Someone to Run With (2008)

Two young people are on very different missions on the backstreets of Jerusalem in this gritty drama from Israeli filmmaker Oded Davidoff. Seventeen-year-old Assaf (Yonatan Bar-Or) is working a boring summer job when he's given a seemingly impossible task -- finding the owner of a lost dog that's been found haunting the streets of Jerusalem. While Assaf has almost no idea of where to begin, by following the dog he begins to find clues that send him on the path to its master. The lost dog belongs to Tamar (Bar Belfer), a teenage girl who has come to Jerusalem in search of her brother, who fell in with a dangerous crowd among the city's criminal class. Tamar is a gifted singer and guitarist who makes ends meet by playing in the streets, but her impromptu performances attract the attention of Pesach (Tzahi Grad), who claims to look after the city's sidewalk performers. The truth is Pesach is a criminal who charges buskers for the right to perform in the best spots in town and all but holds them hostage in a rundown hostel he's set up from them. As Assaf tries to reunite Tamar with her dog, she finds herself searching for her brother as well as a way out of Pesach's clutches. Mishehu Larutz Ito) Someone To Run With was screened in competition at the 2007 Miami International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi