Sof Ha'Olam Smola

I think this movie is totally false advertised. It is NOT about LGBTQ+ stuff, the two girls didn't fall in love w/ each other, they only kiss once, you can see this among the pictures. But I really liked how the movie pointed out the struggles both Moroccan and Indian Jews faced. Also, the abundance of languages (Hebrew, French and English) is really the strongest feature of this movie, so if you're a polyglot, you will enjoy this film. So if you expect an LGBT movie, you will be disappointed, but if you just want to see a family-friendly piece, about youth, about the 60s in Israel and about what it's like to be a newcomer in the country, you will be satisfied with this movie.

In Avi Nesher's warm and humorous film, very British Indians settle in a dry town near the desert and must learn to cope with their French speaking Moroccan neighbors. That they are all Jews helps little; there are major differences in language, customs, and attitudes. Set in 1968 and narrated by Sarah, the teenage daughter from Bombay, the film deals gently but genuinely with the problems of adolescent angst as well as more serious issues of struggling immigrants dumped by the bureaucracy in a remote border town. Despite the insistence of Nicole, Sarah's friend and the sixteen year old town beauty, that nothing locally is worth chronicling, the film is particularly adept at depicting the greatest passions in the most ordinary people. Though the narrator is not always aware of it, there are love affairs, labor unrest, tragic illness, jealousies, and other personal dramas. The larger issues include a strike at the bottling plant, the town's only employer, and a visit by the championship cricket team, arranged by the British consulate. Although the Moroccan Jews initially jeer this "child's game," they eventually join the Indian ex pats for the match, with predictably hilarious and disastrous results. By the time adulthood arrives with the girls receiving their notice for the Army, we have a sense how new Israelis are formed from their varied ethnic backgrounds.

Nesher's casting is impeccable, down to the smallest role. Particularly wonderful is the way he matches the tall, statuesque Moroccan wife with her short, older, balding husband, and makes their caring relationship totally believable. The fact is that all the characters are memorable, from the sexy widow upstairs, to the handsome Indian dance teacher, to the Tel Aviv poet, teaching high school in the desert. Despite its mixture of spoken Hebrew, English, French, pidgin, and gestures, the excellent subtitles manage to convey even puns effectively. This polyglot of languages, as the clashing customs, reminds us just how very diverse Jews are, how the cultures of their birth countries create a Jewishness that is never monolithic, until, perhaps, it is transformed into "Israeliness."

Turn Left At The End Of The World is a great film! Avi Nesher who is a cult israeli film director returns! Left Turn At The End Of The World deals with the problems of newcomers who have been sent to the a small town just at the end of the world. As much as it sounds dreadful and hopeless, this film is actually very funny and entertaining! As an Israeli man, I can certainly say that nothing new has been made by Avi Nesher, it's the same old formula of typical israeli racism combined with sex lol. In addition, I can even say that this film is a developed version of Eskimo Lemon also known as Lemon Popsicles abroad. Bottom line : Watch this film if you would like to have an hour and a half of pure entertaining.

It is true that this film was a major hit in Israel and no wonder one can easily guess why ? One wild guess is that it did all it could to portray a hippie dippy picture of the immigrant question.The immigrants in question are from India and Morocco and the film is about their efforts to find a firm footing within Israelian society.The film fails to score as its depiction of immigrants is much too unreal,lacks credibility and to top it all a lot of irrelevant material is added which bears no link to the film's plot line.The Indian actors in this film have been dubbed as failures in India and watching them act in an Israelian film the people wondered as to how they landed such roles for themselves.The game of cricket in a film from Israel like this one was a pure gimmick as the film maker wanted to cash the popularity of this sport in Asian subcontinent.This is a film one must watch only to ascertain what made it so famous.

This film was a great success in Israel, and I was waiting for the opportunity to see it, unfortunately it was a rather disappointing experience.

The story happens at the end of the 60s, a time of economic boom in Israel after the six days war, but also a time Israel was led by the Labor party, which was conducting a socialist type of economy, directing resources to building industry in 'development' towns and trying to populate the remotely located desert areas of the country. New immigrants coming from India have to face the culture, climate and social shock of being badly integrated in a new society, having to surpass the language barrier, but above all encountering the lack of trust of the 'veteran' immigrants, from Morocco in this case.

The principal characters are two teenage girls, well played by two talented actresses, Liraz Charchi and Neta Garty who will build their friendship as a first and fragile bridge of understanding between their two communities. The story develops around their coming to age, while the theme of the integration of the Indian community borrows some elements from similar films about the integration of the Indian or Pakistanis immigrants in the UK. There is one scene, where a cricket team initiated by the Indians plays a game against a British team, when after the locals are humiliated on the play-ground the game is interrupted by a chaotic incident, so typical to the middle eastern mentality, and this is one of the best scenes of the movie.

Unfortunately, for the rest of the movie we get a treatment that is quite common to the Israeli cinema, a mix of vaudeville playing, melodrama, endless ethnic jokes that may sound well in a theater, but do not cross the screen, and amateuristic camera work and soundtrack. Opposite to the fresh acting of the two young main characters the rest of the cast acts in an outdated and melodramatic manner. This is called jokingly 'burekas' movies in Israel (burekas being a kind of pastry or pies specific to the area) and this film despite of its good intentions and a few shining moments is not much more than a 'burekas' film.