Feature Films

"THE ITALIANS ARE COMING (Ha'Italkim Baim)

1995, 95 minutes

Director: Eyal Halfon

Screenplay: Eyal Halfon and Fabrizio Batelli

Producers: Chaim Sharir, Massimo Christaldi

Actors: Franco Nero, Asher Tsarfati, Yona Elian-Keshet, Alessio Boni

A story of love and sports that takes place at the same time as a competition for the heart of a woman and an aggressive competition in the swimming pool – in both cases, the competition hidden from sight is more powerful than the competition that takes place out in the open.

An Italian water polo team arrives for training camp at the the Givat Hashlosha kibbutz. Luigi, the Italian team coach, is a charming bachelor and a great cook. Once, at the beginning of his career as a goalkeeper for the Italian team, he played against Amos. Amos, the kibbutz team coach, is an impressive man, talented and charming, who is going through a mid-life crisis without having learnt how to connect. Between these two men stands Daria – a beautiful and unhappy woman in her early forties who is leading the struggle to save the kibbutz from falling apart and going bankrupt. Daria has never been married, the romance the gradually develops between her and Luigi, takes Amos back to his past relationship with her and reopens old wounds.

Produced as an Israel – Italy coproduction