The Israeli movie Antarctica opens with a brisk ten-minute montage of extremely steamy, frenetic sex scenes with numerous dark-eyed, dark-haired and hard-bodied men. Then a title card announces the passing of three years. As I was concentrating on reading the sub-titles, I found myself confused and lost with the plethora of characters and plots and sub-plots. Who was who, where was the supposed main character from the beginning and what in the world was really going on? Since I was sharing a bottle of wine with a friend while viewing, I decided to watch the movie again the next evening.

Those first sexually-charged ten minutes of vignettes was actually a clever way to introduce all of the main male characters, as they experience Boaz’s revolving bedroom door. And Boaz (Ofer Regirer) is outrageously attractive with movie-star looks.

In a series of split-screen encounters we meet the young shy dancer Danny (Yiftach Mizrahi), sexy journalist Ronen (Guy Zo-Aretz), slightly flamboyant Miki (Yuval Raz) and the somewhat reclusive librarian Omer (Tomer Ilan). Each encounter is a perfect snapshot of the characters’ personalities.

Omer is miserable because he’s about to turn 30 in two days, not having found his place in life or his ideal man. In the meanwhile, Omer’s friends Eitan (Oshiri Sahar) and Miki (Yuval Raz) have lots of wild sex and vex over the meaning of life.

After going on a blind date with Danny, Omer becomes intrigued by the young 20-year-old dancer, who energizes his libido but not his ambition. Meanwhile Omer resists the attentions of Ronen, the handsome journalist, who understands him and sparks his imagination.

Oh by the way, Danny is Ronen’s roommate and the relationship between ex-boyfriends and current roommates is a minimalist study in jealousy and still flickering desire. While Omer’s sister Shirley (Lucy Dubinchilk) breaks off her engagement for a lesbian relationship with her boss, Boaz runs into Danny at a dance studio, they having had enjoyed a month-long fling three years earlier. While the guess-who’s-coming-to-the-birthday party doesn’t quite result in the climax that seems to be slowly building, there are surprising twists at the end in who picks whom for a mature relationship – and don’t forget the potential alien invasion plotline.

Except for the disquieting use of an Israeli drag queen as Omer’s mother, I really did come to fully enjoy the depth and scope of Antarctica after a second viewing and highly recommend it.

Comments are off for this post