Miri is a twice-widowed El-Al flight attendant who lives a well-ordered, guarded life. Her existence is upended when Noodle, the six-year-old son of her housecleaner—who was suddenly deported from Israel back to China—is left in her care. Although born in Tel Aviv, the child’s lack of citizenship makes him a boy without an identity or home, caught in the complexities of immigration policy. A suspenseful tale about the importance of giving oneself up to love, Noodle won the Montreal Film Festival’s Special Grand Jury Prize. 2007, 35mm, in Hebrew and Mandarin with English subtitles, 100 minutes.
Copresented with the Sabes Foundation Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival.
Ayelet Menahemi’s
debut featurette Crows (Orvim) (1986) won prizes in film festivals around the world. She directed The Skipper III (Abba Ganuv III) (1991) and Tel Aviv Stories (Sipurei Tel-Aviv) (1992), which garnered the Israeli Oscar for Best Actress. After traveling throughout Asia, she focused on documentaries: Doing Time, Doing Vipassana (1997) won the Golden Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival; It’s About Time (2001) won the Jerusalem Festival Wolgin award and the Japan Prize. Noodle is her first feature film in 14 years.