Feature Films

"RESTORATION" (Boker Tov, Adon Fidelman)

2011,  95 minutes

Director: Yossi Madmoni

Screenplay: Erez Kav-El

Producer: Chaim Sharir

Actors: Sason Gabai, Henry David, Nevo Kimhi, Sarah Adler, Ruthie Bornstein

Anton, a young man, part wanderer part day worker arrives at the furniture restoration business of Yaakov Fidelman and Maxim Malamud in the Southern part of Tel Aviv and is hired for a quick, paltry job. As fate would have it, Malamud dies that night, and Fidelman remains to manage the business alone. The dead partner bequeaths his part of the business to Noah, Fidelman's biological son and a lawyer by profession. Noah doesn't see any financial justification for maintaining the business and wants to sell it to an entrepreneur who wants to build an apartment building there.

Fidelman refuses to let go of the workshop and the craft that for many years was his whole life and is forced to battle Noah who wants to hurt his dad for never really being a father for him.

An old and expensive Steinway piano that Anton finds among the junk in the workshop becomes the final hope of the old restoration expert and his weird apprentice. If they manage to find an original metal frame they'll be able to sell the piano and save the business. The search for the missing part brings the mysterious apprentice and Chava, Noah's wife, close together when she decides to join the search.

Fidelman will be forced to choose between the boy who will apparently continue his life's work and his biological son, a choice that means coming to peace with his nearing death. The film won the award for best screenplay at the Sundance Festival and the awards for best feature film at Karlovy Vary and at the Jerusalem International Film Festival.

Produced with the assistance of the Israeli Film Fund, and Keshet Broadcasting.

The film won Sundance Prize for Best Screenplay and the Karlovy-Vary IFF and the Jerusalem IFF prizes for Best Film