''Virgins'' (, ) is a 2018 French-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 ...

and the feature-length directorial debut of Keren Ben Rafael.Keren Ben Rafael talks through her creative process in making Jerusalem title 'Virgins'
''Screen Daily''. 30 July 2018 The film stars

Joy Rieger Joy Rieger (; born 3 March 1994) is an Israeli actress. She is a winner of the Tribeca Film Festival Award for Best Actress in international film, and of the Israeli Television Academy Award. Early life Rieger was born in Herzliya to parents w ...

Michael Aloni Michael Mark Aloni (or Alony; ; born 31 January 1984) is an Israeli actor, director, writer and television presenter. Regarded as one of the best performers of his generation in Israel, he is recognized for his versatile work across independent fi ...

and Evgenia Dodina. It centres on a rebellious teenager, Lena (Rieger), dissatisfied with the monotony of her life in

Kiryat Yam Kiryat Yam (, lit. ''Sea Town'') is a city in the Haifa Bay district of Israel, north of Haifa. One of a group of Haifa suburbs known as the Krayot, it is located on the Mediterranean coast, between Kiryat Haim and the Tzur Shalom industrial ar ...

and always battling her Russian mother, Irena (Dodina). Lena becomes quickly interested by the arrival of a handsome writer (Aloni), reporting on an alleged

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are ...

sighting in the beach community. The film received its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

on 18 April 2018, before its Israeli premiere at the

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 ...

on 30 July. Rieger won the Best Actress Award at Tribeca and the film received five

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 ...

nominations, including Best Actress (Rieger), Best Supporting Actor (Aloni) and Best Supporting Actress (Dodina).

Plot summary

Lena (Rieger) is a disaffected and rebellious 16-year-old, desperate to escape the monotony of her life in

, a run-down beach town. She dreams of parties and independence in

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 ...

. She constantly battles her mother, Irena (Dodina), a Russian immigrant, whose once-popular beach bar and cafe is now mostly deserted and riddled with debts. Lena quickly becomes interested by the arrival of an attractive ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

'' writer, Tchipi (Aloni). His ''

'' column on a reported

causes a sensation in the otherwise staid beach community. In a media blitz, the town's mayor, Shmuel (Siso), who is also Irena's lover, offers $1 million for proof of a mermaid.

Title

The title of the film references protagonist, Lena, a sixteen-year-old

virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

. Further, the Hebrew-language word for mermaid directly translates as "virgin of the sea."

Cast

*Joy Rieger as Lena, a rebellious teen that prefers to go by "Lana" *

as Tchipi, an older, attractive

journalist that writes for ''

'' * Evgenia Dodina as Irena, Lena's Russian mother, who runs and owns a beach bar in

. She made

aliyah ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...

from

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

with her parents. Dodina also plays the role of a famous actress that arrives in the town. *Manuel Elkaslassy as Tamar, Lena's cousin from

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, who comes to stay with the family. Her mother, Irena's sister, died four years ago, and her father is more interested in his new girlfriend than his daughter. *Alon Hamawi as Lifeguard *

Rami Heuberger Rami Heuberger (; born 12 October 1963) is an Israeli actor, comedian and theatre director. Biography Career in the theater After his army service, Heuberger studied acting at Nissan Nativ's acting studio in Tel Aviv. At the end of his studies, ...

as Shmuel Siso, mayor of Kiryat Yam, he is married and having an affair with Irena.

Production

The film was developed by the

Sam Spiegel International Film Lab The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School () is a film and television school in Jerusalem, Israel that was founded in 1989 as the Jerusalem School of Film. It was renamed in honor of Hollywood producer Sam Spiegel in 1996 with the acquisition ...

during a 7-month seminar period and supervised by script editor,

Avi Nesher Avi Nesher (Hebrew language, Hebrew: אבי נשר; born 13 December 1952) is an Israeli film producer, film director, screenwriter and actor. Biography Avi Nesher was born and raised in Ramat Gan, Israel. The child of a Romanian-born diplomat ...

