Country: Israel 2010 Director: Avi Nesher Language: Hebrew with English subtitles Duration: 112 minutes
Drama
Arik, a teenage boy growing up in Haifa in 1968, finds that a juvenile prank backfires and results in his getting a summer job working for Yankele Bride, a matchmaker. Yankele, a mysterious Holocaust survivor, has an office in back of a movie theatre run by a family of dwarves in a seedy area by the port.
Yankele introduces Arik to a new world, built on the ruins of an old one – a world of wonder, loss and longing. As Arik begins to learn the mysteries of the human heart through his work with Yankele, he finds himself falling in love for the first time with the rebellious and “liberated” Tamara, his friend’s cousin, who has just returned from America and is full of talk of women’s rights, free love and rock ‘n roll. The disparate parts of his life come together in unexpected, often funny and very moving ways, as he lives through a summer that changes him forever. Directed by Avi Nesher and adapted from the novel When Heroes Fly by award-winning writer Amir Gutfreund, The Matchmaker is an enchanting coming-of-age story about the manifold incarnations of friendship and love.
Awards:
Winner - Best Actor (Adir Miller), Israeli Academy Awards 2010
Winner - Best Actress (Maya Dagan), Israeli Academy Awards 2010
Nominated for 5 Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture
