Israeli Academy Awards - Winner of Best Actress in a leading role, Best Actress in a supporting role, Art Design, Costume design, Original Score
Flanders International Film Festival
AFI FEST 2005
The Israeli film festival in Paris
NY Syracuse International Film and Video Festival
Sonoma Valley Film Festival
A story of a family whose life is about to change when their daughter arranges a surprise party which will make them confront hidden secrets that were almost forgotten.
Drama, 90 Min
35 mm
Language: Hebrew
Subtitles: English
Joy - Sigalit Fuchs
Gil - Tal Friedman
Nora - Keren Mor
Yitzhak - Yossi Pollak
Chaya - Rivka Michaeli
Radi - Alexander Senderovich
Maya - Dorit Bar-Or
Directed by - Julie Shles
Produced by - Amir Harel
Co produced by - Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, Dodi Zilber
Written by - Omer Tadmor
In participation with Lama Films, The Israel Film Fund, Keshet, Yes
Director of Photography - Itzik Portal
Editor - Ido Mochrik
Original Music - Avi Belleli
Sound Designer - Gil Toren
Art Director - Ido Dolev
Costume Designer - Natan Elkanovich
Make Up Artist - Dorit Cohen
Joy Levine lives in an old apartment that stands in total contrast to her: shabby and worn-out on the outside while well-kept and filled with joy on the inside.
Her life changes when she signs up as a candidate for a TV show named "Gotta Be Happy". To her astonishment, she is chosen to throw a surprise party for her parents on the upcoming show. However, there is a price to pay for all this: she has to let the viewers into her private inner world and share with them an event that has been overshadowing her family's life and hers for the past 22 years; an event that made a tight-knit bunch of friends to shun her parents, Chaya and Yitzhak Levine.
The show is to be aired right after Yom Kippur, with forgiveness being its theme. Joy is required to get all her parents' friends to the party in order to conduct the reconciliation. However, reality keeps obstructing her efforts. The idyll expected from such a show is jeopardized by a string of events threatening to shatter the already cracked family cell. But Joy takes the lead, and for once in a long time someone is leading the Levine family to a better place.