In terms of the Israeli market, this is a huge achievement, given that the vast majority of locally made films never sell 100,000 tickets, even after months in theaters.
By HANNAH BROWNForgiveness sells 300k tickets in five weeks(photo credit: RAN MENDELSON)
With over 300,000 tickets sold and counting, Forgiveness is the most popular Israeli movie of 2019 — after only five weeks in theaters.In terms of the Israeli market, this is a huge achievement, given that the vast majority of locally made films never sell 100,000 tickets, even after months in theaters.Forgiveness is the latest film by Hanan Savyon and Guy Amir, the duo behind the 2017 hit, Maktub — a movie about two smalltime hoods who operate out of Jerusalem’s Mahaneh Yehuda market — which also broke box-office records and sold over 600,000 tickets.Forgiveness mixes comedy with sentimental drama as it tells the story of two friends from a town near the Gaza Strip who bungle a robbery. One gets caught and the other flees abroad. He returns to Israel after becoming ultra-Orthodox, hoping his partner in crime, who has just been released from prison, will grant him forgiveness.Along the way, the loot from the robbery, which was buried underneath the border fence, gets lost and the two get mixed up with a local mafia leader and a bedouin sheik. The film also stars Tsahi Halevi, Alon Aboutboul, Noa Koler and Shiri Maimon.“We are very excited about the incredible success of Forgiveness, but not surprised,” said Liron Edery, director of distribution United King Films, which produced the movie. ”Guy and Hanan have a unique ability to tell their stories. Their films are exciting, funny and captivating and the audience votes with their feet.”Moshe and Leon Edery produced the film for United King, along with Firma Films, which is run by Adar Shafran and Roni Abramowsky, with support from Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts and Keshet.In the past five years, crowd-pleasing Israeli movies have been challenging Hollywood films for local audiences and doing very well. With the success of Forgiveness, which may well go on to break the records set by Maktub, Amir and Savyon are the kings of this genre, which some have dubbed, “neo-bourekas,” a reference to the “bourekas” films, broad comedies and melodramas that were popular in Israel in the Sixties and Seventies.
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