112 minutes. 2014. Director: Avi Nesher (Turn Left at the End of the World, The Secrets, The Matchmaker). Written by Avi Nesher and by Hadag Nahash’s Shaanan Street. With Ori Chizkiya, Adir Miller, Efrat Gosh, Yehuda Levi and Yuval Scharf. In Hebrew with English subtitles. Genres: Dramedy, Mystery, Live Action/Animation.
Official selection Palm Springs International Film Festival. SERET London Israeli Film Festival, Shalom Europa Strassbourg and Washington Jewish Film Festival
Arnav (rabbit in Hebrew) is a graffiti artist and bartender who lives near the Old City of Jerusalem. Wearing a mask, he paints walls at night and hopes that his former girlfriend will come back to him. But after Arnav sees a stranger forced into an abandoned apartment across the alley by three bearded men, he is sucked into a scenario involving a hard-boiled investigator, a gorgeous mystery woman, and the captive himself, Rabbi Shmaya Knafo, whose devoted followers consider him a modern prophet.
About the Filmaker
Avi Nesher
One of Israel’s most influential filmmakers, Avi Nesher was born in Ramat Gan, Israel, but spent much of his adolescence in New York, where he graduated high school and enrolled at Columbia University at age 16. At 18, he left Columbia to serve in a special forces branch of the Israeli army, Sayeret Matkal. Nesher’s early films (The Troupe, Dizengoff 99, Rage & Glory) became Israeli classics. During the 1990’s, Nesher worked in Hollywood, where he made Doppelganger starring Drew Barrymore and The Taxman starring Joe Pantoliano. In 2004, he moved back to Israel, directing, producing and writing Turn Left at the End of the World, a film that became Israel’s greatest box office success. In 2007, he directed The Secrets, and in 2010, The Matchmaker, both of which premiered at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival. The Wonders (2013) has also received much critical and popular acclaim. Avi Nesher is the recipient of many awards, among them Cinematic Excellence Awards at the Jerusalem and Haifa Film Festivals and the Landau Prize for Excellence in the Arts.
The Wonders
