Audience Award-winner Paper Dolls tells the story of Filipino caregivers.
By JPOST.COM STAFFfilm reel 88(photo credit: )
Israeli films made a more than respectable showing at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. Paper Dolls by Tomer Hyman won not only the Audience Award, but also the Manfred Seltzgeber Award, named after one of the Festival's legendary managers.
Paper Dolls tells the story of Filipino caregivers in Israel, some of whom are transsexuals, who spend six days a week caring for elderly patients, with whom some form deep ties, and their days off on stage with the drag queen group Paper Dolls.
Talia Lavi's Lonely Soldier, which presents the dilemma faced by a female soldier serving far from home who is forced to remain at her base when the soldier sent to replace her turns out to be a young woman with suicidal tendencies, won the Audience Award for a short film.
The film features Dana Ivgi (daughter of veteran Israeli actor Moshe Ivgi), Shiri Ashkenazi, and Hadas Kalderon.
A third Israeli film, "Close to Home," won a prize awarded by the International Association of Art Film Houses.
