Himmo, King of Jerusalem

Adapted from Yoram Kaniuk's best-selling novel, this heart-rending love story unfolds during the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. A young and beautiful volunteer nurse is drawn to the enigmatic Himmo, a mortally wounded and mutilated soldier who cannot speak or move.

Amos Guttman’s third film is an adaptation of a book by Yoram Kanyuk.
Even though the film doesn’t deal with explicit LGBTQ themes, but with the Israeli War of 1948, it is steeped with criticism of the existing societal norms and the ideal of masculinity. Guttman’s unique style and cinematic language are imbued well in this film. There is a prevalent subtext of homoeroticism and complex relationships between the soldiers, especially Frangi and Assa (played by the young Amiram Gabriel and Dov Navon).

Hamutal, a young nurse who volunteers in a military hospital improvised in an abandoned monastery, is inexplicably drawn to Himmo, a soldier severely injured during the battle for Jerusalem. Favoritism sparks jealousy among the other wounded soldiers and highlights the tension between attraction and revulsion, compassion and pain, the life force and the wish to die – a conflict that is accentuated by Edna Mazia’s macabre and humoristic dialogues.

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