CAMPFIRE (MEDURAT HASHEVET) Asian New Classics

Winner of the Israeli Academy Award for Best film, director Joseph Cedar (TIME OF FAVOR) utilizes personal insight and poetic storytelling to craft a thoughtful coming-of-age story of a young girl, her family and the West Bank. Israel’s official Oscar® selection for Best foreign Language Film.

The year is 1981. Rachel Gerlik, a 42-year-old widow and mother of two beautiful teenage daughters, w ants to join the founding group of a new religious settlement in the West Bank. The problem is that the acceptance committee is pressuring her to remarry and prove that she a her daughters can meet the group’s religious and ideological standards. When Tami, her youngest daughter, is accused of seducing some boy her youth movement, Rachel is forced to weigh her alliances. Only Yossi, a 50-year-old bachelor, and the new man in Rachel’s life, can show Rachel that living as an outcast is not as bad as it seems.

Using a light touch to tell a deep story, Cedar’s film is a story of one woman’s personal battle, but also a portrait of a political movement that has forever affected million s of lives in the Middle East.