›› Lost & Found ‹‹ a short film by Nizan Lotem and Lior Haen. 2015 | 8 mins | Israel. an achingly topical work on the perils of mobile phone insecurity. Dave says: From the writing / directorial partnership of Nizan Lotem and Lior Haen of A Trip to the Desert fame, comes this achingly topical work on the perils of mobile phone insecurity. As closeted teenager Yuval (Aviv Zalishanski) is about to discover to his cost, when he finds himself without his mobile, having lost it somwhere outside the family home. To his rescue, or rather not, comes Asaf (Tom Hagi); an older man who Yuval is soon to discover is not returning his mobile as an act of kindness; indeed, quite the opposite. For this is a man who had taken great pleasure in trawling through Yuval's archive of selfies in the hope of finding something to his financial advantage and when he catches sight of photos that show the young man in acts of a sexual nature, the shekels start to turn in his mind. Demanding a significant amount of cash in return for the mobile, or else he'll hit the send button on every explicit photo to the boy's family and friends, Yuval seemingly has no other option but to steal from those he loves to meet the demands of his blackmailer. Yet when he's caught by his father red-handed; how does Yuval explain the situation he's in, without revealing his true sexual self? In short, this well-played work is not only a telling reminder of the importance of password security, but moreover of not keeping anything on your mobile that you would not wish anyone else to see, and / or cannot afford to lose. Yet we know that millions of folk use their mobile like a mini-computer, only one that is more often than not, password insecure. Well-executed throughout, here your heart cannot help but go out to the plight of a young man who finds his life turned upside down by not only being foolish enough to let explicit photos be taken of himself in the first place, but go unprotected. And whilst the central message is rightly 'never give in to blackmail', come close-of-play this work somehow finds the Lotem / Haen boys surprisingly fail to push the cinematic envelope to the next level, even if Yuval's fathers' reaction to the facts of the matter is not exactly as you would expect. Say no more. ›› available as part of the NEW QUEER VISIONS: PARENTAL GUIDANCE shorts compilation. ›› posted: Sunday, 26th September, 2021. Gay Visibility - overt.  Nudity - none.  Overall - file under ... 3+ stars.  donations are the lifeblood of Gay Celluloid; every drop helps keep it online - thank you :) Copyright 2021 David Hall - www.gaycelluloid.com. archive reference #2021074 ›› previous page | back to top | print me ‹‹