This week, we have our resident contributor Ting review the 2015 Isareli lesbian movie titled Blush directed by the profilic Israeli filmmaker and screenwriter, Michal Vinik. Winner of several accolades within the film festival circuits (Jury Award for Best Feature Film at the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival, MIX Milano, and the Chéries-Chéries Paris LGBT Film Festival 2016 and the Best Feature Film at the Outview Film Festival 2016), Blush stars Sivan Noam Shimon and Hadas Jade Sakori in the lead roles of Naama Barash and Dana Hershko as the protagonists of the movie. The movie centers on the story of Naama, 17, who indulges in alcohol and drugs in an attempt to escape her tumultuous home life. But everything changes when she meets a sexy, free-spirited new girl at school by the name of Dana and the two become more than fast friends.

Watch Blush on GagaOOLala


(Source: GagaOOLala)

When Naama meets Dana, the new transfer student, she’s immediately drawn in by Dana’s bleach blonde hair and single dyed eyebrow. The two of them soon fall in love. As Naama basks in the warmth of first love, she finds new meaning in her life. But when her sister in the army suddenly disappears, family tensions rise and conflict escalates.


(Source: GagaOOLala)

And then there’s Dana. Beyond her unique appearance, she also has a boldness that Naama finds refreshing. Though before their lives were completely different, now Dana takes innocent Maana to nightclubs to drink and do drugs. As Maana enters Dana’s world, she finds herself completely captivated by Dana.

Coincidentally, Maana’s older sister Liora goes missing from the army, leaving their parents in a worried frenzy. Their only hope is that Maana can get in contact with Liora. But under pressure from them Maana rebels, growing ever closer to Dana.


(Source: GagaOOLala)

First love is ever so sweet. That’s why when they finally kiss, Maana tells Dana, “That was the most perfect kiss of my life,” and records herself saying it.


(Source: GagaOOLala)

But when Maana finally gets up the courage to ask Dana to be her girlfriend, she receives only silence in reply. The heartbreak of that moment—those who have been through it will understand. In her room, with no other way to express her pain, Maana can only replay that recording over and over again.


(Source: GagaOOLala)

In addition, the Arab-Israeli conflict also makes its influence felt on the plot. Maana’s father is prejudiced against Arab culture and Arab policemen, while Maana’s older sister falls in love with an Arab man and as a result is detained by the military. These ongoing conflicts in their society are also reflected in Maana’s own emotions.

For Maana, first love is one of the conflicts she must face as part of maturing. But as her sister says to her in the end, “You’ll make it through this heartbreak and everything that comes with it.”


(Source: GagaOOLala)

All in all, Blush is a coming of age story, planted in the heart of Israeli society, about a young woman who struggles to find her self-identity in an environment that has different ideas about sex, drugs and love. The film tells the simple story of Maana’s life as she grows up and discovers herself, and in doing so takes an original approach to exploring first love. Highly recommended!

Watch Blush on GagaOOLala

Yi-min lives alone with her son, as her husband works away from home. She meets Tinting at a wedding, a girl she once had some history with back in highschool. Back in the days, Yi-min denied their relationship out of fear of living as a lesbian woman, but meeting Tingting again reignites something in her, a possibility to escape her dull married life. Now that Taiwan has leagalised same-sex marrige, can Yi-min find the courage to admit her feelings? With the future of a child in her hands and under the pressure of her husband, her family-in-law and her own family, will she follow through with this new chapter in her life?