Florida Premiere
Saturday, Dec. 11, 7:15 pm

Erik Kaplun, Director.

Hebrew/English subtitles.
95 minutes.

A romantic comedy about Russian Jewish immigrants who arrive in Tel Aviv in 1991 at the height of the 1991 Gulf War when Saddam Hussein is threatening Israel. After being left pregnant, in debt, and alone by her husband, Yana finds herself sharing a cramped apartment with Eli (Nir Levi), an Israeli wedding photographer and voyeur with a passion for casual sex. The film follows the developing relations between Yana and Eli; the couple across the hall who make their living by putting the wife’s father, an elderly Russian war hero, on the street in a wheelchair to beg; the music teacher from one of the Eastern republics who is reduced to playing the accordion for coins; and their bitter landlady who lost her lover during WWII and her son during the Yom Kippur War. Circumstances, including the start of the missile attacks, conspire to make all the characters rise above themselves and act more decently than they ever intended to.

Winner, Wolgin Prize (Best Feature Film), Jerusalem International Film Festival, 1999

Guests: Nir Levi, Actor.
Representatives from the Israeli Consulate, Miami

OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION FOR BENEFACTORS AND DONORS TO FOLLOW
The Opening Night Screening and Reception for Benefactors and Donors is made possible through the generosity of Marilyn Cohen in memory of Maurice M. Cohen, a founding Director of the Jewish Arts Foundation. An internationally-respected supporter of Jewish art and culture, Maurice Cohen was a Boston and Palm Beach-based businessman and philanthropist who with his wife Marilyn helped initiate the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University.