Virgins

Virgins (2018)

Vierges

Teenage Lana is languishing in her run-down hometown on Israel’s sun-soaked north coast—until an older, attractive writer arrives with tales of a mermaid sighting off the shore of the declining resort town.

Date of release
2018-07-25
TMDB
6.9 / 10 (15)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Drama
Director
Keren Ben Rafael

Casting

Interesting facts

Virgins is a 2018 French-Israeli drama film and the feature-length directorial debut of Keren Ben Rafael. The film stars Joy Rieger, Michael Aloni and Evgenia Dodina. It centres on a rebellious teenager, Lena (Rieger), dissatisfied with the monotony of her life in Kiryat Yam and always battling her Russian mother, Irena (Dodina). Lena becomes quickly interested by the arrival of a handsome writer (Aloni), reporting on an alleged mermaid sighting in the beach community.

Production

The film was developed by the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab during a 7-month seminar period and supervised by script editor, Avi Nesher.

The idea for the film was drawn from a real-life event in Kiryat Yam, where an alleged mermaid sighting in 2009 received significant media attention. The beach community that had largely been abandoned by tourists, suddenly attracted a surge in interest and tourism.

Ben Rafael penned the script with Élise Benroubi, a classmate she had befriended when they were both studying at La Fémis in Paris. Ben Rafael's husband, Damien Dufresne, was enlisted as cinematographer.

Ben Rafael and Benroubi wrote the film as taking place in summer, however circumstances meant that they instead had to film in winter. The film is set in August, with the characters remarking on the strangeness of the cold at that time of year.

Ben Rafael had been in talks with the agent of Ronit Elkabetz for Elkabetz to take on the role of the famous actress. However, Elkabetz was ill and died of Cancer in July 2016.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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