In Like Me, Tom, a high school senior, is kicked out of his family home, and finds himself in a unusual relationship with an older fashion photographer whom he is modelling for, while secretly being in love with his close friend Gilad.

The debut feature from writer-director Eyal Kantor had its world premiere at the 2022 Guadalajara International Film Festival, and went on to play AMOR Festival Santiago del Chile, OutSouth Queer Film Festival, Outshine Film Festival- Fort Lauderdale, and Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival.

The film stars Yoav Keren, Mendi Barsheshet, Gal Amitai, and Danny Geva.

 

Available on on VOD, digital platforms including iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, and local cable/satellite providers, as well as on DVD.. Available from Breaking Glass Pictures

Director’s Statement – Eyal Kantor

The movie deals with the postmodern situation. The main characteristic in this world, to be actively nothing, used to be a strong self-hood. Questions of loyalty, integrity–now we have nothing of that left. No identity. Activization of the nothingness through mobility between nothing and nothing, between identities, between genders, between loves, between views on the world. Tom, the protagonist of the film, is in love with his best friend, but cannot confess this love. He is conducting a relationship, perhaps of love, perhaps of control, with an older man and is craving for the fatherly love viciously taken away from him. He wants to be himself, but he can’t, and he will tell anybody what they want to hear just in order to receive some love in return. He begins his journey as several reflections of himself. We shall not see him completely, only parts of him. He will finish his journey when his face is exposed and injured, but whole. Tom will be physical, existing, present, wounded, whole.

Turn of the 21st century. One of the most important themes of this century is the breaking down of the subject. The metaphysical breakdown/disassembly. We are in an era in which many solidities are gone; solidities of institutions, of faith in the state, scientific truths, arts and so on.We are living in a century of revolution, and the subject here is no different. The movie deals with the breakdown/disassembly of the subject. In the book “The Y generation”by sociologists Oz Almog& Tamar Almog, they describe humans as numb, childish, dependent, indifferent, and trapped in an Instagram bubble which provides an engineered point of view on life, though not life itself. The movie attempts to bring the truth behind Instagram, but what is truth in a post-truth era?A question that challenges Descartes, who wanted to find a justified base for each scientific investigation, and for that he wanted to find the basis of absolute knowledge from which he could begin.

As a teacher for cinema arts, and a creator for more than 30 years, who has come across countless astonishing and insane stories, strange and crazy people, living in and acquainted with the world of the teenagers studying with me, I wanted to tell the story of this generation. I have more than once asked what is the difference between then and now? What has technology done to us? Social networks? What is the price they take from us? From friendships? Relationships? Intimacy?The protagonist of my film is based on a character I have known well for a few years now. I have followed them during the development of the script and watched how it grows and changes in front of my eyes. I have collected real and actual stories of my students: situations,experiences, images,scents,and colours, and have tried to express them in this piece. Every time I thought I had reached a breakthrough, I hit a dead end. The aspiration to tell the story of a whole generation living in models,photos,and videos – in the stories they tell us on the one hand and in grave loneliness on the other – it was hard to express accurately. To tell a story in a reality that changes almost daily, when the political reality is insane, when the truth practically loses all sense of importance, was almost impossible for me.

 

 

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats.