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Matchmaker

The Matchmaker

Pa'am ha'yi'ti

Avi Nesher

  • Country: Israel
  • Year: 2010
  • Language: Hebrew
  • Producer: David Silber, Chilick Michaeli, Avi Nesher, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, Avraham Pirchi, Tamar Leon, Natan Caspi
  • Executive Producer: Shlomo Mugrabi, Rami Damari, Eviatar Dotan, Ishay Mor
  • Screenplay: Avi Nesher
  • Runtime: 118
  • Programmes:

In 1968 Haifa, a teenage boy gets a summer job with a Holocaust survivor who makes ends meet by brokering marriages and smuggling goods. Throughout the summer, the mysterious matchmaker takes the boy on a dangerous coming of age ride into the deepest underbelly of Haifa.

Coming of Age & Youth,  Israel,  Family Relations,  History,  Identity

screening times

    • Saturday September 11
    • 7:45:00 PM
    • AMC 10
    • Sunday September 12
    • 9:00:00 AM
    • AMC 2
    • Sunday September 19
    • 6:00:00 PM
    • Tiff Bell LightBox 1

Note: indicates Premium Screening.

official description

Set in Haifa in the summer of 1968, The Matchmaker is a tender story of love, loss and survival in the aftermath of the Second World War. Director Avi Nesher plumbs a fascinating juncture in Israeli history, where an embryonic society still reeling from the memory of trauma is beset by the cultural-sexual upheaval of the sixties. More than just an exploration of a fledgling country finding its feet, The Matchmaker is an enchanting coming-of-age story about the manifold incarnations of friendship and love.

Sixteen-year-old Arik is at loose ends one summer when he gets a job offer from a mysterious old friend of his father’s named Yankele Bride. Bride, a Holocaust survivor, makes his living as a matchmaker, uniting luckless souls. He hires Arik to scout potential clients throughout the bustling port city.

Arik is intrigued by Brides’s line of work. The diverse characters he meets on the job open his eyes to a world of wonder, pain and longing, offering him glimpses into unspeakable darkness and the depths of human love. There is Clara, a beautiful, fragile woman whom Bride loves from afar; Sylvia, a survivor of Josef Mengele’s Nazi experiments who yearns for a husband; and Meir (Dror Kenen from last year’s Five Hours from Paris) a librarian, whose search for love leads him to commit an extraordinary act of malice. Even Arik falls in love for the first time, a development that brings surprising consequences.

Based on the novel When Heroes Fly by award-winning writer Amir Gutfreund (Our Holocaust), The Matchmaker interweaves various personal struggles with remarkable emotional energy. These characters are survivors of one of history’s great tragedies; they cling to their secrets and despairs while trying to reconceptualize the value of the present. Each forms a special attachment to the naïve and spirited Arik and this, more than anything, symbolizes their inherent belief in the future.

Jane Schoettle

director bio

Avi Nesher was born in Israel and studied at Ramaz yeshiva and Columbia University. He made his feature film debut with The Troupe (1978), followed by Dizengoff 99 (1979) and Rage and Glory (1985). He then worked as a director and screenwriter in Hollywood before returning to Israel to make Turn Left at the End of the World (04). His other films include Raw Nerve (00), Ritual (01), Oriental (04), The Secrets (07) and The Matchmaker (10).

full credits

Principal Cast: Adir Miller, Maya Dagan, Tuval Shafir, Dror Keren, Dov Navon
Producer: David Silber, Chilick Michaeli, Avi Nesher, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, Avraham Pirchi, Tamar Leon, Natan Caspi
Executive Producer: Shlomo Mugrabi, Rami Damari, Eviatar Dotan, Ishay Mor
Cinematographer: Michel Abramowicz
Editor: Isaac Sehayek
Sound: Yisrael David
Music: Philippe Sarde
Production Designer: Miguel Markin
   
International Sales Agent: 6 Sales
Production Company: Metro Communications
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