The Matchmaker
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Synopsis
Arik, a teenage boy growing up in Haifa in 1968, gets a job working for Yankele Bride, a matchmaker. Yankele, a mysterious Holocaust survivor, has an office in back of a movie theater that shows only love stories, run by a family of seven Romanian dwarves in the seedy area by the port. Yankele introduces Arik to a new world, built on the ruins of an old one. As Arik begins to learn the mysteries of the human heart through his work with Yankele, he falls in love with Tamara, his friend Beni's cousin. Tamara has just returned from America and is full of talk of women's rights, free love and rock and roll. The disparate parts of Arik's life collide in unexpected, often funny and very moving ways as he lives through a summer that changes him forever. Avi Nesher's latest film mixes comedy with drama as it tells a coming-of-age story unlike any you've ever seen before.
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Fall in love with Israel's beloved film The Matchmaker! A smash hit in theaters across the U.S., The Matchmaker continues to play in select cities, and is now available to watch at home through iTunes and Video-on-Demand. The Matchmaker is adored by critics and audiences alike, earning an 86% 'Fresh' rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Acclaimed filmmaker Avi Nesher's latest film mixes comedy with drama as it tells a coming-of-age story unlike any you've ever seen before.
86% 'Fresh' Rating on Rotten Tomatoes!
Screens May 19th in Daytona Beach, FL - Cinematique of Daytona
Starts May 31st in San Diego, CA - Media Arts Center SD
Request a Screening in Your Town with Tugg! Click here for details.
Now Available on iTunes and Video-on-Demand Everywhere!
Video-on-Demand: In Demand - DirectTV - DISH Network - ATT U-verse - Avail-TVN - Amazon - VUDU - Google Play - Blockbuster - Xbox Live - Playstation Network
Learn more about The Matchmaker, and watch the film's trailer here.
Dear Audiences,
I am the writer/director of the film "The Matchmaker", now playing in your local cinema.
I was born in Israel, but spent most of my adolescence in New York where I studied at the Ramaz Yeshiva, so I could keep up my Hebrew. I also studied at Columbia University, and immediately after graduation went back to Israel to serve in the Special Forces of the IDF. I am at home in both America and Israel. Now, I choose to live in Israel, making films in Israel.
Like many Sabras, I had a very difficult time understanding and accepting that the European Jews, like my parents, were ever so hapless during wartime in Europe.
We Israelis were brought up as the "new Jews" and the "super Jews". Empathy toward Holocaust survivors was discouraged. Indeed, we are guilty of a great sin. Our parents suffered greatly "there" and we offered no sympathy "here".
I wrote and directed the film "The Matchmaker" as an homage to my parents. I believe that no matter what the question is, love is always the answer. The film focuses on love to ease survivors' suffering. My parents used much love to create a life for my sister and me, and as sane a life as was possible for them under the circumstances. I find this hugely admirable and a true life lesson.
"The Matchmaker" is my way of sharing my parents' worldview with cinemagoers around the world.
Enjoy the film,
Avi Nesher
Learn more about The Matchmaker, and watch the film's trailer here!
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Reviews
“The Matchmaker... played by (Adir) Miller with a scene-stealing mix of warmth and restraint... balances its darkness and its uneasy scenes of characters reckoning with their pasts with the lightness of youthful romantic anxieties. The film intelligently portrays how, even years later, the memories of trauma can be enough to inhibit a person from finding happiness — and consequently, how essential love is.”
Read more“Top-notch, emotionally resonant... The Matchmaker is at heart an unexpectedly complex film about love, but also an examination of Israel in flux, a country with one foot in the past and another in the future – a weight that may never fully vacate Israeli shoulders.”
Read more"The Matchmaker combines the tender tone of a film like Cinema Paradiso with a clear-eyed, street-level vantage on Israel’s summer of the Six-Day War."
Read moreMenemsha Films Store
| Poster | $9.95 |
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Videos
Photos
Awards
Audience Award - Best Feature Film
Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival 2011
Panavision Audience Choice Award
Best Israeli Film
Israel Film Festival NY 2011
Silver Plaque Award
Chicago International Film Festival 2010
Official Selection
Toronto International Film Festival 2010
Opening Night Film
Los Angeles Israeli Film Festival 2010
Nominated for 7 Israeli Academy Awards
Including Best Picture
Additional info
Watch highlights from The Jewish Channel's interview with writer/director Avi Nesher about his smash hit film The Matchmaker. (Segment begins at 6:30.)
Writer/director Avi Nesher spoke to NBC New York about The Matchmaker, and his inspiration for the film growing up in 60's Israel.
