As Tears Go By (1996)

Yaakov Tcherniak and his son Yitzhak have a small company that organizes parties and events. They travel to weddings, bar mitzvas and birthdays, and supply the sound equipment and a female ... See full summary »

Director:

Eitan Green

Writer:

Eitan Green

Stars:

Avi Grainik, Yael Almog, Shir Ben Yunes

Cast

Credited cast:
Avi Grainik	...	Yitzhak Tcherniak
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yael Almog	...	Nitza
Shir Ben Yunes	...	Noam
Ornit Eliazarov	...	Tomer's Wife
Yehuda Levi	...	Car-hit boy
Aryeh Moskona	...	Yaakov Tcherniak (as Arie Moskona)
Yael Navi	...	Boni
Gadi Poor	...	Tomer (as Gadi Por)
Dani Roth	...	Tester #1
Eyal Shiray	...	Groom
Ami Smolartchik	...	Young Cheat
Yael Stern-O'Dwyer	...	Shifra (as Yael Stern)
Meital Trabelsi	...	Anat

Storyline

Yaakov Tcherniak and his son Yitzhak have a small company that organizes parties and events. They travel to weddings, bar mitzvas and birthdays, and supply the sound equipment and a female vocalist who sings Israeli songs. Their dream is to expand the business and supply catering services as well. To this end, they need another vehicle in addition to their pick-up truck. Yitzhak is supposed to be the driver of the second vehicle. Sadly, he just can't manage to pass his driving test. During the course of the film, the Tcherniak family must deal with this and other problems that arise.

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Israel

Language:

Hebrew

Release Date:

1 July 1996 (Israel)

Also Known As:

As Tears Go By

Company Credits

Production Co:

Regev Dvash Productions Ltd., Tel Aviv

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

Balada Al Na'ari SheGadal
Lyrics by Tirtza Atar
Music by Sasha Argov
Arranged by Adi Renart
Performed by Meital Trabelsi

User Reviews

A fine story, but the actors don't shine

It helps to understand the Hebrew title, which refers to an Israeli children's song (and has nothing to do with the song "As Tears Go By," although that's the title adopted for English). In the song, a little boy tries to give his all in order to win a girl's heart, only to see her go play with another boy instead. He doesn't cry, he says, but the tears fall by themselves. The song doesn't appear in the movie, but it doesn't have to; it's well enough known, and everyone will easily associate it with the protagonist Yitzhak, who does have a tendency to shed tears whenever he's under pressure. Instead, the movie opens with a scene in which an audience sings a different Israeli song, one about a boy who surprises and disappoints a woman by growing up to become his own man. Echoes of that song persist throughout the soundtrack, and the characters and situations from both songs seem to recur kaleidoscopically throughout the movie. As time passes, the characters' lives take turns that appear as surprises because their driving forces were ignored or repressed. A little boy who understands only that something is being repressed by the adults, but not what it is, sets off part of a wide-ranging resolution in which careers and personal relationships are sorted out and some illusions are put to rest. It's a fine story, complex but not hard to follow. However, whether because the movie wanted to illustrate a particular psychological state or because the actor can do no better, the main character's behavior is rather wooden most of the time. None of the actors particularly shines, but the movie does have the distinction of being the only one to feature the very talented singer Meital Trabelsi, and one of the song she sings-- the one about the boy who grows up-- has music by the remarkable Israeli composer Sasha Argov.