Ahava Columbianit (2004)

Director:

Shay Kanot

Writers:

Regev Levy (writer)
Reshef Levy (writer)

Release Date:

22 July 2004 (Israel)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Tali and Ori are a young Israeli couple. After attending their best friends' wedding, which ended in disaster...

Plot Keywords:

Wedding

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Mili Avital	...	Tali Shalev
Lirit Balaban	...	Oranit Cohen
Ashraf Barhom	...	Samir
Itay Barnea	...	Zidane
Shmil Ben Ari	...	Pini Cohen
Elinor Ben Haim	...	The Colombian girl
Marina Choif	...	Moran
Assi Cohen	...	Uri Cohen
Shmuel Edelman	...	Eliyahu (as Shmuel Adelman)
Osnat Hakim	...	Noga
Michael Hanegbi	...	Idan
Mariano Idelman	...	The Rabbi
Pira Kantor	...	Nehama
Nir Levy	...	Omer
Menashe Noy	...	Gemash
Irit Shilo	...	Eti
Einat Weitzman	...	Yael
Anabela Yaakov	...	The Colombian aunt

Also Known As:

Columbian Love (International: English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

Israel:96 min

Country:

Israel

Language:

Hebrew | Spanish | English

Color:

Color

Company:

Hot

Quotes:

Oranit Cohen: A father is like a mother, only you give him respect.

Movie Connections:

References Yossi & Jagger (2002)

'Four Weddings' a la Israel

I believe that for the foreign viewer the new and refreshing thing about this Israeli movie is how non-serious it is. There are no war-and-peace dramas, and no religious or spiritual pretensions in this movie. Yet, the Israeli viewer should not be surprised at all. There is life on-going in Israel despite the permanent state of tension, people love, quarrel and laugh, as in most places in the world. Moreover, the film claims descending from a least two genres quite popular in the Israeli cinema - the traditional 'burekas' character-oriented comedies in the 70s and 80s and the more recent yuppie-inspired films and TV series. Yet, 'Columbian Love' (translation of the title) tries and to a certain extent succeeds to overcome the limits and clichés of the Israeli models.

It does so however, without being too original, but borrowing from another genre popular oversees, the romantic comedy like 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'. The tone of the story telling, the light comic and especially romantic approach remind the feel-good UK and US films and succeed in many occasions to bring smiles and ... make us feel good. Yet,the stereotype character building is not completed avoided, especially in the role played by Shmil Ben Ari. The rest of the team does quite a good job. The only other actor that looks different is Miri Avital, it's not that she acts bad or lacks sex-appeal, but she behaves differently on the screen. Miri spent too many years in the US, and as a result her acting looks ... non-Israeli.

'Columbian Love' does not break any records of excellency but is still a pleasant production, no need to avoid it.