One More Story
Israel  2021 Director: Guri Alfi
Romantic comedy/Drama 
Hebrew with English Subtitles 
91minutes

This film, based on an Israeli bestseller, tells the story of Jordan Gat, a successful, young and sharp journal ist who dreams of getting her book published and is w illing to do anything to achieve it-even turning her best friend, Adam, a frustrated bachelor and hopeless romantic, into a guinea pig. She and her smug newspaper boss and lover, Amos, plan to send Adam on an Internet date every day w ith another woman  for a month, to marry him off and get ratings, and prove that anyone can fall in love. Jordan's Internet spec ialists and computer software fail: every potential date of the intended groom is a disaster until the hand of fate intervenes. Maya, a pretty and brilliant oddball cognitive  scientist, crashes into him on her electric bike. She Hs given up on men, and is happy to devote her  time and attention to her laboratory rats. Surprisingly, a blooming affair flourishes which does not fit in w ith her plans and the schedule of the media. When Maya finds out that she has become part of a contrived newspaper feature article, she dumps Adam. By the end of the movie, however, Jordan has freed herself of her obnox ious boss and Adam and Maya reconcile dramatically at a scientific presentation. Rom-corns are not supposed to always make sense but they are supposed to always show us appealing characters in unusual circumstances, and this film certainly fills the bill. What makes it a happy addition to our 2022 Festival is that it shows us an aspect of Israeli life wh ich is beyond conflict and politics. As an Israelifilm critic concluded: "this is the first romantic comedy I have felt that gives up kitsch, replacing it w ith a stingy roughness that also reminds you of the gaps between men and women in the job market. But there w ill also be catharsis, and it's worth it all."