Best Israeli romance movies

Two young men — a Palestinian grad student and an Israeli lawyer — meet and fall in love amidst personal and political intrigue.

A sociological study of two men in the Israeli army who are lovers. The others in the unit react to their situation, suspecting, but not always understanding. One will leave the military soon, a few months away, as a snowy and desolate outpost is guarded from attack.

Benji, Bobby, and Huey are three 17 year olds who spend their days chasing girls and hanging out at Montana's Ice Cream Parlor. In their constant pursuit for sex, they are caught in the apartment of local nymphomaniac Stella by her boyfriend and get more than they bargained for from hooker Ze Ze! Meanwhile, Benji has fallen for new girl Nikki and is the only person who comes to her aid after Bobby gets her pregnant then dumps her.

A gay New York Times travel writer comes to Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy. The energy of the city and his relationship with a younger man brings him back to life.

A middle-aged Orthodox Jew, Aaron, living and working in Jerusalem with his wife and children, meets a homeless 19-year-old student. Aaron offers to give Ezri work as his assistant at his family's butcher shop. The two men grow close and their attraction becomes sexual. Aaron must now confront his own sexuality, his feelings for Ezri, and his obligations to his family and faith.

The movie follows a group of young friends in the city of Tel Aviv and is as much a love song to the city as it is an exploration of the claim that people in Tel Aviv are isolated from the rest of the country and the turmoil it's going through. The movie looks at young people's lives in Tel Aviv through the POVs of gays and straights, Jews and Arabs, men and women.

The sequel to "Yossi and Jagger" finds character Yossi (Ohad Knoller) leading a sad existence after losing his partner Jagger on the battlefield. A chance encounter with a middle-aged woman linked to his past shakes up his otherwise staid routine and sends him on a spontaneous pilgrimage to Tel Aviv. It is on the roads of southern Israel that he reignites the fire of his former self.

Further adventures of Bobby, Benji, and Huey in their pursuit of sex in the 50's. While preparing for their final exams, they try to work out if it's better to be going steady with one girl, and if changing girlfriends all the time leads to too many complications. This leads to frustrations with girls who wont go all the way, and problems with girls will go all the way with anyone!

It's the greasy 50's, and girls are still causing problems for the Lemon Popsicle boys! Benji falls head over heels in love with new girl Tammy but manages to ruin the relationship by pushing her to go all the way. Benji is the object of Martha's affections, even though she is dating Huey, and as usual Bobby is finding it hard to stay faithful to just one girl! Going Stead is set against a backdrop of sunlit beaches, moonlit nights... and Rock 'n' Roll!

Bobby, Benji, and Huey are back and Benji is smitten with Bobby's little sister, who has blossomed into a beautiful young woman. The two start dating in secret, but are soon discovered by Bobby, who wrongly assumes that Benji has taken advantage of his sister. A sad series of events proves Bobby wrong and he reaches Benji just in time as he sits at the top of a cliff. More sexual misadventures set against an amazing 50's soundtrack.

The Lemon Popsicle boys - Bobby, Benji, and Huey - have been drafted into the army, but they're not quite ready to give up the freedom they've enjoyed for so long and submit to army discipline. They spend most of their time chasing women, trying to get out of doing any work and avoiding their no-nonsense sergeant.

While his parents are on holiday, Huey and his buddies borrow their car and go out. After pursuing a gang of girls, Huey crashes the car, and discovering that the repairs will cost a small fortune, the boys must get jobs to pay for the repairs before Huey's parents get home. The boys all land jobs as porters in the Beachfront Hotel, where their minds are taken off their problems by girls!!

Zaza is a 31-year old Israeli bachelor, handsome and intelligent, and his family wants to see him married. But tradition dictates that Zaza has to choose a young virgin. She must be beautiful and from a good family, preferably rich. Zaza's parents, Yasha and Lily drag Zaza to meet potential brides and their families. Zaza has no choice. He plays along with his family, advocates of the suffocating traditions of their Georgian Jewish heritage. But Zaza always manages to somehow get out of being engaged. What his parents don't know is that Zaza is already in love. Judith is sensuous, strong and intriguing. She's also a divorcée with a 6-year-old daughter. So Zaza has kept Judith a secret from his family. He will have to choose between respect of the strict confines of family and tradition, or the love of his life.

Na'ama is seventeen. She lives in a sleepy suburbia. She is bored. With detached parents and a rebellious older sister, her life at home is a mess. It all changes when a new girl appears at school. She's introduced to a world of drugs, lesbians and sex. She's thrilled. Her life, at last, becomes exciting. Is it going to last? "Barash" is a coming of age story, planted in the heart of Israeli society, about a young woman who struggles to find her self-identity in an environment that has different ideas about sex, drugs and love.

