't really work. Her people didn't know what to do with this sudden success. She does tour Europe, in gay nightclubs and that whole dance scene. She still has a career here in Israel. She's had a few hits since "Diva," her big Eurovision hit. She had a talk show, and now she has this game show where she's looking for the next girl band in Israel, like an Israeli Idol/X Factor show.
MW: Has she ever played a part in your movies? Or have you thought of including her?
FOX: The song "Diva" does appear as a musical number in Mary Lou, and all of ["Diva" songwriter] Svika Pick's songs. But working with her specifically? You know, she's a friend. I love her. I don't know. You never know. We paid homage to her in Mary Lou. I think even in Walk on Water, the characters refer to her and to her success. So I don't know, we'll see. Maybe.
Eytan Fox
(Photo by Ziv Sade)
MW: One thing I find notable about your films is that music is always a factor. Sometimes it's a small part, but always a significant part.
FOX: Yeah, it always is significant. Music is important and significant in everyone's life -- almost everyone that I know. And I use it in order to describe or characterize a character. Sometimes different musical tastes define different people, different worlds, different psyches. In Walk on Water, I really have two characters -- one very macho, straight, Mossad [Israeli security force]; the other is a gay, young German. And they really have a fight about their musical tastes. They have a constant argument about their different musical tastes.
MW: Do you have a musical background?
FOX: I studied piano when I was a kid, but I was never really a musician. I was actually a dancer. I thought I'd be a dancer when I was young. But then I had to join the Israeli Army at 18 for four years, and realized I won't be a dancer. And chose to be a film director, which is probably for the best.
MW: You were born in New York, grew up in Jerusalem, then moved to Tel Aviv for college, came out and never looked back? You're still living there to this day?
FOX: Tel Aviv is the city that all the young people -- and all the modern, secular, normal people -- flee to. It's our big, modern, vibrant city. It's a wonderful city.
But you know what? Israel has changed in amazing ways, really. I mean, growing up in Jerusalem, the word "gay" did not exist. We didn't even have the word. It was a very unknown concept, homosexuality. But today, the world has become such a small place. People who live in Jerusalem, young people, they saw my films and television work. They know that gays exist. They're exposed to cable television and satellite and Internet. And they watch all the television shows that come from all over the world that have gay characters. And they're exposed to gay websites from all over the world. So, it's not as much fun as it is in Tel Aviv, I think, but there are gay people in Jerusalem.
MW: That's one thing you capture in Yossi & Jagger, from 2002, and the sequel Yossi from two years ago: the remarkable change in only one decade in attitudes toward the LGBT community in Israel.
FOX: Israel has changed in amazing ways. And I'm really proud to say that I think that I've been part of that change. My films and television work -- I've worked very hard at making these changes happen. And Tel Aviv has become really a mecca, a paradise, for gay men and women from all over the world. It's really amazing. It's so gay-friendly. It's full of options for gay people. There are hundreds of gay couples with their kids roaming down the streets of Tel Aviv. And there are parties and nightlife, and so many things.
MW: How long have you and your partner Gal Uchovsky been together? And are you one of those couples with kids roaming the streets of Tel Aviv?
FOX: No. We don't have kids. We met 26 years ago, when I was a young film student. I was directing the Israeli Academy Awards ceremony, something like that. I had just finished film school and they kind of took me to direct this big ceremony, and Gal was a journalist at the time, writing about that ceremony. That's how we met. '
MW: What's the secret to your relationship? It's not only personal but also professional, since you often co-write your films together.
FOX: First of all, we don't really make films together anymore. We realized that's too much. To live together, maintain this relationship and family, and work together.... We try not to work together as much anymore. What is the secret? You know, the answers always sound like clichés. Friendship is the most important thing.
MW: When did you come out?
FOX: When I was about 24. I finished my army service, I moved to Tel Aviv, I started studying film. And then I met Gal. I think after I had Gal in my life, I was brave enough and strong enough to go to my parents and say, "I'm gay, and this is my life, this is my partner."
MW: I understand your parents passed away in recent years. Did they ever come around to accepting you and Gal? Are you close to your remaining family?
FOX: Yeah. My mother became very close to Gal immediately. And my father went through a very interesting process, starting with my coming out. He started going to therapy, which he never did before, and really became a much better person. And he became friends with Gal. It was a very nice journey that he took, and I was there to see it happen. I think the last thing he said to me before he died was something very nice about my relationship with Gal. He said something about how he realizes that Gal is so wonderful for me.
