Ezri (Ran Danker), a nineteen-year-old homeless Yeshiva student from Safed who has just arrived in Jerusalem, visits the shop to use the telephone.

Later that day, while coming upstairs to see Ezri, Aaron finds a folder with some drawings made by his apprentice and seems surprised.

Rivka, Aaron's devoted wife, initially welcomes her husband's apprentice into their family circle.

Being a devout religious man, living in Mea Shearim, a Haredi community, Aaron is torn between his family and devotion to God, and the intense feelings he has for Ezri .

Under increasing social, commercial and family pressure, Aaron tries to break off ties with Ezri but is unable to bring himself to do so.

Eyes Wide Open competed in the official selection of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival in the category "Un Certain Regard".

[6] A. O. Scott from The New York Times wrote in a positive review that the film "moves slowly and patiently through the ordeal of a single soul, illuminating in the process a cosmos of intense and hidden feeling.