Yana's Friends

Director -  Arik Kaplun
 
1999,  Hebrew
Israel

Karlovy Vary Int'l - Grand Prix Best Actress, Ecumenical Jury Award - 1999 
Jerusalem Film Festival - Wolgin Award & Honorable Mention -1999
Cinema Mediterraneer Montpellier - Public Prize & Cine Bnc D’essai - 1999
MedFilm Festival - Artistic Expression Award – 1999
10 Israeli Academy Awards - Best Picture, Best Script, Best Actors
World Fest Houston - Best Foreign Film, 2000
IsraFest Film Festival - Audience Award 2000
Cinemanila Int'l Film Festival - Jury Prize & Best Actress 2000
 
Cast: Nir Levi, Evelyne Kaplun, Shmil Ben-Ari, Moscu Alcalay, Dalia Friedland, Lucy Dubinchik

The story of Russian immigrants who land in the brave new world of TLV, Israel during the time of the Gulf War. As scud missiles fly overhead, and an entire country locks itself into airtight rooms, Yana and her friends wrestle with the problems of immigrants everywhere: language, culture, money, jobs, and love.
 
Yana is young, beautiful, and pregnant abandoned by her husband and left to fend for herself in the flat she shares with Eli, a twenty-something Israeli wedding photographer, with a passion for casual sex. Eli is also a professional voyeur, who uses his video camera to capture private moments in other people’s lives. Yana’s presence in his own apartment proves irresistible to Eli who turns the drama of her life into his own pet project. When the threat from Saddam Hussein’s poison gas missiles forces both of them into the same sealed bedroom, their stories merge, sparks fly, and love blossoms.
 

Script: Arik Kaplun , Simeon Vinokur
Editor: Tali Halter, Einat Glazer-Zarchin
Photography: Valentin Belonogov
Music: Avi Binyamin