The Monkey House starts with awkward camera work that annoyed me for the whole film! I do not know why would any cameraman or a director choose shots like this, that almost make you dizzy... I read somewhere that this was Avi Nesher's fourth collaboration with Adir Miller. Avi Nesher's acclaimed movies have significantly contributed to the ascent of Israeli cinema in recent years... thus, his expertise is evident in this screenplay as well - but most of it was crafted by experience, not heart. Unique story that never reaches the excellence - just lingers above the mediocre. My biggest problem in this movie I already mentioned - that camera work and the second that was the most obvious - a huge over-acting of everyone involved. It seems that everything needed to be pushed to the edge. I am not sure if it's a cultural characteristic, but all situations seemed like fights and arguments that were ready to escalate - perfect for psychopaths and schizophrenics but not for normal audience.

I would lie if I say that I enjoyed this... and I do not think that was a good experience wasting over 2 hours watching a film that I could not connect at all!

'Everyone lies!' is the favorite catchphrase of the main character in the American medical drama 'House, M. D.'. It could very well be the motto of Israeli director Avi Nesher's latest film 'Gan haKofim' which is distributed in the English language markets under the title 'The Monkey House' (incorrect translation, from the mysteries of the distributors). His characters surround themselves with smaller or bigger lies that they use to advance professionally and socially, secrets that they keep even from their best friends or even from those they love. The plot of the film, inspired by a real case, is based on deciphering such a network of untruths and on their accumulation leading to the moment of crisis, the one where lies become a burden that prevents the realization of dreams and the fulfillment of personal relationships that matter.

Amitay Kariv, the main hero of the film, is a writer. Israeli screenwriters seem fascinated by this profession, many of the intellectual heroes of recent Israeli films are writers. We never know how good a writer he is. What is certain is that at the time when the story of the film takes place, in the late 80s, he is in a creative crisis and in a period in the shadow - forgotten by readers and ignored by critics. To prepare a comeback, he invents a doctoral thesis about his work authored a PhD student and researcher living in America, a real person who has no idea that her name is being used for this purpose. To impersonate her on a documentation visit in Israel, he hires Margo, a young woman with ambitions to be an actress, who gets the job precisely because she also covered herself in an aura of lies at the interview. The talent of the young woman and the Pygmalion work of the writer create in a few days the character, who will fool many people - literary critics in particular - and will even convince Tamar, the youth love of Amitay, freshly widowed after a marriage that had also been a lie. The scheme starts to work, really well, until complications arise.

The structure of the narration is very interesting, Avi Nesher being also the author of the screenplay. The film opens with a film-in-film sequence that for several minutes makes viewers wonder whether they have not mistaken the cinema hall. Next, for much of the film, the story flows chronologically, accompanied by off-screen commentary from the narrator writer, few enough to not be too distracting. After a false ending to this main part that comprises about two-thirds of the action, we witness a succession of scenes that follow the heroes for several years following the main story. The change of pace is justified as many of the unsolved conflicts are explained and resolved. The lead role is interpeted by Adir Miller, one of Israel's most popular actors and showmen, at his fourth collaboration with Avi Nesher. His partner is a young and talented actress named Suzanna Papian who is almost a debutant in feature films, until this year she only played a few minor roles, mostly on television. The role in this film and a lead role in a popular television series deservedly catapulted her to stardom. The formidable Shani Cohen fits in very well as Tamar, the hero's unfulfilled love from his youth. The reconstruction of Israel as it was 30 or so years ago, a period in time when great changes in landscape and atmosphere took place, is rigorous and nostalgic. 'Gan haKofim' brings to the screens something from a world that disappeared, a world where moral dilemmas had a more important place in our lives. Avi Nesher is one of those filmmakers who do not intend to revolutionize the art of film, but who we can be sure does not compromise on quality. The characters in this film may be liars, but they look true and they successfully cross the screen involving the audience in their experiences.