Touch Away, A
Directed by: Ron Ninio
Language: Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
2006 | Israel | DVD | Color | U.S. Festival Premiere | 8 x 38 min
Topics: Israel, Spirituality & Religion, Russia & the former Soviet Union, Family Relationships, Drama/Theater
Beginning on Saturday, August 4, tickets for "A Touch Away" will be
available through the JCC box office:415-292-1233
If you thought smartly written, superbly acted television dramas only happen on HBO, or once a decade as in the Italian phenomenon Best of Youth, think again: A Touch Away takes a slice of contemporary Tel Aviv life and spins out a marvelous multi-family drama that will leave you wanting more. This terrific series, produced for primetime television in Israel, broke ratings records with its broadcast earlier this year. In a special presentation, SFJFF is thrilled to bring you the American premiere of all eight episodes, screening in two parts at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
The series focuses on two families whose lives fatefully intersect in an apartment complex in the Orthodox neighborhood of Bnei Barak in Tel Aviv. The Bermans are a strictly religious (Haredi) family whose daughter Rochele (Gaya Traub) is about to enter into an arranged marriage with a wealthy young bridegroom. But sparks fly when a newly arrived, thoroughly secular family from Russia--including vivacious actress Marina (the incomparable Evgenia Dodina) and her handsome eldest son Zorik--takes over a neighboring apartment. The forbidden love that soon buds between the two young neighbors, and the secrets that each family must hide, threaten the families' deeply rooted cultural assumptions and challenge individual family members' beliefs. A Touch Away, cleverly scripted and well cast, never fails to entertain, but manages also to be a realistic reflection of the ongoing social challenges facing today's increasingly diverse Israeli society.
The series contains eight 40-minute episodes. Each episode includes a brief recap of the story, so it is not essential to see them sequentially. Screenings (with brief intermission) will take place in two four-episode blocks, separate admission for each block.
Principal cast: Yarden Bar-Kochba, Slava Bibergal, Henry David, Evgenia Dodina, Gaya Traub. Chief Screenwriter: Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz.
The script won the first prize of the Israeli Film Academy for 2007.
Part 1 (Episodes 1-4) Sat Aug 4 7:30pm
Part 1 (Episodes 1-4) Sun Aug 5 12:30pm
Part 2 (Episodes 5-8) Sun Aug 5 4:00pm
Co-presented by Kritzer/Ross Émigré Program, JCCSF, and by the Club NooN and 79ers programs at Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties