Mira (Yuval Scharf) returns home but younger sister Lenny (Yaara Pelzig) is not yet ready to have her back in her life in MOON IN THE 12th HOUSE
MOON IN THE 12th HOUSE (Dorit Hakim, 2016)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Wednesday, January 11, 3:30 & 9:00
New York Jewish Film Festival runs January 11-24
212-875-5601
nyjff.org
www.filmlinc.org
The 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival opens with the tender, emotionally wrenching Moon in the 12th House, the debut feature by Dorit Hakim, who won the 1998 Silver Lion for Best Short Film for her eleven-minute Small Change. Hakim, a journalist and filmmaker who was born in Tel Aviv, lived for several years with her husband, Israeli hi-tech success Shlomo Kramer, in Silicon Valley, then moved back to her homeland. For her first full-length work, she reaches deep into her Israeli youth to tell the story of two sisters separated by tragedy when they were girls. Now adults, the vain Mira (Yuval Scharf) works in a glitzy Tel Aviv nightclub, where she does drugs and sleeps with her selfish, mean-spirited boss, Doron (Gal Toren). Her younger sister, twenty-one-year-old Lenny (Yaara Pelzig), has chosen to remain in the family home in the country, taking care of their ailing father (Avraham Horovitz), who is in an assisted living facility after a stroke. Lenny, who goes for a precious swim every day to temporarily escape her overwhelming responsibilities, is also watching her neighbor’s teenage son, Ben (Gefen Barkai), while his artist mother is away. Long estranged, the sisters are reunited when a desperate Mira suddenly shows up on Lenny’s doorstep, but as much as Mira might need her, Lenny is not yet ready to accept her back in her life. “It’s not as easy for me as it is for you,” Mira says, not understanding the sacrifices that Lenny has made, part of the reason why they are estranged.
Lenny (Yaara Pelzig) takes care of her ailing father (Avraham Horovitz) in debut feature by Dorit Hakim
Inspired by events from her life but not wholly autobiographical, Moon in the 12th House is a fragile, delicate film; it feels as if it could break at any moment, echoing how the sisters exist on a psychological precipice. Writer-director Hakim never makes things simple, avoiding clichéd plot twists as details emerge about what tore Lenny and Mira apart. Scharf (Ha-Emet Ha’Eroma, Ana Arabia) and Pelzig (Policeman, Good Family) have a strong chemistry, whether they’re fighting or cuddled together in bed. The film is beautifully photographed by Amit Yasur (The Slut, Next to Her), with a warm, spare soundtrack by Ishai Adar (Mr. Gaga, Bethlehem). Nominated for six Israeli Oscars — Scharf for Best Supporting Actress, Toren for Best Supporting Actor, Yasur for Best Cinematography, Li Alembik for Best Costume Design, Vered Mevorach for Best Makeup, and Adar for Best Music — Moon in the 12th House is screening at the Walter Reade Theater on January 11 at 3:30 and 9:30, with each show followed by a Q&A with Hakim and Scharf. The twenty-sixth annual New York Jewish Film Festival, a joint production of the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, runs January 11-24, with more than three dozen programs, from new fiction and nonfiction films to special tributes to Valeska Gert and the duo of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder and a master class with Israeli documentarian Tomer Heymann.