Last time I mentioned Israel in a negative light, I got a pretty significant number of hits from Israel on the next day. We’ll see what happens this time.

Yes or Ken (in the original Hebrew) is a movie about Y and Yasmine, two Israeli entertainers who work parties for rich people where they seem to keep the party going and also offer sexual services, often as a couple. Next day they have to return to their normal lives and to raising their kid while the world around them wants to remind them of the genocide.

Yet, they can’t really stop doing what they are doing. You have to make your living somehow. They are both clearly affected by the situation, but they still have to work for the rich people who are often behind the genocide. Y actually gets an offer to write a song about all of this, which is kind of the center of the film (including an explanation regarding the words both at the start and the end of the movie).

The movie gets weird at times. This might be a turn-off for some people. I think it was good, but that they used this too inconsistently. At one point one of the rich people decides that he wants to show Y a video of Yasmine playing a caged tiger. In order to do this, he shakes his head until it turns to a screen showing the video and then sends it to Y by tapping the screen on Y’s phone. It’s just weird that this happens so rarely in the film.

The movie is also quite long. My bladder doesn’t like 150 minute movies. I don’t exactly know what to cut, but maybe still something.

Despite these problems, I liked the movie quite a bit. I’m glad I went to see it. I was hesitant for a while, but what encouraged me to go was the significant difference between critic and audience reactions. When this happens, the movie is definitely at least worth seeing (unless it was review-bombed, which is a possibility in this case), often very good. Sometimes one of my favorite things ever. Well, this movie is not quite that.

I like how the rich are depicted. They are slimy and cruel. They live a life completely outside of the norm, so is it any wonder that they don’t really care about normal people? We are just background characters in their lives. Often completely out of view, in one instance even hiding from their employer.

Y and Yasmine are quite self-destructive in their ways, Y more so than Yasmine, but they both use drugs freely on their gigs. It’s just part of the act. They have to do it to belong in the group. People also seem to enjoy humiliating Y. What is he going to do about it? Nothing. Just keep his mouth shut.

That’s an interesting situation, actually. If your income was dependent on this, how would you react? Would you know how to react? Would you try to keep your integrity intact or would you try to learn what you need to do to keep them entertained?

I keep getting back to the genocide. This is something I think about quite a bit in my day to day life. Not necessarily this specific situation, since there are plenty of wars and genocides going on around the world, but they are quite far from me. In some ways the war in Ukraine is quite close to us (as Finland is next to Russia), but it doesn’t really affect our daily lives. Y and Yasmine are aware that their own country is doing this. There is no escape for them.

As I’m writing this, this is Nakba, which I can’t claim to understand, but it is the day when the Palestinians were displaces in 1948 to make room for Israel. While it wasn’t advertised this way, I doubt it’s a coincidence that it debuted today specifically around here.