During the summer of 1968, a teenage boy goes to work for a matchmaker who has survived the Holocaust and finds his life irrevocably altered.
Cast: Adir Miller, Maya Dagan, Tuval Shafir
Awards: Israel Film Festival NY 2011: Panavision Audience Choice Award for Best Feature
Duration: 112 mins
Language: Hebrew
Country: Israel 2010
Set in Haifa in the summer of 1968, The Matchmaker is a tender story of love, loss and survival in the aftermath of the Second World War. Director Avi Nesher explores a fascinating juncture in Israeli history, where an embryonic society still reeling from the Holocaust is beset by the cultural-sexual upheaval of the sixties.
Sixteen-year-old Arik is at loose ends one summer when he gets a job offer from a mysterious old friend of his father's named Yankele Bride. A Holocaust survivor, Bride makes his living as a matchmaker and hires Arik to scout potential clients throughout the bustling port city. The diverse characters he meets on the job open Arik's eyes to a world of wonder, pain and longing, offering him glimpses into unspeakable darkness and the depths of human love. There is Clara, a beautiful, fragile woman whom Bride loves from afar; Sylvia, a survivor of Josef Mengele's Nazi experiments who yearns for a partner; and Meir, a librarian whose search for love leads him to commit an extraordinary act of malice. Then Arik falls in love for the first time, a development that brings surprising consequences.
'This is a remarkable coming of age story, filled with emotion - love, despair and malice' Israelfilm.blogspot.com
'Worth seeing at Once' The Jerusalem Post
'This look back at late-'60s Haifa makes for strong, accessible, character-driven drama' Variety Magazine
'Matchmaker is filled with colourful characters and coming of age rites' Libertas Film Magazine
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