''No Longer 17'' ( he, לא בת 17) is a 2003

Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli ...

drama written and directed by Itzhak Zepel Yeshurun. It is the sequel to the director's 1982 film '' Noa at 17'' and features actress Dahlia Shimko reprising her role as Noa, the idealistic teen who is now a middle-aged woman. ''No Longer 17'' premiered at the

Haifa Film Festival The Haifa International Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place every autumn (between late September and late October), during the week-long holiday of Sukkot, in Haifa, Israel. History The festival was inaugurated in 1983 and w ...

in October 2003 where it won the Best Film award.

Plot

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

is heavily in debt. In a desperate last effort to produce a viable financial restructuring, the old, "unproductive" members are asked to leave the community in order to make room for younger, more productive new members. Noa (Dalia Shimko), 45, who left Israel many years ago and is now living in Amsterdam, is forced to return to the kibbutz to help her mother (Idit Tzur), who was among the first to be ousted. But when she comes back, it becomes only the first in a series of familial reunions that re-trigger old arguments and problems. Noa is also reunited with her daughter, Sarry (

Maya Maron Maya Maron ( he, מאיה מרון; born ) is an Israeli actress, an Ophir Award winner. Early life Maron was raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. She is the youngest of four siblings. Her mother, an office manager, was born in Siberia, where her family ...

), who left for India with her own family secret. Against the background of a disintegrating society, the film resurrects the protagonists of the film '' Noa at 17'', at the time of a new and perhaps terminal crisis on the kibbutz.

Cast

* Dalia Shimko as Noa *

as Sarry * Avi Kleinberger as Kibbutz Spokesperson * Yehuda Efroni *

Shmuel Shilo Shmuel Shilo or Shmulik Shiloh ( he, שמואל שילה; 1 December 1929 – 4 October 2011) was an Israeli actor, director and producer, born in the Second Polish Republic, and best remembered for his role on the Israeli production of Rechov ...

* Idit Tzur as Bracha

Critical reception

Robert Koehler of ''Variety'' described the film's pacing as "sluggish" and "unreasonably smothered in a storyline stuffed with intersecting crises faced by family members and lovers," depicting the once-iconic kibbutz as "a broken-down shell." Another film journalist, Sarit Fuchs, noted that the ideals of "solidarity and self-realization" once associated with the kibbutz are shown here as having been "distorted into lies, deceit, and wickedness. On the personal and social level . . . the subject of the film is treachery and betrayal of faith.”Quoted in Eldad Kedem, "Kibbutz Films in Transition: From Morality to Ethics," in Miri Talmon and Yaron Peleg, eds., ''Israeli Cinema: Identities in Crisis'' (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011), p. 329.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, lo-bat-17-shes-not-17, No Longer 17 2000s Hebrew-language films Israeli drama films 2003 films Films about the kibbutz