Noemi, the studious, devoutly religious daughter of a prominent rabbi, convinces her father to postpone her marriage for a year so that she might study at a Jewish seminary for women in the ancient Kabalistic seat of Safe.

Set in the year 2019 in Japan. In order to crack down on free expression, a new law is passed, which allows for the government to create an armed force to find and destroy objectionable printed material. Meanwhile, to oppose this oppressive crackdown, the Library Force is created. The Library force, including instructor Atsushi Dojo and Iku Kasahara, work to protect the libraries. A fierce battle then ensues between these two groups.

Michal is 32 years old. She became religious 12 years ago, and only now is she getting married. A month before the wedding, while checking out the catering for the event, the groom has a change of heart and the wedding is called off. Michal feels she’s unable to go back to ordinary life, to the usual course of matchmaking. She feels this is the moment to change something very basic in her personality. A simple belief that God is good and sweet; that He wants to give and is only waiting for her to wish it. Michal goes on a month-long journey lasting up to the planned wedding day: “I have the venue, the dress, the apartment; God can easily come up with my groom.”

Meduzot (the Hebrew word for Jellyfish) tells the story of three very different Israeli women living in Tel Aviv whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a young child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a young bride who breaks her leg in trying to escape from a locked toilet stall, which ruins her chance at a romantic honeymoon in the Caribbean. One of the guests is Joy, a Philippine chore woman attending the event with her employer, and who doesn't speak any Hebrew (she communicates mainly in English), and who is guilt-ridden after having left her young son behind in the Philippines.

One of the milestones of Israeli cinema. It displays the atmosphere of the late 50s in Israel from the viewpoint of young boy Alex, who is just turning 13. His mom is the classic "Polish Mother", his school friends are young hustlers dreaming of nude girls, his schoolmaster is a nervous Russian immigrant. The street speech is full of Polish, Russian, and Farsi slang, full of the small talk that had later entered everyday speech. The soundtrack consists solely from the American music of the period.

A bride and groom arrive at their lavish honeymoon suite on their wedding night. When the bride, Eleanor, discovers her now-husband has received a ring as a wedding gift from his ex-girlfriend, a knock-out fight ensues. At Eleanor’s insistence, the newlyweds leave the hotel and set out on an expedition to return the ring. Their simple mission quickly derails into an all-night odyssey through the streets of Jerusalem. Over the course of a single night, the couple are forced to confront past lovers, repressed doubts, and the lives they’ve chosen to leave behind.

Charlie gets by through fleecing suckers with a three-card Monte. He passes himself off as a rich businessman. Miko is a street kid who spends his time with Charlie instead of going to school. The plot follows Charlie's attempt to conquer the heart of Gila, a rich girl whose parents try to matchmake her to an American millionaire somewhat against her will.

Set in Tel Aviv, focuses on an interconnected group of friends and their various relationships. At the center is the adorably bookish Omer, about to turn 30, who still hasn't found himself, and his free-spirited best friend Miki, who both end up inadvertently dating the same handsome journalist, Ronen.

Singer Avi Biter needs to perform one last robbery to regain his first love - Margaritha. During his quest for love and money, he learns a valuable lesson about friendship and the history of the Jewish people.

An adaptation of a popular Israeli stage musical. Kazablan is an army veteran turned gang leader in the Israeli port of Jaffa who masks his feelings of bitterness with a lot of bravado. He's sweet on Rachel, a young woman who lives with her father and stepmother. The budding relationship scandalizes the neighbors (not to mention Rachel's parents) and infuriates Yanush, a middle-aged shoe store owner who wants Rachel for himself. (Yanush feels he's entitled to marry Rachel since they're both Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern European origins, whereas Kazablan is a Sephardic Jew from Morocco.) The neighborhood has something else to worry about besides the antics of Kazablan and his gang: the city wants to tear down their crumbling homes. The residents pool their resources to save their houses, but the money that's collected is stolen. When he's jailed for the theft, Kazablan must find a way to clear himself.

A spin-off film that centers around Yudale/Huey's mandatory Israeli army service, post boot camp. This time he helps his sergeant Shemesh beat a rival base, while also beating him to score with the visiting Swiss Ambassador's wife.

In 1948, immediately before a ceasefire takes effect, four volunteers fighting for Israel are ordered to take Hill 24, overlooking the road to Jerusalem.

Raya and Victor built a shared career as the Soviet Union’s most beloved film dubbers. As the USSR collapses, the Jewish couple must immigrate to Israel and reinvent themselves to find employment.

Two outcasts, a suicide bomber and an Israeli girl, fall in love during a desperate weekend in Tel Aviv.

Moti, an Ashkenazi yeshiva boy, is about to embark on a matchmaking round to find a beautiful and pious bride. However, just as his parents are ready to set him up with an American girl, Moti falls for his best friend’s sister. The fact that she belongs to a Mizrahi family makes the match difficult and forces him to find a creative solution.

