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Film Archive

Virgins

Another View 2018 / Ein Betulot Bakrayot / France, Israel, Belgium 2017

Teenager Lana has had just about enough of her dull hometown, her mother, and her mother’s failing beach café. But things start to look up with the arrival of a young journalist and the rumour that a mermaid has been spotted near the shore. A movie filled with poetic images of the sea coast that brings back memories of adolescence, a time when we were seething with rebellion but were also highly vulnerable.

Virgins Virgins

Synopsis

A coming-of-age story set in the run-down Israeli resort of Kiryat Yam. For teenager Lana, life in her mother’s failing beach café is as grey as the skies above the sea and as drab as the sandy shoreline. She’s desperate to escape to Tel Aviv but she has to take care of little Tamar instead. The sleepy atmosphere of the place completely changes when the waves toss a good-looking journalist at Lana’s feet. The article he publishes about a mermaid, inspired by a story Lana tells him, injects new momentum into the town. Might it give Lana and her mum hope for a better life? A movie filled with poetic images of the sea coast in muted colours that brings back evocative memories of adolescence, a time when we were seething with rebellion and resentment but were also highly vulnerable.

Vít Kořínek

About the film

91 min / Color, DCP

Director Keren Ben Rafael / Screenplay Keren Ben Rafael, Elise Benroubi / Dir. of Photography Damien Dufresne / Music Renaud Mayeur / Editor Daniel Avitzur, Frederic Baillehaiche / Art Director Ella Spector / Producer Caroline Bonmarchand / Production Avenue B / Coproduction United King Films, Artza Productions, Frakas Productions / Cast Joy Rieger, Evgenia Dodina, Michael Aloni, Manuel Elkaslassi Vardi, Rami Heuberger / Sales Pyramide International
www: http://inter.pyramidefilms.com/pyramidefilms-international-catalogue/virgins

About the director

Keren Ben Rafael

Keren Ben Rafael (b. 1978, Tel Aviv, Israel). Selected filmography: I’m Your Man (2011, short), Bite Into Life (À pleines dents, 2013, short doc.), Northern Lights (L’aurore boréale, 2013, short), At the Beach (La plage, 2015, short), Virgins (Ein Betulot Bakrayot, 2017)

Contacts

Pyramide International
32 rue de l’Echiquier, 750 10, Paris
France
Phone: +33 142 960 220
Fax: +33 140 200 551
E-mail: [email protected]

Guests

Keren Ben Rafael
Film Director

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