Both my brothers have gone back to the states. So it's only me and then all my alternative family, my close friends, and Gal's family is here. He has a relatively big family in Israel.
MW: You were closeted when you were in the army.
FOX: Of course. This was 1982, the world was a different place. Israel was certainly a different place. It was war, so no one could know.
MW: I know it's mandatory for every young Israeli to enlist, but, for example, the openly gay character Tom in Yossi talks about the possibility of leaving the army before completing his term, in order to stay with his lover Yossi. How common is that?
FOX: That's still a very radical, radical statement that he gives there: That he will leave the army. It's kind of extreme. But Israel has changed, and there's not only one option for young people. The Israel I grew up in had only one option for every man who grew up in it: You had to be straight, you had to be a soldier, you had to be a certain kind of man, who does certain kinds of things. And options have opened and changed.'
MW: How much do you identify with the character of Yossi?
FOX: Yossi is probably the character I most identify with from all my characters. I find Yossi my most personal film, and I feel closest to it. It deals with all kinds of issues that I guess I'm dealing with -- like getting older, and asking questions about who you are and what you've accomplished. And your past and your traumas. And what you've managed to deal with, and what you haven't dealt with, and should be dealing with. All kinds of questions like that.
MW: It's a really touching film. And it takes a turn I didn't see coming. Because it starts so stark, and kind of lonely, and then it ends on a hopeful note. And sweet.
FOX: I was accused a few times in the past of being not as hopeful as people wanted me to be. So I guess I'm becoming more hopeful as years go by.
MW: Did you know you were going to do a sequel to Yossi & Jagger years ago? Why did it take so long?
FOX: Not at all. Why did it take a decade? I don't really know. It takes time to go back and reflect on things that happen. You don't do that after a year or two. You can, but you don't really have the perspective and the time.
Eytan Fox with Cupcakes cast
MW: Have you ever made an American film, ever thought of "going Hollywood"?
FOX: All my films were and are Israeli. Walk on Water had a lot of English in it. But no, most of the films are in Hebrew -- small Israeli films.
I've had my relationship with Hollywood throughout the years. Somehow I never felt at home enough there. And it's very important to me, when I make films, to really feel part of a family that works together and makes films together.
But my next film is going to be a very big film that I'm doing with a producer who works and lives now out of L.A. So it will be a bigger kind of film that might involve Hollywood, in some way, manner or form. But I like doing my thing. I like doing my small, independent, Israeli films, where I can do whatever I want to do. And where I work with people I love. And with budgets that allow me to do whatever I want to do.
MW: What is the focus of that film?
FOX: It's a biopic about a wonderful, beautiful Israeli singer in the '70s, called Mike Brant. Grew up in Israel. Was actually a son of Holocaust survivors. A very poor family. Disturbed parents. Brant never wanted to be a singer, never made it in Israel. Left Israel, became a giant, giant superstar in France. And then at some point became very depressed, and killed himself at the age of 27. But it's full of music that I love. And it has a lot of Israeli history, Jewish history. Sex, drugs and rock and roll -- or more pop music than rock and roll. It has France in the '70s, and that whole music scene of France in the '70s. It's a wonderful story, I'm really happy about it. We're going to shoot it towards the end of 2014.
MW: Earlier you were talking about Tel Aviv being a mecca for young people and gay people in particular. Is there anti-gay violence there of late?
FOX: There always is to some extent. But I have to tell you that I think Tel Aviv is such a nice, gay-friendly city and environment. We had this terrible story a few years back where a shooter went into a gay youth community center and shot a kid. And two kids were killed, and a lot of them were injured and crippled. Just a year ago the police found the guilty person. And it's a big ordeal. So that was very bad, but after that, the whole country got together to fight homophobia, and anti-gay violence. So it's really part of our awareness here in Israel.
MW: It often takes something tragic to bring people together or open their eyes.
FOX: Yeah, sadly enough. But also you could say that the fact that the country has been supporting my films since the mid-'90s, constantly supporting my films. These films are made only with film funds. You can't really make these films without the support of Israeli film funds. And these are government funds: money the country is putting into films, that always have gay characters, gay themes, gay love stories, gay sex scenes. I remember traveling the world, especially gay and lesbian film festivals and Jewish film festivals, with the television series I made in the '90s called Florentine. And this was before Queer as Folk, before that whole Showtime television series, before you had all these gay characters and representations in American cinema and television, or on European television. And people were shocked! "How is it, the holy land of Israel allows you to show these things -- gay love story and scenes -- on primetime Israeli network television?"
