The Matchmaker

Film Info

Country Israel

Language Hebrew (with English subtitles)

Year of Release 2012

Running Time 112 minutes

Crew

Director Avi Nesher

Producer Moshe Edery

Producer Leon Edery

Producer Avraham Pirchi

Producer David Silber

Producer Chilik Michaeli

Producer Avi Nesher

Producer Tami Leon

Producer Natan Caspi

Co-Producer Shlomo Mograbi

Co-Producer Rami Damri

Co-Producer Eviatar Dotan

Director of Photography Michele Abramowicz A.F.C.

Editor Isaac Sehayek

Original Score Philippe Sarde

Writer Avi Nesher

Produced in Association with Keshet - Hot - Praxis

Supported by the Yehoshua Rabinovich Tel-Aviv Foundation for the Arts-Cinema Project

Cast

Yankele Bride Adir Miller

Clara Epstein Maya Dagan

Meir the Librarian Dror Keren

Yozi Burstein Dov Navon

Arik Burstein Tuval Shafir

Tamara Neta Porat

Nili Burstein Yarden Bar-Kochva

Sylvia Bat-El Papura

Moshe Abadi Kobi Farag

Tikva Abadi Yael Leventhal

Beni Abadi Tom Gal

Arik Burstein - Adult Eyal Shechter

Uncle Nadgi Eli Jaspan

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Press Kit

Press Photos

Where to See This Film

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.

Latest News

"The Matchmaker" - Now Playing in South Florida

US Theatrical Premiere!

Israel's hit coming-of-age film The Matchmaker, from acclaimed director Avi Nesher, is making its much-anticipated US theatrical premiere, opening across South Florida on Friday, March 23rd!

Arik Burstein, a teenage boy growing up in Haifa in 1968, gets a job working for Yankele Bride, a mysterious matchmaker and Holocaust survivor. As Arik begins to learn the mysteries of the human heart through his work with Yankele, the disparate parts of Arik's life collide in unexpected, often funny and very moving ways. Avi Nesher's latest film mixes comedy with drama as it tells a coming-of-age story unlike any you've ever seen before.

Now Playing on Five Screens!

Coral Springs - Frank Coral Square 8

Tamarac - Tamarac Cinema 5 (Back by Popular Demand!)

Boca Raton - Living Room Theaters

Delray Beach - Movies of Delray

Lake Worth - Movies of Lake Worth

Starts June 1st in Naples, FL!

Coming Soon to Miami, Sedona, Boston & Los Angeles!

Learn more about The Matchmaker, and watch the film's trailer here!

"The Matchmaker" Wins Audience Choice Award at 25th Israel Film Festival NY

May 19, 2011 – The 25th Israel Film Festival closed tonight in NYC with a screening of the Panavision Audience Choice Award winning film – Avi Nesher’s The Matchmaker.

Set in 1968, The Matchmaker follows Arik, an Israeli-born teenage boy who gets a summer job with a mysterious matchmaker named Yankele Bride. Bride takes him on a dangerous coming of age ride into the urban underbelly of Haifa during the time of the Six-Day War.

“This NY edition of the Israel Film Festival has been the most successful in the festival’s 25-year history,” says IFF Founder and Executive Director Meir Fenigstein. “The awareness that US filmgoers have of Israeli films is growing every year. Israeli films have been winning awards and fans around the world lately and audiences want to join in on the excitement."

Reviews

Tallahassee Democrat

"The Matchmaker" is a rich tapestry of a movie that is part memory play, part coming-of-age tale, part teen romance and part serious Holocaust film. It is also an unexpected treat that would fit nicely on a double bill with Fellini's "Amarcord". Deceptively rich... this is a film full of humor and life."

Florida Jewish Journal

Feature Article - Love flourishes in post-Holocaust Israel

"We were brought up as the 'new Jew,' and the 'super Jews'," director Avi Nesher, a child of Holocaust survivors, said. "Empathy toward Holocaust victims was quite discouraged. Indeed, we are guilty of a great sin. Our parents suffered greatly 'there' and we offered no sympathy 'here.'

In "The Matchmaker," Nesher focuses on love as a palliative to ease the survivors' suffering. "I believe that no matter what the question is, love is always the answer."

Daily Variety

A memory play gold-dusted with adolescent longing and a strong sense of fable, "The Matchmaker" seems singular among Israeli features in the way it juxtaposes guilt with hope, national birth pains with youthful hubris, and utilizes an underside of Israeli life not usually exposed to public view. Nevertheless, this look back at late-'60s Haifa makes for strong, accessible, character-driven drama.