Wax Hurts

At the end of a lengthy relationship, Michal, 33, returns to her parents' small, cramped apartment in Herzliya, a sleepy, bourgeois suburb. Michal is a young, promising director, who should be devoting her time to writing a screenplay, but instead shuts herself up in her room, frustrated, and spends most of her time sleeping. Things change when Michal meets Zeev - the principal of the local high school, a 50 year old married man, and falls in love. The forbidden passion and stormy emotions that develop between Michal and Zeev reminiscent of first love. Unaware, Michal becomes a teenager all over again. But this time, contrary to her earlier adolescence, Michal rebels. The apartment, too small to contain two parents and a 30 year old teenager, is transformed into a pressure cooker teeming with conflict. Can Michal commit, give her all and fulfill her love and passion? Or is she too attached to the fantasy youth that she has created to break away? Perhaps she is just too busy rebelling?

The story follows Samir, a Palestinian butcher falsely accused by his manager of removing hostage posters, forcing him to fight for his job and innocence amidst rising prejudice.

Far from Tel Aviv and big city crimes, Daphna, 40, a promising police officer with a big mouth, finds herself in the small town of Afula dealing with petty crimes, seeking shade from the scorching heat and dodging the nagging question:” When are you going to get married, and have kids?”. The disappearance of Orly Elimeleh, a beautiful and wild 36 year-old army widow and former beauty queen, soon raises another troubling question for Daphna – why isn't anybody looking for her? This indifference towards Orly’s uncertain fate shakes Daphna to the core. Matan, the younger 34 year-old son and “black sheep” of Orly’s late husband’s family, seems to be the only one who shares Daphna’s concerns, which pushes her to step beyond her professional boundaries. As her faith both in herself and in everybody surrounding her is called into question, Daphna will have to do something she has managed to avoid her entire adult life : put her trust in a man.

What is a woman's courage? What is the difference between courage as defined by men and by women? Is a woman who shows courage rewarded, or does she pay a heavy price? Maybe the refusal to be brave is in itself courageous? "Heroine" puts a spotlight on stories told by female filmmakers focused on, and through the eyes of, female protagonists. The film brings to the screen fiction stories which seek to break through the discourse and dialectic of courage and cowardice to discover an additional range of concepts that are not as definitive.

Michal is obliged to interrupt her journey in India because her grandmother is hospitalized. In the internal medicine department Michal must cope with the facts: grandmother is not herself anymore but mum is quite the mum she always was. A romantic triangle between mother, daughter and grandmother.