. The idea for the film was drawn from a real-life event in

, where an alleged

sighting in 2009 received significant media attention. The beach community that had largely been abandoned by tourists, suddenly attracted a surge in interest and tourism.Karen Ben Rafael : "Nous sommes toutes confrontées à la représentation de la femme parfaite"
''Premiere''. 26 July 2018'Virgins': Tribeca Review
''Screen Daily''. 20 April 2018 Ben Rafael penned the script with Élise Benroubi, a classmate she had befriended when they were both studying at

La Fémis La Fémis (French: ''École nationale supérieure des Métiers de l'Image et du Son''; "National Institute for Professional Image and Sound", formerly known as the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques, IDHEC) is a French grande écol ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Ben Rafael's husband, Damien Dufresne, was enlisted as cinematographer. Ben Rafael and Benroubi wrote the film as taking place in

summer Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

, however circumstances meant that they instead had to film in

winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...

. The film is set in August, with the characters remarking on the strangeness of the cold at that time of year. Ben Rafael had been in talks with the agent of

Ronit Elkabetz Ronit Elkabetz (; 27 November 1964 – 19 April 2016) was an Israeli actress, screenwriter and film director. She worked in both Israeli and French cinema. She won three Ophir Awards and received a total of seven nominations. Biography Elkabe ...

for Elkabetz to take on the role of the famous actress. However, Elkabetz was ill and died of

Cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

in July 2016.

Soundtrack

The film soundtrack features a number of Israeli artists; *A version of

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

's song "

Dance Me to the End of Love Dance is an art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements or ...

", by Dikla *"Archimedean Point" by Renana Ne'eman *"Ten Li" & "The Loz Sisters" by Yifeat Ziv

Release

The film received its world premiere at the

in June 2018.Virgins
Tribeca Film Festival. Retrieved on 21 December 2024 It received its Israeli premiere at the

on 30 July 2018.Virgins
Jerusalem Film Festival. Retrieved on 21 December 2024 The film was released theatrically in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on 25 July 2018, before its theatrical release on 8 November in

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 ...

Reception

Wendy Ide of ''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' praised the "eye-catching turn from Rieger", continuing: "Her fiercely charismatic presence, plus the film’s evocatively flyblown sense of place, should make this a fixture on the festival circuit."

Awards and nominations

;Wins *Best Actress (Rieger) -

Israeli wins best actress award at Tribeca
''The Jerusalem Post''. 27 April 2018 *FIPRESCI Award for best Israeli Debut Film (Ben Rafael) -

*Best Director (Ben Rafael) - Filmski Festival Herceg Novi - Montenegro Film FestivalVečeras završava 32. Filmski festival Herceg Novi – Montenegro Film Festival
''Vijesti''. 7 August 2018 *Best Actress (Rieger) - Filmski Festival Herceg Novi - Montenegro Film Festival ;Nominations *Best International Narrative Feature (Ben Rafael) – Tribeca Film FestivalVirgins
UK Jewish Film Festival. Retrieved on 21 December 2024 *Best Actress (Rieger) -

Gershman Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival
Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival. 2018 *Best Supporting Actor (Aloni) - Ophir Award *Best Supporting Actress (Dodina) – Ophir Award *Best Cinematography (Dufresne) - Ophir Award *Best Costume Design Design - Chen Carmi-Blair *Grand Jury Prize (Ben Rafael) -

Quebec City Film Festival Quebec City Film Festival () (FCVQ or QCFF) is a film festival held annually in September in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It screens short and feature films and premieres movies from all over the world. Description Founded in 2011, the Quebec ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Virgins 2018 films 2010s Hebrew-language films 2010s Russian-language films Israeli drama films French drama films Films about virginity Films about juvenile sexuality Israeli independent films 2010s French films French independent films Films about mermaids Films set in Israel Films shot in Israel