Ariela Rabinovitz Movies

A young girl and her mother both carry the scars of their experiences during the holocaust in this drama from Israel. In 1951, Aviya (Kaipo Cohen) is a ten-year-old girl being raised by her single mother, Henya (Gila Almagor), in a small village in Israel. Henya is a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, and has come out of the experience considerably worse for wear; she's haunted by the memories of her past, and has become emotionally unstable. Circumstances for her and her daughter are hardly improved by the poverty of the newly wounded state of Israel, and their own difficult economic circumstances. Aviya, meanwhile, is obsessed with finding her missing father, and wonders if he might be the man who has just moved into their village. Henya, however, knows better, and knows why Aviya's father is never coming back to them. The Summer of Aviya was based on a novel by Gila Almagor, who also plays Henya; a sequel, Under the Domim Tree, was released in 1995. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This fictional treatment of society in an Israeli high school examines young teens who may or may not be prepared to tackle the sexual challenges they now face. In one story, a 17-year old couple have been dating for some time, and when they make a dreaded visit to a gynecologist to find out if the young woman is pregnant, they receive a lecture by the doctor against abortion. In another story, a teen who has been using birth control pills and then takes them in the wrong way needs some instruction on what to do and how not to make mistakes with the pill. Along with these adult lessons, some notice is made of a high-school dropout who joins the army and then is sent to the front. This film is transparently instructional in its purpose, but then it does not propose to be anything else. As a result, some of the acting is also more academic than naturalistic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi