FIFTH HEAVEN
FIFTH HEAVEN
Dir. Dina Zvi-Riklis (103min, Israel, 2012)
In Hebrew with English Subtitles
Narrative
In
this beautifully made coming-of-age drama, a teenage orphan struggles
to adjust to a new life amidst other exiles in a British-controlled
Palestine. It's 1944. Deserted by her parents 13-year-old Maya is
deposited at an orphanage for Jewish girls on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
The trauma of war shows in the faces of the malnourished girls and
lonely routines of their adult supervisors who await liberation from
personal and national isolation. Smitten with Maya, the director of the
orphanage conjures memories of a tortured love affair while Maya
develops forbidden feelings for an anti-British resistance fighter who
is the fiancé of an orphanage worker.
Based on a novel by Rachel Eytan, winner of the prestigious Brenner Prize.
Playing as part of the Hyman S. and Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival