Shablulim BaGeshem

This film tells the story of a university student who lives with his girlfriend. He receives anonymous love letters from a man, which unleashes his difficult battle with his sexuality.

"Snails in the Rain" places a lot of emphasis on the emotional battle of the main character, Boaz. He is clearly homosexual, and yet he denies himself of his sexuality. The film portrays his troubled life - how he suspects or fantasises every man he sees to be the writer of the romantic love letters. Yet, he continues living with his girlfriend, denying himself and his girlfriend of the happiness they deserve. It is quite a suspenseful but sad film. In addition, eye candies are far from frequent, and those who expect sex scenes will be disappointed.

The handsome Boaz is waiting for an admissions letter to a university. Everytime he goes and checks his mailbox there is a letter of an anonymous man. The romantic letters have a big effect on Boaz, because he is clearly struggeling with his true feelings. With the flashbacks from his time in the army this gets more and more evident. But he is a "real¨ man, with a girlfriend, so he shouldn't have these feelings...

You can probably guess where this is going, hence the disapointing part. It starts out looking like a movie that will be different, but in the end it is again one of those movies which just seem to want to deliver the following message: You will be sad and lonely if you are gay, better choose the straight way... Which after having watched this movie, makes you feel exactly that way...

On a side note: The title "Snails in the rain" is explained, visually, at the very end of the movie. And it just made me scratch my head, thinking: Why???

Therefore I give it a 5 out of 10, not bad, just sad.

A nice little film about a gorgeous young man receiving letters in the mail from a male admirer who does not identify himself leaving the young man in question, who gets many admiring looks, suspecting/wondering about so many he comes across if they are the writer. On the surface he appears to be heterosexual as he has a wonderful girlfriend played very well by Moran Rosenblatt. The young man in question is portrayed by Yoav Reuveni who beyond being beautiful is also very good. He also apparently has no interest in being an actor as this film is at the moment 10 years old and he's never made another film since, which is a shame. As we see in flashbacks, when he was in the military, he has homosexual tendencies that he fights fiercely against. Sadly, that is the essence of this entire film. He is clearly bisexual and will probably spend the rest of his life battling this as the final scene sort of implies. It's actually a very abrupt, though interesting ending. The title is completely obscure. You find out where it comes from near the end of this film, but it doesn't have a thing to do with anything that preceded it as far as I could tell.

A good film, probably only real criticism is that the main character seems to be taking his top off too much. Whilst that's not a problem, it seems to be at odds with the rest of the film.

It's 1989, Boaz (Yoav Eruveni), an extremely alluring and captivating linguistic student is receiving anonymous letters. He goes everyday to the post office to check on the status of a pending scholarship. Instead, he receives obsessive letters detailing very inner feelings from someone very close to him who's invaded his inner peace with emotionally suggestive and romantic overtones. These letters have a deteriorating effect on his psyche as well as his relationship with live in girlfriend Noah (Moran Rosenblatt). As the letters progressively consume the daily thoughts and dealing of Boaz, his inner anguish is unleashed upon his girlfriend, hence having a threatening and corroding effect on him. Paranoia takes over when everyone he meets becomes a possible suspect of the daily correspondence. Doubt ensues as a very conflicted, emotionally fragile and volatile Boaz goes on a quest to find himself while trying to maintain some semblance of sanity as he comes to grips with the reality that his life will no longer be the same courtesy of this secret admirer. Filmmaker Yariv Mozer has assembled an eloquent, intriguing and sexually charged whodunnit drama that slowly unravels the different layers of the main characters inner self. The arrivals of these letter are only the catalyst to which the main character reacts in order to find and deal with his inner demons. Once he's found the cause for the way he's feeling, his passage to acceptance ultimately prove to be sobering and freeing.

This is an excellent and involving film from Israel which reflects the many conflicting layers of despair as the hidden realities of relationships within the confines of higher education propels true feelings to surface forcing the conflicting main character to find himself in the process, as he tries his hardest to blend in with family and society's expectations.