The late 1960s have provided inspirational fodder for screen writers and directors and is the prominent theme is innumerable films. Matchmaker takes place during 1968 and highlights how Israel’s society was coping with strife, but not from a current war, although certainly Israel was constantly defending its borders, but from the ghosts of the Holocaust haunting much of its population during the night as they battled stigmatization during the day.

However, Matchmaker is not a Holocaust movie, per say, but a coming of age film. The protagonist, Arik, witnesses the beauty and ugliness of life to him via Yankele Bride, a matchmaker. Both Arik’s father and Yankele grew up in Romania and thought the other had died in the Nazi death camps. Due to the connection, Yankele employs Arik, a detective novel enthusiast, as an amateur private detective.

Matchmaker is an engrossing movie with multiple storylines that create an epic film with provocative themes that could emerge in any coming of age movie, with a narrative that could only be set in Israel. With outstanding performances by Adir Miller, Maya Dagan and Tuval Shafir, director and writer Avi Nesher creates what could have been an unwieldy story into a
beautifully told and wise drama.

– Sharna Marcus