Vered, an attractive blind singer, meets and is befriended by three students. The trio decides to save enough money for the surgery which may restore Vered's sight. After many attempts, two of them commit petty theft and are sent to prison. The third takes Vered to the surgery which is successful. Although Vered regains her sight, she losses her friends...

The love story of Margalit (Pnina Gary), who lives in Nahalal, and Eli Ben-Zvi, son of Rachel Yanait and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Israeli's second president. The year is 1947, a tumultuous period as tensions rise between the Israeli settlement and the Arab tribes and neighboring countries. A chance encounter sparks love at first sight between Margalit, of Nahalal – a cooperative workers' settlement – and Eli Ben-Zvi, the Muhtar of the Beit Keshet kibbutz. The affair is off to a rocky start, as Eli is committed to the defense efforts that preceded the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 and the birth of the State of Israel. The two go on to set a wedding date, but the fight for a nation leaves no room for young lovers.

When Eden's brother tragically dies, her grief spirals into obsession after discovering his secret girlfriend.

Tali and Ori are a young Israeli couple. After attending their best friends' wedding, which ended in disaster, they have a big fight, which leads to Ori proposing. But there is trouble in paradise when Ori's conservative father meets Tali, and all hell breaks loose...

The year is 1999 and the storyline is actually a number of sub-plots all revolving around the 13-year old Clara, a girl that can predict the future and has telekinetic powers. The sub-plots include a boy in her class who has a crush on her, his family, her family and her principal that keeps talking French for some strange reason.

A detailed account of the Zini-Malkov story, being told by no other than themselves. A mockumentary that focuses on their relationship, success and creativity. Underground Ben Zini teams up with the rising pop-star Taylor Malkov in order to perform the show of their lives.

The story of one woman's personal battle for acceptance, but also a portrait of a political movement that has forever affected millions of lives in the Middle East.

The year 2000 approaches in Jerusalem's Orthodox Mea Shearim quarter, where the women work, keep house, and have children so the men can study the Torah and the Talmud. Rivka is happily and passionately married to Meir, but they remain childless. The yeshiva's rabbi, who is Meir's father, wants Meir to divorce Rivka: "a barren woman is no woman." Rivka's sister, Malka, is in love with Yakov, a Jew shunned by the yeshiva as too secular. The rabbi arranges Malka's marriage to Yossef, whose agitation when fulfilling religious duties approaches the grotesque. Can the sisters sort out their hearts' desires within this patriarchal world? If not, have they any other options?

The year is 1968. To a small town in the south of Israel, mostly inhabited by Moroccan immigrants, a few families from India arrive, searching for a better life in the west. The instinct driven Moroccans patronize the "black" Indians, while the quiet Indians see the Moroccans as Ignorant and coarse. In this cultural war two girls, Moroccan and Indian, discover the sexual revolution of the 60's.

One of the most loved Israeli comedy at all times. A Satiric comedy about a rival between Yemenite shoe seller and a Parsian shoe seller.

Movie follows two young gay hustlers through interwoven stories during a night in Tel Aviv.

Meir (Sasson Gabay of The Band’s Visit and Shtisel) and Tova (Rita Shukrun) are a long-married couple living in an upscale high-rise in Tel Aviv. Itzik (Lior Ashkenazi) is their new neighbor, a worldly modeling agent and bachelor. The couple attend Itzik’s karaoke parties and soon become obsessed with him, competing with each other, and other residents of the building, for his attention.

Dan Freilich (30), a handsome and dozy nerd, was sure that his life were all planned out for the next 50 years. pretty soon he was also supposed to get married, to his high school sweetheart. That's all you need, isn't it? Apparently not.

Yarden Gat is young, brilliant, creative and doesn't really believe in love. However when she decides to go on a date anyway, she soon dicovers herself telling about the time she worked for a newspaper, slept with her married boss and following his order ruined her single romanticist best friend's life, when she sends him on many dates only to write about it humiliatingly in the paper. Maybe not the best story for a first date? depends on the date...

What will Riki do after Asher, her fiancé, tells her that he got second thoughts regarding their wedding?..

IS THAT YOU? Is the story of RONNIE, 60 year old Israeli film projectionist, who has been fired from his job and is going now to the U.S. in a search for RACHEL, the love of his youth IS THAT YOU? Is a romantic, road trip journey to 'The Road Not Taken' in life created by Award Winning filmmaker Dani Menkin (HBO Cinemax-39 Pounds of Love, Je Taime, I Love You Terminal, Dolphin Boy).

