In a departure from previous years, the Gay and Lesbian Film Project is presenting a mini-fest of gay and lesbian-themed films at this year's festival. The centerpiece is the enormously popular "Yossi and Jagger."

Yossi and Jagger are in love, but they also happen to be soldiers in the Israeli Army. In their story, military authority blurs into playfulness and tender sexuality. At the same time, their secret love runs parallel to steamy sexual and political tensions among the other young men and women with whom they share duty at an isolated border outpost. That tension is a vital outlet and distraction for them, a defense against the grind and boredom of military service. Many speak of what they will do when they get out. Others seem resigned. Here, what goes unsaid is often the truer narrative.

Amidst the dangerous conditions of war, these individual identities struggle with authority while maintaining a shared loyalty. With only each other as company, their sexuality seems fluid and their affections are confused. Yet their spontaneous uprisings of youthful, comic celebration are, and feel like, the norm. I felt I knew these people, and I wished to know them more. Their story is charming and irresistible.

Ultimately, though, they share sadness and grief. We witness the weight and toll of war on the young, a weight which often leads them to an understanding of the small but important things in their lives. In the end, we are left with an inkling that maybe that understanding was always there, but needed this time and place to become clear to them. Their story has captured our hearts. But it also leads us to now ask, "What will be the resolution to war?"

Steven Jones takes pictures, loves film, and lives with his dog Kodi in Portland.

2004 MJFF Program Book edited by Abby Zimet