Directed by Adi Barash & Ruthie Shatz Israel, 2003, video, 85 min. East Coast Premiere

The Garden, a neighborhood in Tel Aviv which has over the last 30 years become a known "red-light" district in Israel, is home for the dispossessed, a place where young gay prostitutes, drug addicts, illegal Palestinian's, and transsexual street workers collide and look out for each other. This is certainly no Eden, and the irony of the name is surely not lost, as this candid documentary follows Nino, a 17-year old illegal Palestinian, and his 18-year old friend and protector Dudu, an Arab-Israeli, addicted to heroin. For one year, Barash and co-director Shatz followed the two young men as they struggle to tight-rope-walk a thin fine line between a stable life and drug addiction or crime.

Revealing and candid, the two mutually dependent friends allowed the filmmakers extraordinary access into their lives. Garden is set against the backdrop of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, taboos around homosexuality, and constant fear of arrest for male prostitution. Nino and Dudu are clearly vulnerable, which is not lost on the filmmakers who document them throughout with dignity. There are no tarot cards predicting a bright destiny here, but the young men's resilience, love and support of each other gives us hope that one day, they too, will escape the Garden.
In Hebrew/Arabic with English subtitles.

Total running time: 85 min.
$12 non-members / $10 members

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