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Director Yosef Shalhin’s film, which is very much rooted in his own life story, is set in 1930s British Mandatory Palestine and follows 15-year-old Joseph (played by the director’s real-life son, Shaul Shalhin), who comes from a hard-living family in the then-small village of Be’er Ya’akov. The boy flat out refuses to attend the local Jewish Ultraorthodox school (‘cheder’) and is therefore shipped off to boarding school. When his mother is taken ill, he and his sister are sent to live with their aunt, only Joseph struggles to fit in there too. He ends up in Tel Aviv and finds work at a restaurant, but life is no cakewalk there either. The landlady who owns the restaurant accuses Joseph of stealing money, leaving him with no other choice but to flee.
On his adventures, Joseph finds himself wandering the local fields where he is found by the students at a local school (Mikveh Israel), around whom he finally feels at ease with himself; only now he must return to his family in Be’er Ya’akov. He hitches a ride back with a coachman but is then joined by another passenger – a criminal on the run. Joseph is subsequently arrested for aiding an escaped felon. At the end, after all his trials and tribulations, Joseph finally finds a place to call his own, back at Mikveh Israel School where he no longer feels like the perennial strange bird.
Today, the film is mostly remembered for its theme, scored by composer Sasha Argov. Playwright Yaakov Shabtai later added lyrics to the tune, whilst the song ‘Early Evening,’ by folk singer Edna Goren, went on to become a staple of Israeli pop music.
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All rights are reserved to the Jerusalem Cinematheque – Israeli Film Archive (RA) and the rights holders of the works. Any use of works on the website for non-individual and non-personal purposes is strictly prohibited without prior, written permission.
For more information about the rights holders, please visit the relevant collection page, or contact the Jerusalem Cinematheque – Israeli Film Archive (RA) offices.
We have the utmost respect for all rights holders’ copyright and put great efforts to track down any and all intellectual property owners for the purpose of seeking and obtaining permission to use their materials featured on the website.
Any and all materials are used in accordance with clause 27a of the 2007 Copyright Act. If you believe that your rights as intellectual property and copyright owners of any material featured on this website have been compromised, then you may contact the Israeli Film Archive via email with a cease-and-desist notice, requesting that the material in alleged copyright infringement no longer be used. When contacting the archive, please state the merit to your copyright ownership claim, as well as your full name, email address, and telephone number, with a link to the relevant webpage.
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