Shesh Peamim

Here we have a high-school girl who volunteers sex services to fellow high-schoolers she doesn't even know. She's doing this from the very start of the movie, and we get little idea of why, except that she's only recently transferred from another school in the same suburb (Herzliya, although IMDb lists the filming location as Tel Aviv) and she evidently feels embarrassed about living in a modest apartment building. We nothing more about her, and almost nothing about the boys except that one or two of them are rich and aside from one nerdy fat boy they apparently have no intention of offering her real friendship. There's the feeling that if the intent was to tell a stark story without investigating the characters' backgrounds and motivations, a much shorter film would have sufficed. In a long film, we expect a little more of the characters' surrounding environment and of their behavior in situations more than a few minutes removed from sexual contact. The lead actress won two awards for this movie, and she certainly had quite a job to handle given a script so underdeveloped.

If I had owned a pair of rose colored glasses to lessen the harsh glare of the sexually wounded and emotionally scared people in the world and to soften the sharp edges of the truth, I would have considered wearing them as I watched this movie. Lacking rose colored glasses, a little UV protection may be necessary for some. It is a difficult film to watch because it touches close to the heart for the many victims and survivors of abuse and also for the perpetrators of abuse who may not have previously recognized themselves as perpetrators. The dangerous vulnerability of the lead actress Gili, as she plays the tough, rebellious teenager is unsettling. The ease with which her new and only friends manipulate her into situations she doesn't know how to escape, is painful and familiar to more than just myself. S#x Acts is a brutally honest look at society and young sexuality. As much as we would rather not talk about it, it is so very important to break the silence. This movie is a great place to start the conversation.