Avi Nesher Movies

A teenager learns some important lessons about love and life one summer in this romantic drama from director Avi Nesher. It's 1968, and culturally Israel is finally letting go of the style and mores of the 1950s as the upheaval of the '60s is beginning to make itself felt. Arik (Tuval Shafir) is a 16-year-old boy with a taste for detective novels who is looking for a summer job. Arik's father introduces him to someone who can put him to work -- Yankele Bride (Adir Miller) is a matchmaker who finds mates for lonely souls, and he gives Arik a job digging up information on potential mates for his clients. Yankele's philosophy is to give people "what they need, not what they want," and he searches for mates for a variety of clients, ranging from a beautiful midget (Bat-el Papura) to a bitter librarian (Dror Kenen). Arik also finds himself falling in love when he meets Tamara (Neta Porat), a girl with a wild streak who is spending the simmer in Haifa. But Arik isn't sure why the matchmaker who is so clearly infatuated with the pretty Clara (Maya Dagan) is still single, and the boy also tries to make sense of some gossip about how Yankele survived the holocaust. The Matchmaker received its North American premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Within the Orthodox Jewish Community, the attitudes toward females have remained virtually unchanged for 2,000 years. In this religious-themed drama, accomplished Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher explores the complications that arise when the relationships between a group of women residing in a midrasha (all female seminary) in Safed turn suddenly volatile. Every girl has a different motivation for enrolling in the midrasha: for Naomi (Ania Bukstein) enrollment in the seminary meant avoiding a marriage that she didn't want, and for the rebellious Michelle (Michal Shtamler) it was simply an effective means for her parents to keep her out of serious trouble. Unlikely allies at first, Naomi and Michelle soon forge a powerful bond that is later threatened by the ailing Anouk (Fanny Ardant). Anouk is a much older woman who has come to Safed in search of redemption. Despite her outward sincerity, however, Anouk is quickly turned away by the powers that be. Realizing that the brilliant Naomi can certainly find the kabbalistic texts that could restore Anouk's purity, compassionate Michelle volunteers her scholarly friend to help the desperate woman in her time of need. While her initial hesitation is soon compounded by the fact that the head mistress forbids both students from any further contact with the mysterious Anouk, Naomi selflessly vows to expunge the sins of Anouk's past even if it means putting her own future at risk. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An unemployed New York doctor with a suspended license and few prospects for the future travels to Jamaica to care for the ailing brother of a wealthy landowner, only to make a horrifying discovery regarding the ailing man in director Avi Nesher's contemporary re-imagining of Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie. Dr. Alice Dodgson (Jennifer Grey) is an open-minded oncologist whose experiments with an unapproved drug have just cost her patient his life and found her license to practice medicine promptly revoked. Subsequently summoned to Jamaica by affluent American Paul Claybourne (Craig Sheffer), Dr. Dodgson is assigned the duty of caring for Claybourne's cancer-stricken brother, Wesley (Daniel Lapaine). Though Dr. Dodgson at first dismisses the local tales of zombies and possession as mere superstition while she cares for the increasingly despondent Wesley, her growing feelings for her patient soon bring her to the realization that Wesley is not suffering from cancer after all, but the powerful curse of a local witch doctor. Now, in order to save the man that she has come to love, Dr. Dodgson must uncover the secret behind the potentially fatal curse while facing off against a vicious voodoo queen with the power to destroy anyone and anything in her path. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Detective Blair Valdez (Mario Van Peebles), a corrupt loose cannon on the police force, endangers his girlfriend Izabel (Nicollette Sheridan) when police officials -- and deadly serious mobsters -- find out about his ongoing money laundering scheme that is taking profits from both organizations. He turns for help to his old friend Ethan Lang (Zach Galligan), a burned-out former cop who is now a mild-mannered college professor, but Blair's increasingly violent tactics make salvation impossible. Blair spirals into danger and corruption, and he takes everyone in his wake with him.
~ Buzz McClain, Rovi

When kidnappers murder his wife, business tycoon Jonas Ambler vows to get revenge. He then hires a soldier-of-fortune to find them. Trouble brews when he insists on going with them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this imaginative sci-fi thriller, rancher Alex Verne loses his loving wife and family at the ruthless hands of computer magnate Burrough's shot-gun wielding hitmen. They think they hit Alex too, but he is merely in a coma. He remains so until he hears a far-off version of "Amazing Grace" his wife's favorite song. Staggering across the desert, he ends up in a mystical cave where ancient immortals explain Burroughs' evil scheme. It seems the techno-tycoon discovered the remains of an ancient computer, one that predates the coming of homo-sapiens. The highly evolved original operators used their technology to change apes into humans. The newly created beings were then the servants of the ancients who eventually became so evolved that they zapped themselves into the realm of virtual reality. Burroughs wants to do the same, and Verne's land plays a key role in the old computer's operation. The ancients therefore transform Verne into a Cro-Magnon man with superhuman strength and assign him to crush Burroughs before he can use the computer and make a mistake that could destroy all humanity. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This confusing but enjoyably weird film stars Drew Barrymore (still toying with her good girl/bad girl image) as Holly Gooding, a young woman who apparently stabs her mother to death in New York then shows up on the doorstep of young L.A. screenwriter Patrick (George Newbern), in response to his ad for a prospective roommate. Despite his attraction to her, Patrick is increasingly bewildered by the appearance of Holly's apparent double, whose existence she neither confirms nor denies. At the same time, Holly is tormented by recurring visions of her mother's death and the persistent snooping of an FBI agent. When Patrick becomes convinced that Holly is being pursued by her own evil twin, he learns from ex-nun and phone-sex operator Sister Jan (Sally Kellerman) that the deadly double is Holly's "doppleganger," a supernatural creature which haunts a human being after assuming that person's shape. One plot twist follows another before unraveling completely in a ridiculously contrived double-surprise climax. This film does boast good performances and manages to avoid most standard low-budget horror conventions -- that is, until the last five minutes, wherein its cleverness is derailed by plot holes large enough to fly a zeppelin through. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

In this under-par film within a film, a completely incompetent crew is shown shooting a movie about David and Goliath and is beset by problems when the leads start quarreling among themselves. Pop music pops in and out of the various scenes, since David and Goliath is a musical. Obviously dashed together in a hurry, the film within this film and this film itself both need a bit of work before the commercial world will blink twice. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The ostensible focus of this film by Avi Nesher is the Jewish resistance movement in Palestine in 1942 when the Brits still held colonial power in the region. A "Stern Gang" (Jewish resistance) cell is set to take revenge on a cruel British officer who has condemned one of their members to death. Unfortunately, weak characterization and a flawed, uneven plot (certain plot developments are simply forgotten) undermine this basically valid concept. Nesher might have gained credibility for his story if he had included other mainstream resistance fighters of the time, thereby placing his protagonists in a more accurate, broader historical context. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The time is just after the 1967 Six-day War when a group of Israeli soldiers travel around the country entertaining their fellow servicemen and women in more or less amateur musical numbers and stand-up comedy routines. Interspersed with the entertainment scenes is a plot that brings certain characters together in romantic liaisons and separates others in jealous competition, as the troupe heads towards the goal of appearing on national television. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi