Autonomies (2018)

A dystopian drama starring some of Israel's top acting talent, Autonomies is a globally-relevant tale centering on the burning issues of identity, religion, politics and personal freedom. The story is set in an alternate reality of present day Israel, a nation torn and divided by a wall into the secular "State of Israel", with Tel Aviv as its capital, and the "Haredi Autonomy" in Jerusalem, run by an ultra-Orthodox religious group. Living in the Autonomy, amongst this uneasy territorial status quo, is Broide, a Haredi wheeler-dealer who makes his living smuggling minor contraband between the two regions. One day he receives a life-changing job offer: he is asked to kidnap a little girl at the heart of a custody battle between two families - one Haredi and one secular - and smuggle her across the border between the two territories. This "Solomon's Trial" of a legal saga, followed by the kidnapping of the child, fuels a dramatic uproar that threatens to tear a fragile country to pieces. Meanwhile, an impossible love story develops between Broide and Anna, a musician from the opposite side of the wall. Dramatically strong and thematic, their ill-advised love affair symbolically unites a divided nation, if only for a moment in Anna's bed. With Israel once again aflame and civil war closer than ever, a great longing for home arises from among the fragments, walls and tears.