A Touch Away

If you thought smartly written, superbly acted television dramas only happen on HBO, or once a decade as in the Italian phenomenon Best of Youth, think again: A Touch Away takes a slice of contemporary Tel Aviv life and spins out a marvelous multi-family drama that will leave you wanting more. This terrific series, produced for primetime television in Israel, broke ratings records with its broadcast earlier this year. The series focuses on two families whose lives fatefully intersect in an apartment complex in the Orthodox neighborhood of Bnei Barak in Tel Aviv. The Bermans are a strictly religious (Haredi) family whose daughter Rochele (Gaya Traub) is about to enter into an arranged marriage with a wealthy young bridegroom. But sparks fly when a newly arrived, thoroughly secular family from Russia—including vivacious actress Marina (the incomparable Evgenia Dodina) and her handsome eldest son Zorik—takes over a neighboring apartment. The forbidden love that soon buds between the two young neighbors, and the secrets that each family must hide, threaten the families’ deeply rooted cultural assumptions and challenge individual family members’ beliefs. A Touch Away, cleverly scripted and well cast, never fails to entertain, but manages also to be a realistic reflection of the ongoing social challenges facing today’s increasingly diverse Israeli society. The series contains eight 40-minute episodes. Each episode includes a brief recap of the story, so it is not essential to see them sequentially.

From 2008 Festival: Director, Israel Director (films): The Quarry (1990), Auditions (1995), Those Were the Nights, Director (television): Eretz Avot (2006); A Touch Away (2006); Reaching for Heaven (2000) Television Drama, Awards - Best TV Drama, Jerusalem Int'l Film Festival, 2000; Best TV Series, Israeli Academy for Cinema & TV, 2000; HaChartzufim (1996)