18th(2016)
Michal VINIK
Growth/Independence Romance Queer
SYNOPSIS
17 year old Naama Barash enjoys alcohol, drugs and hanging out with like-minded friends. Her activities are an escape from a home where her parents always fight, and a rebellious, army-enrolled sister, who, one day, disappears. As a new girl shows up at school, Barash falls deep in love for the first time, and the intensity of the experience at once confuses her and gives her life new meaning.
PROGRAM NOTE
\'First love\' is the love you experience or feel for the
first time. The very word \'first love\' makes you feel
bittersweet in your heart. Many people treasure their
first love in their very own way. 17-year-old BARASH
also experiences a first love that is more intense and
fervent than any other.
A patriarchal father and a timid mother, a young
brother and an older sister who goes AWOL after she
joins the army, all that this family has in common is
their family name, \'BARASH\'. When the older sister
disappears, the father\'s temper grows even worse,
and the BARASH family can feel it. Under these
circumstances the only way for Naama to escape
her troubled home is through deviant behavior. She
spends her day drowning in her primitive human
desires by smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol,
and doing drugs. Then one day Naama falls for
the new transfer student Dana and is confused by
this unfamiliar feeling of love but soon follows her
instinctual attraction. Naama spends the happy
moments of her first love with Dana by throwing herself
into deviance more daringly, but soon, like many other
person going through first love, she experiences the
pain of a broken heart after a change occurs in the
two teenagers\' love. First loves always end, while daily
life continues. As we see Naama walking across the
school hallway from behind, it almost seems that she
has grown an inch taller.
This film reminds you of Skins and Blue Is the
Warmest Color , and while it may seem like Barash
is just another stereotypical LGBTQ coming-ofage
film about an individual discovering her sexual
identity through her first love experience, the film goes
beyond that cliché narrative and shows the audience
what they expect from this genre, which is the joy
of watching the cheesy and radiant moments of a
blooming first love and the progress of a girl slowly
coming to realize her true self. [KIM Ji-yeon]
SYNOPSIS
17 year old Naama Barash enjoys alcohol, drugs and hanging out with like-minded friends. Her activities are an escape from a home where her parents always fight, and a rebellious, army-enrolled sister, who, one day, disappears. As a new girl shows up at school, Barash falls deep in love for the first time, and the intensity of the experience at once confuses her and gives her life new meaning.
PROGRAM NOTE
\'First love\' is the love you experience or feel for the
first time. The very word \'first love\' makes you feel
bittersweet in your heart. Many people treasure their
first love in their very own way. 17-year-old BARASH
also experiences a first love that is more intense and
fervent than any other.
A patriarchal father and a timid mother, a young
brother and an older sister who goes AWOL after she
joins the army, all that this family has in common is
their family name, \'BARASH\'. When the older sister
disappears, the father\'s temper grows even worse,
and the BARASH family can feel it. Under these
circumstances the only way for Naama to escape
her troubled home is through deviant behavior. She
spends her day drowning in her primitive human
desires by smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol,
and doing drugs. Then one day Naama falls for
the new transfer student Dana and is confused by
this unfamiliar feeling of love but soon follows her
instinctual attraction. Naama spends the happy
moments of her first love with Dana by throwing herself
into deviance more daringly, but soon, like many other
person going through first love, she experiences the
pain of a broken heart after a change occurs in the
two teenagers\' love. First loves always end, while daily
life continues. As we see Naama walking across the
school hallway from behind, it almost seems that she
has grown an inch taller.
This film reminds you of Skins and Blue Is the
Warmest Color , and while it may seem like Barash
is just another stereotypical LGBTQ coming-ofage
film about an individual discovering her sexual
identity through her first love experience, the film goes
beyond that cliché narrative and shows the audience
what they expect from this genre, which is the joy
of watching the cheesy and radiant moments of a
blooming first love and the progress of a girl slowly
coming to realize her true self. [KIM Ji-yeon]
Michal VINIKMichal VINIK
Michal VINIK graduated from the Film and Television Department at Tel-Aviv University as a scriptwriter. She majored as a director in an MFA program, winning two scholarships for her excellence. Her short films, Bait (2009) and Srak(2011) premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival, and won prizes both in Israel and around the world. Her debut feature film Barash premiered at the 2015 San Sebastian International Film Festival and won 3 prizes at the Haifa Film Fesetival. She is currently working on her second feature film,Christina¡¯s Child.