This mythic love story set in a timeless, lavishly colorful and mystical Jerusalem incorporates hard rock, striking set design, computer-generated imagery and modern-day tensions between the secular and the Orthodox worlds. Hanan, a handsome young traveler - who has pierced ears and wears grungy flannel shirts - falls in love with Lea, the beautiful daughter of a leader in the religious community. Unbeknownst to the couple, a deal was struck, years earlier, in which they were promised to each other by their fathers. When Hanan consults with a master of Kabbala, a set of mysteriously forbidden eleventh-century texts unleashes untold powers, merging the erotic with the divine and affirming love's infinite potential to transcend all obstacles. The lovers are played by Yehezkel Lazarov (Waltz with Bashir) and Ayelet Z'urer (Angels & Demons; Vantage Point). (from sfjff.org)

The story takes place in Haifa, Israel, in 1979, during three days before the Shabbat. A young woman trying to raise three children, work from home, and observe the strict Moroccan traditions of her family finds herself at constant odds with her husband and her brothers, who want her to stay married and leave behind the notions of being loved and free.

An accidental murder brings two girls together in a series of wild crimes and romance over the course of an evening.

A movie for and about youngsters living at Tel Aviv and about things that they experience: love, friendship, the need to grow up.

Six days in the lives of an Israeli living in a kibbutz and a Palestinian living in Paris, which starts with an accidental meeting in the Berlin Subway during the World cup finals, will change them completely.

This movie is a sequel to the saga of movies about 3 guys in the middle of the 50's during their sex urges and other funny incidents.

Katz and Carasso are owners of rival insurance companies, who strongly loathe each other. They seek to sell insurance to the wealthy womanizer Israel Israeli, and use all available means for this purpose: Katz's elder daughter Naomi uses her feminine charms on Israeli, while Carasso's elder son Osi does the same with his actress friend Daniela. Despite the rivalry, Naomi and Osi grow fond of each other. Meanwhile, Katz's beatnik daughter Tiki meets Eliyahu, Carasso's younger son, and they start an affair. The fathers are very displeased from the growing romance between the two couples, and they become even more irritated to find out that they are competing on the same potential client.

Jimmy and Elik meet in the army, a minute before checking out. He is a fat corporaland she is a beautiful officer, but something clicks between them, They can talk. Ashame it doesn’t stand a chance.

Tom, a young architect from Tel Aviv, accepts his partner Nimrod's offer of a threesome with Or. The meeting with Or changes the couple's relationship.

Only 5 flight hours from Paris, in a working-class suburb of Tel Aviv, two people meet. He is a bred-and-born Israeli and she is a Russian immigrant. He is a taxi driver and she is a music teacher. He has no aspirations. She gave up hers long ago. He is afraid of flying and she is about to fly away. What are the odds of them ending up together?

After the passing of his girlfriend, unwilling to move on, Daniel is left with recollection of his past memories, his last dance.

A group of close friends celebrate the bittersweet changes coming to their lives during the summer of their high-school graduation: adult responsibilities, adult romance -- and the soberingly adult fact that some of their number are being drafted into the Israeli army. This has very much the feel of a high-school beach-party movie -- with music, and in Hebrew -- until a sudden and disturbingly realistic reminder of their own mortality finally slashes through the kids' cheerful, close-knit obliviousness.

In the easy-going, sexually-liberated 1970's Tel Aviv, three young friends, struggling filmmaker Nati, his impressionable girlfriend Ossi and his geeky friend Mushon, move in together in a small apartment in Dizengoff Street number 99. By day, they work a boring desk office job but by night the city is their playground. Their overall goal is to make their way into the commercial movie making business, but harsh realities and romances often sidetrack them. Their fourth friend and Nati's older other girlfriend is aspiring musician, Miri.

Vicky (Angelica Vale) travels to Israel dressed as a nun to find her estranged husband, who is an illegal salsa dancing teacher in Tel Aviv. On her way there she meets Yoni (Angel Bonanni), a shy University professor who helps her go through Israeli customs.

The film follows Ben, who is traveling from Israel to New York to marry his girlfriend but misses his connection in Prague. There he meets Emma, an attractive free spirited girl. During the next 24 hours a friendship develops between the two and they find themselves reconsidering their original travel plans and re-evaluating their lives and relationships.

The Schwartz Dinasty belong to a long tradition of Jewish rabbis. The grandfathers took their faith and turned it into deeds coming to the Land of Israel to start a new life and build a country. Where are their descendants and how are they doing in the Israel of today?

Galia, a young 27 year old woman injured in the bombing of a bus in Jerusalem, will start searching for the man who saved her life. A journey that will reveal to her an unsuspected truth.

Three parallel stories of immigrants in Tel Aviv during the Gulf War and about coming together while sealed in a room during the Scud attacks.

Joy can't let go of her ex, but doesn't seem to be able to fall for the new guy. In the meantime she keeps having casual sex with strangers.

This story centers on the Jewish practice that requires an unmarried brother to marry the childless widow of his dead brother. In this story the younger brother is only 12 years old when his brother dies. The requirement is avoided by a legal fiction, but as time passes in the story, the situation changes.