Savyon Liebrecht

Apples from the Desert

Based on the award-winning play and popular Israeli short story, this poignant family drama follows Rivka, 19-years-old and strong-willed, who struggles to follow the conservative lifestyle of her ultra-orthodox parents in Jerusalem. Determined to break free from her parents’ rigid worldview, she runs away to a secular farming community in the desert. The decision pushes the two generations to confront the chasm between their stringent views of tradition and modernity.

A Report on the Banality of Love

In the New York apartment of 69-year-old prof. Arendt , 30-year-old Michael Ben Szaked appears, who had previously arranged an interview with her. He introduces himself as a student at the University of Jerusalem, writing a doctorate in philosophy. He is preparing a project to be sent to the university archive and collecting statements of Jewish intellectuals. The starting point is a book by prof. Hanna Arendt's about Eichmann to be published, which caused a real storm not only in Israel, but also around the world.

A Touch of Magic

Osnat is a teenage girl living with Down’s Syndrome who is fighting for her place in society, and her future. She does not get on with her peers, some of whom are prejudiced against individuals with special needs, whilst her mother makes sure all the others are kept at bay. The mother, a successful lawyer, has little patience for her daughter and her sort. One weekend, the pair head off to the countryside where Osnat’s grandmother lives. Uneducated and superstitious, Osnat’s mother is every bit as disdainful of her own mother as she is of her daughter. When a magician passes through the village, for a brief moment it seems as if the relationship between the three generations of women is about to turn a corner; however, the magician ends up disappearing as cryptically as he had appeared, leaving mother, daughter, and grandmother to find their own path to happiness.