RETURNEES    (1998, 45MIN)

A large number of citizens left Israel during the course of its 50 years of existence. Those that returned did so quietly.

The film “Returnees” presents an uncharacteristic narrative. Amit and Mikhal do not lack anything in Paris. He has completed his post-doctorate in physics, she is a film producer who has terminated a documentary film for “CANAL +”. For ten years already they shuttle back and forth as cosmopolites between New York and Paris. Both of their sons were born abroad.

They arrived at a crossroads in life where they had to decide whether to settle down permanently abroad or return to Israel. They decide to leave everything- promising careers and a comfortable economic position, in favor of returning.

Everything happened recently during the fiftieth year of the state of Israel. The film “Returnees” accompanies the Cooper family from the moment they pack their bags in France, through the parting of the mother who is staying behind for a while apart from her children, through the process of their integration in the land of Israel, the passage from the great metropolis to the small settlement, the process of the integration of Amit at work, Mikhal’s search for employment, the worries and anxieties of raising their two sons in a country where military service is mandatory, the missile crisis with Iraq and the first confrontation with dangers of physical survival which they did not experience abroad.

The film covers the time period between the 49th and the 50th Independence Days of the state of Israel.