Anywhere Else

Noa, in her early 30s, feels out of her element. An Israeli who has lived in Berlin for years, she’s assimilated enough to study linguistics at the graduate level. But her thesis project – a dictionary of untranslatable words – is rejected for being too vague, her relationship with her trombonist boyfriend has stalled, and Berlin is just plain cold. On a whim, Noa hightails it back to Israel and the welcoming embrace of her family. At least that’s her fantasy. But once there, she reverts to behaving like a teenager. Her mom nags, she squabbles with her sister, her dad’s as apathetic as ever. Worst of all, her beloved granny is gravely ill. Noa’s sympathetic German boyfriend Jörg suddenly shows up, making things awkward, to say the least. It takes wise Granny to remind Noa of what’s important in life. Home is where your heart is; you can’t escape yourself by running ANYWHERE ELSE. (In English, Hebrew, German, and Yiddish with subtitles) – B.B.