Yana's Friends

Ah, love amongst the scud missiles. Granted, Tel Aviv during the Gulf War is not the most likely setting for a love story, but this international film festival award-winning Israeli romantic comedy is a captivating charmer. Evelyn Kaplun (wife of the film's director Arik Kaplun) stars as Yana, a pregnant, destitute, Russian immigrant, who--after she's abandoned by her husband--is forced to share a room with Eli, a womanizing and voyeuristic videographer. Yes, of course they fall in love, but as the title suggests, Yana's Friends reaches beyond the central narrative to embrace the stories of other immigrants sharing the building and trying to eke out lives for themselves, including a man who discovers that his wife's pitiable wheelchair-bound grandfather is a goldmine, attracting contributions from sympathetic passersby (ultimately touching off a battle for prime sidewalk real estate with an accordion player); and the building's cranky landlady who is reunited with a long lost love. Air raids and poison gas attacks cannot squelch the life force of these resilient characters (one sex scene involves gas masks). Winner of eight Israeli Film Academy awards, this ranks as one of the past year's most surprising feel-good films. Highly recommended. (K. Lee Benson)