David R. Walker

Lost in the White City

Directors: Tanner King Barklow and Gil Kofman

Cast: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Bob Morley, Noni Geffen, Tawfeek Barhom

Co-directed by Tanner King Barklow (The Invisible War) and Israeli Gil Kofman, Lost in the White City is a fascinating film about a couple’s relationship which disintegrates during a Mediterranean summer in the capital of Tel Aviv. Lost in the White City had its South African premiere at the 5th Durban Gay and Lesbian Film Festival DGLFF

Lost in the White City stars rising Indie actor Thomas Dekker as the hard drinking self-obsessed experimental film maker Kyle and Haley Bennett (The Equalizer) as the gorgeous aspiring writer Eva, who as the film opens, it is evident that their relationship is compromised.

Soon Kyle and Eva are swept into a precarious and intriguing Israeli environment where menace, seduction and danger are interlaced with a sultry awareness of each other’s more preferred sexual choices. Kyle’s sexual awakening comes in the form of the gorgeous and gregarious ex-soldier Avi ironically played by Australian actor Bob Morley.

There is a superb scene where Avi leads Kyle to a bombed out nightclub on the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Kyle shoots Avi naked in a semi-erotic pose for his Avant-Garde film, liking their coupling to that of German independent director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski.

In this significant scene, the sexual tension between Kyle and Avi is palpable onscreen, something which is often masked by aggression and heavy drinking, as the boys hit the Tel Aviv nightclub scene.

Eva while browsing through a suburban bookshop meets Israeli-American writer Liam, played by Nony Geffen, who is the complete antithesis of the reckless, almost unfettered Kyle. Liam introduces Eva to a more sophisticated world of the intelligentsia and is invited to book launches and parties on yachts.

However, the film makers cleverly underscore both Kyle and Eva’s journeys of self-discovery and their own relationship crumbling with a disturbing sense of danger as with Tel Aviv there is always a massive security risk with an omniscient violence along with the continual threat of suicide bombings.

Lost in the White City follows the blooming of the sexual relationship between Kyle and Avi after a completely wild night partying, spliced with gorgeous shots of them on the beach in Tel Aviv as well as aerial shots of the “white city” in the heat of a Mediterranean summer.

Israeli cinematography Shahar Reznik paints Tel Aviv in a sumptuous glare of sunlight contrasting with the night sequences which are expertly filled with glamour, drugs and decadence, giving the audience a sense of the city being constantly under threat while its citizens dance the night away in complete hedonistic abandonment.

Watching Lost in the White City, the audience is reminded of a similarly intriguing film about obsession framed by sinister intentions with director Paul Schrader’s The Comfort of Strangers set in Venice starring Rupert Everett and Helen Mirren.

Highly recommended viewing, gorgeously shot and definitely aimed at a more open-minded audience, Lost in the White City sensually explores the dangers of summer romances, sexuality and unrequited dreams.

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