Institute History
Description
Garden is the story of Nino, Dya, and Roma who are young male prostitutes working in the electricity garden, located in downtown Tel-Aviv. The film follows their lives for a period of one year and reveals their daily reality.
Nino, Dya, and Roma are residents of the garden; the garden is not only where they work, but also their getaway, a place where they clash and find affection.
Intelligence, wit, and a strong will makes Nino, Dya, and Roma the “elite” of the garden. They constantly talk about fleeing the garden’s choking grip, but they don’t; they are caught in a loop of instant money and are unable to escape the cycle of freedom and instability. They are survivors, with similar backgrounds; each one of them experienced abuse by family members, each one of them was forced to leave home and each one of them found himself on the streets, prostituting for a living.
Nino and Dya lead the narrative of the garden. They met a year ago in a street fight, on opposing sides; Nino, originally from Palestine, escaped the Palestinian jail after he was sentenced to death for collaborating with the Israeli army. When Nino arrived to Tel Aviv, Dya was a strong figure on the streets. Dya couldn’t accept his new rival. He had known the streets since the age of nine, after he was raped and kicked out of his family home. On the day they met they almost killed each other, but something clicked—they became friends, actually, more then friends—they became blood brothers.
Nino and Dya take us through a journey of survival on the streets while trying to keep their sanity. We watch them go through changes of understanding their situation, trying to accept who they are and trying to make a difference for themselves, while fighting the police, the pimps, and the clients.
Roma (originally from Russia) gives us a wider picture of the male world of prostitution. His story intertwines with Dya and Nino’s story while he struggles to leave the world of prostitution and tries to find a decent job. Throughout the film Roma tries to change his path, leave prostitution, and reconcile with his mother, but at the end he becomes a pimp.
Each of the three have a remarkable story that shows not only their harsh reality but also the complicity of being a Palestinian, an Israeli-Arab, and an immigrant in Israel in ?2003. They are always on the run, not only for prostituting or for committing crimes, but also for their cultural background.
Garden takes place in the outskirts of society, in dark allies, abandoned houses, nightclubs, family homes, and courthouses. It is an intimate, confrontational, and direct film that reveals the fragile and harsh lives of teenagers that come from ruined pasts but still hope for better futures.