Schwartz Dynasty (Shoshelet Schwartz) (2005). DVD

This tragicomedy centers on two women of different generations with a common mission in life: to find a space in their Israeli village's Jewish cemetery. Miriam Schwartz (Miriam Zohar) struggles for the right to be buried beside her husband, the former head of a religious council, who committed suicide. Anna (Anya Bokstein) is a young Russian beauty who seeks permission to fulfill her father's dying wish to be buried in the same cemetery. But they are up against an inflexible town council, bureaucratic procedures, the intolerance of recent Russian émigrés, and religious extremism. None of the men in their families can help them - Miriam's conniving West Bank settler son "Bomba" (Tal Friedman), nor her pothead grandson Avishai (Yehuda Levy, the "Jagger" of Yossi and Jagger) and not Anna's uncle, a Russian surgeon embittered by being forced to work as the town butcher. Not even the Rabbi (Dov Navon, last seen in Nina's Tragedies) can help. No one is happy in The Schwartz Dynasty, and the odds are more than stacked against the heroines in their quest. The resolution of all these conflicts is as unexpectedly delightful as it is powerfully moving.

Israel (2005)

Genre: Comedy

Run Time: 104 Min.

Director: Shmuel Hasfarei and Amir Hasfarei

Starring: Miriam Zohar, Anya Bokstein, Tal Friedman, Yehuda Levy, Dov Navon

Available Subtitles: English, Hebrew, Russian

Number of discs: 1
Sound: 5.1
Format: Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC / PAL