A Gift from Above (, ''lit.'' a gift from the sky) is a 2003

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film, directed by

Dover Kosashvili Dover Kosashvili (, ka, დოვერ ქოსაშვილი; born 8 December 1966) is an Israeli film director and screenwriter of Georgian-Jewish descent. He has directed five films since 1998. His film, '' Late Marriage'', was screen ...

History

The dialogue on this film is partly in the Judaeo-Georgian language and partly in Hebrew. And since the Judaeo-Georgian language is a

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

, spoken by a small community, most of the cast had to learn it for this production. It was

Becky Griffin Rebecca "Becky" Griffin (; born 27 December 1977) is an Israeli-American television host, model, actress, and sports journalist. Biography Rebecca Griffin was born in Givatayim, Israel. Her mother Ariela ( Gadasi) of Yemenite-Jewish descent, ...

's debut film. The movie was a nominee to the

Ophir Award The Ophir Awards (), full name: the Israel Film Academy Award, sometimes also known as the Israeli Oscars or the Israeli Academy Awards, are film awards for excellence in the Israeli film industry awarded by the Israeli Academy of Film and Tele ...

in 11 categories.

Plot

The characters on this movie live like a closed tribe. Most of them live on the same block. Among themselves they speak a rare language. They put a lot of pressure on each other to get married only within their community. They are not much concerned about obeying the country's laws. And many of them work in the same place,

Ben Gurion Airport Ben Gurion International Airport , commonly known by the Hebrew language, Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on outskirts north of the city of Lod and directly south of the city of Or Yehuda, i ...

luggage department, or help their community members, who do work there, to steal passengers' suitcases. The community does not have a lot of money, but its folklore is rich and its life is full of parties, sex, violence and excitement.גלובס, 23/12/2009, מין סרט שכזה "מתנה משמיים", ד' 22:25, "יס סטארס ישראלי", ניר קיפניס
/ref> The most exciting happening there is the operation they're plotting, step by step, for stealing cargoes of

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

s from the airplanes. The plotting includes putting all the blame on two volunteers from within the community itself.

References

External links

"Matana MiShamayim" - The full film is available on VOD
o
the website for the Israel Film Archive - Jerusalem Cinematheque
* {{IMDb title, tt0339366 2000s Georgian-language films 2000s Hebrew-language films 2003 drama films 2003 films Films directed by Dover Kosashvili Israeli drama films 2003 multilingual films Israeli multilingual films