A STRANGE COURSE OF EVENTS /
Le Cours étrange des choses

North American Premiere • Drama • France, Israel, 2013

DCP • 1.85 • Dolby 5.1 • Color • 98 min

 

Directed by: Raphaël Nadjari

Written by: Raphaël Nadjari, Geoffroy Grison

Cinematography: Laurent Brunet

Film Editing: Simon Birman

Original Score: Jocelyn Soubiran, Jean-Pierre Sluys

Produced by: Caroline Bonmarchand (Avenue B Productions), Isaac Sharry (Vito Films)

Cast: Ori Pfeffer (Shaul), Moni Moshonov (Shimon), Michaela Eshet (Bati), Maya Kenig, Bethany Gorenberg

International Sales: mk2 • mk2pro.com

US Distributor: Kino Lorber

 

This intimate, easygoing French-Israeli co-production charts a solitary man’s course back to life after a difficult divorce. Needing a break from his job working the night shift admissions desk at a hospital, thirty-something Shaul heads for the coastal town of Haifa, where his father Shimon lives. The two men have been estranged since the death of Shaul’s mother many years earlier, and the mutual resentments have piled up. But resolving old grudges is put on hold while Shaul first comes to terms with Bati, Shimon’s New Age girlfriend. Before long, Shaul’s grumpy exterior is being put to the test with a battery of therapeutic oils, healing stones, and yoga. But his self-imposed isolation is dealt a real body blow when his young daughter turns up for a visit.

 

For his sixth feature film, writer/director Raphaël Nadjari returns to the theme of father-son relations. His 2007 Palme d’Or-nominated Tehilim, co-written by Vincent  Poymiro, explored the polarized reactions of two sons to the mysterious disappearance of their father after a car accident. Between these two fiction films, Nadjari completed his two-part documentary, A History of Israeli Cinema (2009), covering the subject from 1933 to the present. Beginning his career as a television writer and director, Nadjani’s first theatrical feature, The Shade (1999), was a contemporary adaptation of Dostoevsky’s A Gentle Creature. He went on to make two other films set in New York, I Am Josh Polonski's Brother (2001), shot on super 8 film, and Apartment #5c (2002). Like his latest film, it was selected for Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.

 

 “The film relies on the excellent performances and uneasy rapport between especially Pfepper and Moshonov”

- Boyd van Hoeij CINEUROPA