Five Hours From Paris

FIVE HOURS FROM PARIS (Hamesh Sha’ot MiPariz) Wed, Aug 18 7:30 PM • JCC Director: Leon Prudovsky 2009, 90 min, Hebrew and Russian with subtitles These days, the world could use more sweet, mature, thoughtful romance, and Five Hours from Paris delivers it in spades. Yigal (Dror Keren, of Jellyfish and Aviva, My Love) is, at first glance, a mild-mannered Everyman who maintains a close relationship with his ex-wife and her new husband because of his devotion to his son. Yigal drives a taxi for a living, and while he is a master of ground travel, he harbors a secret fear that stands in the way of his lifelong dream: he yearns to visit Paris but is petrified of flying.

Dropping his son off at choir practice one day, he catches a glimpse of the music teacher, Lina (Elena Yaralova), whose dark, dimpled beauty belies a growing emotional unrest. Dateless since his divorce, Yigal proceeds in small steps, even when Lina discloses that she and her physician husband, Russians by birth, will soon emigrate to Canada. Yigal insists he wants nothing more than friendship, and the two begin a tentative emotional minuet.

The abiding pleasure of Five Hours from Paris is experiencing the gentle albeit profound impact each one has on the other's life. They are unlikely lovebirds – Lina is highly educated and has lived in several countries, while Yigal has rarely left his Tel Aviv suburb – but he sees her in a way that her partner of many years does not. When Lina's husband learns of her emotional attachment to another man, she is forced to make an excruciating decision.