Golden Voices
2019 | 88 minutes | Israel
Director: Evgeny Ruman
Writers: Evgeny Ruman, Ziv Berkovich
Languages: Hebrew, Russian
Best Script, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, 2019
For decades, Victor and Raya Frenkel were the ‘golden voices’ of the Soviet film industry, dubbing character voices for all major foreign films in the U.S.S.R. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, they decide to immigrate to Israel to find a better life, like thousands of their fellow Soviet Jews. Trouble is, what can they use their special skill set for, exactly, in this their new homeland?
Somehow, Raya finds her way into a profitable phone sex gig, while Victor gets involved with dubbing American films for the expat Russian community for a shady video piracy operation that soon comes under surveillance of the authorities. Pretty soon, the combination of living in a new country and these shabby, absurd new jobs will test the limits Victor’s and Raya’s longstanding marriage. Can they really integrate into this new world, and can their long marriage keep itself going?
Droll and deadpan, witty and wistful, Golden Voices is an appealing, bittersweet comedy about identity, alienation, the nature of love, and time’s passage. Winner of the Best Script award at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn in 2019.
- Tom McSorley
Preceded by the short film
Delphine
Delphine, a caustic portrait of power dynamics in our society, illustrates the journey of a young Lebanese girl who, in her own way, rises up against the intimidation she was subjected to as a child. Delphine is an ode to childhood, but also an examination of the wounds it can cause.
Screening ahead of Golden Voices, Delphine shares a reflection on the negative impact that alienation and othering has on a person trying to exercise their right to feel welcome at home, wherever that may be.