Campfire
– The story of one woman's personal battle for acceptance, but also a portrait of a political movement..
09 Sep 2005
Hebrew, English
Israeli Rachel Gerlik has been widowed for one year. Despite not ever having loved her husband, she feels she now needs to move on with her life. She plans to sell his car, which has not been touched in that year. She starts dating again, solely on blind dates set up by her friend Shula Kupfer, first with the insecure Yossi Moraly and then with renowned cantor Moshe Weinstock. Most importantly in Rachel's plan is to be accepted into the founding group of a new ideologically-based West Bank settlement yet to be built, the acceptance committee chaired by Shula's husband, Motkeh Kupfer, considered one of the most important figures in religious Zionism. She has many factors working against her in being accepted, most specifically there not being a man in the household. Regardless, Rachel and her family are accepted on a trial basis. Her family consists of two teen-aged daughters, Esti and Tami, both who believe that their mother has lost touch with the realities of their lives, especially in her want to move to the West Bank. The two girls miss their father, to whom they were more connected. Fifteen year old Tami is at the age when she begins to have feelings for boys, most specifically one named Rafi. But an incident that happens to Tami at a youth group bonfire spirals into malicious and untrue gossip. As Rachel tries to find out the truth which Tami refuses to disclose, she has to figure out how to salvage her relationship with her daughters while looking out for their collective futures.
8 wins & 10 nominations.