An interesting film

Last Shabbat afternoon, David and I went down to the Cinematheque in Rosh Pinna to see an Israeli movie. The title of the movie was כלת הים, which means literally "Bride of the Sea". I suspect, though, that there's some allusion that I'm missing. At any rate, according to the Cinematheque website, the movie was in Hebrew and Arabic, with English subtitles. In fact, it was mostly in Hebrew, with some Arabic, and the subtitles were in French! Nevertheless, we were able to follow the story quite well.

The story was about a secular Jewish family in Jaffa, the mixed Jewish-Arabic part of Tel Aviv-Yafo. The family owned a car-repair shop and employed an Arab man and his son, who was 21. The family's daughter also worked there as the desk person. Without getting into too much detail, let's just say that it was a rather dysfunctional family, and that a mixed romantic relationship was a pivotal part of the plot. Add in the Jewish-Arab question and it's hardly surprising that you get a pretty sad story.

The movie was very good. The acting was great, the story was gripping, the characterizations were real and human, and the pace was well controlled. We enjoyed the movie, and I felt that the ending was appropriate, realistic, and hopeful. If you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend it!