MW: What's the answer to that? Why did Israel support that so early?
FOX: It's interesting. Israel is very full of contradictions. A very strange place. A lot of humanity and love and acceptance and inclusion. And then again a lot of fear, a lot of hatred, a lot of survival issues. Traumas. Inability to really see today, our situation, and to be able to reach peace with our neighbors. And to understand that there are certain things that we have to do in order to solve the occupation problem, and the war problems, and so on and so on. So it's really such a mix.
How do you explain the fact that Israel has become one of the most gay friendly, and accepting of gay people, cultures in the world? But then again it's so problematic and difficult as far as accepting the Arab other or Palestinian other? There are really very different views -- religious on the one hand and very anti-religious/secular/progressive on the other hand. It's a very interesting, crazy mix.
MW: Sort-of on that topic, 2006's The Bubble is about the so-called "bubble" that is Tel Aviv. Residents live in peace while surrounded by the broader Middle East region that is perpetually in a state of conflict. One of the film's storylines involves a young gay Israeli who falls in love with a Palestinian. Was that inspired by a real-life experience? Was it your own?
FOX: Partly. I never really had a serious love story with a Palestinian. I grew up in Jerusalem, and therefore the whole story of living between Israel and Palestine -- the Jewish parts of Jerusalem and the Arab/Palestinian parts of Jerusalem -- are really part of my biography. But having a love story with a Palestinian is just my fantasy I guess. [Laughs.] I know a lot of people who have had these kind of relationships, these very difficult, sometimes even tragic relationships. And I was trying to say something about our situation through this tragic love story.
MW: Are there many gay Palestinians around you today? Is Tel Aviv a mecca for them too?
FOX: I don't know if there are many. But I think a lot of young, gay Palestinians escape Palestine and come try to live in Tel Aviv. A lot of them do encounter all the difficulties that the main character, the Palestinian character in The Bubble, does. And a lot of them decide to leave Israel, and leave the region, because they can't live in Palestine openly gay, and they can't live in Israel because they're not accepted here as Palestinians. So a lot of them do leave the whole Middle East and go live in Europe and try to rebuild their lives someplace that is more normal for them.
MW: Do you have hope for a more peaceful Israel and Middle East?
FOX: Different things have to happen, but it's clear that eventually we'll have to have two states here, Palestine and Israel. And we'll have to find ways to live together peacefully. We'll have to give up a lot of things that people are very afraid about. We have to overcome fear, that's the most important thing, and go for the right thing -- which is concessions and understanding that we can't continue this way. The world is becoming so anti-Israeli policies and occupation. And rightly so.
MW: What sense of obligation do you feel in commenting on politics and current events in your work?
FOX: I always try to. I'm working on this television series now. Again, there are relationships between Israelis and Palestinians, and trying to solve problems between them on a more human level of relationships.
MW: What is the television series?
FOX: It's a new television series that I'm shooting as we speak. What would the American idiom be? "Good Family." You say in Hebrew, "It's okay, he comes from a good family." And it's about parents, a family in Jerusalem, whose kids all escape Jerusalem -- we were talking about this before -- and move to Tel Aviv. And the parents are starting to get divorced, and the whole family kind of reacts to that. And there's a nice gay character who is part of this wonderful dance company in Tel Aviv, so we'll have a lot of dance.
MW: So there are a lot of reflections of you in there?
FOX: Yeah. That's part of staying in Israel, making films in Israel. Because, really, I make films about myself. I am a one-trick pony. [Laughs.] I make films about myself and things that I really know, and know about and care about. Me, my friends, my family, my loved ones. '
MW: But you don't always write your screenplays. Are you co-writing that TV series?
FOX: Yeah. I wrote the stories and the characters for all my films. But for different reasons I didn't take the credit for the screenplays. Lately I have decided to do that, kind of put my name on the screenplays as well. Because I always did come up with the story and the characters and what I was trying to say there. And then always brought in a collaborator who wrote the screenplay with me or for me.
MW: So you were a closeted writer before?
FOX: Yeah, exactly. I'm working very hard at coming out of my writer's closet.
Eytan Fox's Cupcakes closes the WJFF on Saturday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m., at the Washington, D.C., Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th St. NW. Tickets are $12. The festival runs from Thursday, Feb. 27, through March 9, and a full festival pass is $85. Call 888-718-4253 or visit www.wjff.org.
...more