Restoration (2011 Film)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Restoration'' (Hebrew title: , "Good Morning, Mr. Fiedelman") is a 2011 Israeli
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by Yossi Madmoni and written by Erez Kav-El.


Plot

The film concerns a small furniture-restoration business in downtown
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
, Malamud & Fidelman. As the film begins, one of the partners (Malamud, played by Rami Danon) has died, and bequeathed his share in the business not to his longtime partner Yaakov Fidelman (
Sasson Gabai Sasson Gabai (or Gabay; ; born ) is an Israeli actor. He is the winner of an Ophir Award, Asia Pacific Screen Award (nominated), European Film Awards and Jerusalem Film Festival in 2007 as Best Actor in the highly acclaimed Israeli film '' Th ...
), but to Yaakov's son Noah Fidelman (). The aging Yaakov is a skilled craftsman, who loves his work and keeps exacting standards. However, he has little sense for financial issues, which had always been taken care of by his dead partner, Max Malamud. The business is going down, demand for Yaakov's services is falling off and banks refuse to give him loans. Noah, who had refused to follow in his father's footsteps and became a successful lawyer, is pressing Yaakov to retire and sell off the workshop – which could bring a lucrative profit as the area is undergoing a real-estate boom. Shortly before Max died, a mysterious young man named Anton () gets a job in the workshop, and becomes Yaakov's helper and apprentice. Little is revealed of Anton's antecedents; he had broken off relations with his family, for unknown reasons, and hides when his brother comes by seeking him. Anton comes up with a way of saving the failing business, or at least giving it a breathing spell: a broken-down 19th Century German
Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth le ...
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
, which Anton discovered among old junk in the workshop, can possibly be repaired and sold for a considerable sum. Anton – who is also a gifted pianist – throws himself into the repair job, so determined to succeed that he resorts to stealing in order to gain money needed to pay for an expensive part. In effect, he stakes a claim to continuing the old man's lifework which Noah wants no part of. As work on the piano progresses, the frustrated Noah steals into the workshop, but cannot bring himself to smash the piano. The stakes in this rivalry are raised higher when Anton develops romantic feelings for Noah's wife, Hava (
Sarah Adler Sarah Adler (; born 1978) is a French and Israeli actress with dual citizenship. Career Adler is now best known for her performances in the 2017 Israeli films ''Foxtrot'' and '' The Cakemaker''; earlier in her career her notable films included ' ...
) – a sensitive and artistic young woman who is neglected by her busy husband, and who is heavily pregnant with Noah's child, Yaakov's grandchild. Eventually, it is Yaakov Fidelman who must make the crucial choice between Anton's piano project and Noah's real-estate deal – and to choose which of them he sees carrying on his legacy.


Reception

At the 2011
Jerusalem Film Festival The Jerusalem Film Festival (, ) is an international film festival held annually in Jerusalem, It was established in 1984 by the Director of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and Israeli Film Archive, Lia van Leer, Lia Van Leer, and has since become th ...
, ''Restoration'' won the Haggiag Family Award for Best Full-Length Feature Film. At the 46th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the film won the 2011 Crystal Globe, the top award of the festival. At the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
, writer Erez Kav-El won the World Cinema Screenwriting Award (Dramatic) for ''Restoration''. In Israel, ''Restoration'' received 11 nominations for the
Ophir Awards 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 Televi ...
.


References


External links


Toronto International Film FestivalVancouver International Film Festival
* {{Crystal Globe 2011 films 2011 drama films 2010s Hebrew-language films Israeli drama films Crystal Globe winners