Campfire

(Medurat hashevet)

by Joseph Cedar

Israel

Director: Joseph Cedar

Script: Joseph Cedar

Cinematographer: Ofer Inov

Editing: Einat Glaser Zarhin

Sound: Alex Claude

Music: Ofer Shalchin

Cast: Michaela Eshet, Hani Furstenberg, Maya Maron, Moshe Ivgy, Assi Dayan

Production:
Cinema Post productions
18 Ben-Avigdor street
61572 Tel Aviv - Israël
Tel: 972.3.561.70.40 extention 4
Fax: 972.3.561.70.92
Mail: [email protected]

Year: 2004

35 mm, Colour, 96 min
OV Hebrew with English Subtitles
Electronic French Subtitles

5 Israeli Academy Awards
FIPRESCI Award
40th Chicago Film Festival 
Don Quichotte Award
Berlin 2004

Unreleased

1981. Rachel Gerlik, a 42 years-old widow, mother of the beautiful Esti and Tami wants to join a new religious settlement in the West Bank. But the acceptance committee won’t accept her unless she remarries and proves that she and her daughters can meet the group’s religious and ideological standards. When Tami, her youngest daughter, is accused of seducing some boys from her youth movement, Rachel is forced to weigh her alliances. Only Yossi, the new man in Rachel’life can show her that living as an outcast is not bad as seems “ Campfire ” is the story of women who must fight to be accepted. Rachel has been rejected because she is a widow, a situation she obviously is not responsible for, and Tami is a victim but people point at her.

The film is both deeply rooted in Israel in the early 80ies at the time of the Jewish colony’s settlement, and it is also quite universal in portraying adolescents, looking like most of other adolescents in the world, and Yossi, the tender bachelor by default.