In the first film made by Shay Lee Schindler on “The New Rich”, she garnered countless sharp criticisms from television critics and viewers, for her disconnection from reality and the outrageous choice of the film’s subject. I remember wondering to myself whether she regrets making the film and is reconsidering her steps.
Shi Li’s new film “Opening It Up”, which aired yesterday on Channel 13, proved without a doubt that Shi Li Schindler deliberately chooses topics that provoke controversy and provocation, ones that will bring harsh reactions, and sharp criticisms and thus rise to the agenda and public discourse and not remain on the margins of the arena. Shai Lee chooses to touch on contents that have been considered taboo until today, precisely because she has all the confidence and courage to stand firm in the face of the negative feedback she will receive about them. This is how a real creator behaves, refusing to run with the crowd, but one who swims against the current and brings us topics on the tray that make us move uncomfortably on the couch.
I’m sure that there isn’t a couple in a stable, long-term relationship who watched a movie last night and didn’t have the idea that it might be worth trying as well. There isn’t a couple who didn’t finish watching and have an open conversation about it when they seriously considered the tempting offer as presented yesterday on the screen in the movie “Opening Everything” which deals with enabling, open, polygamous relationships and any other professional title you give it.
and why? And here the dog is buried, because as much as Shi Li’s film was easy to watch and intriguing, it was also very monotonous and presented only the positive sides of an open relationship, the advantages that each of the spouses achieved on a personal level when they managed such a relationship, the fantasy that became reality, the realization The passion of life, the thrills and a host of other feelings that we all long for, because this is the essence of life, to feel, to experience, to be loved. Whereas Shi Li was wrong when she presented in the film only one angle of open relationships and less emphasized the heavy price that couples may pay for the path they chose.
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I also know quite a few couples who chose an open relationship, some of them are very happy with their choice and for some the relationship was damaged and fell apart, because in most cases the choice of an open relationship does not allow going back. Shai Lee presented a lovely couple whose choice of an open relationship saved their relationship, at no point did she ask them what would happen if that led to the end of the relationship.
Also, it was not shown in the film that there is a great risk that one of the spouses will be very happy and excited, and will implement the idea with full vigor while the other may find himself out of the game, an imbalance that will make the deal unprofitable. The film also did not show couples whose relationship was damaged by an open relationship, except for that kind girl who admitted that she fell in love with another man and left her hurt husband, but she told it with a delighted smile on her face. If Shi Li had brought the same hurt man, who would tell about the heavy price he paid after he made the mistake of choosing an open relationship, maybe the message would have been more balanced in the film. Nor was it mentioned in the film that in most cases there is one party who would be happier for a relationship that allows and another party who is less interested or one who is dragged against his will into the situation in order to please.
It was important for Shai Lee throughout the episode to repeat again and again and emphasize that she and her fiery husband, it should be noted, Liyad Agmon, do not have an open relationship, even though the topic was on the agenda. From the short conversations the two had in the car, the impression was created that Liad was not opposed, while Shi Li herself is less fluid, so maybe this is the reason she set out to investigate her husband’s desire and turned it into a real movie.
So tell me if you’re so heroic to make a film about open relationships even though you’ll get a lot of flak for it, maybe you’ll also be heroic enough and do all of humanity a favor and share your destructive husband with all of us. I promise you that for him every woman would agree to turn her relationship around to the enabler.