Noodle (2007)

At thirty-seven, Miri is a twice-widowed, El Al flight attendant. Her well-regulated existence is suddenly turned upside down by an abandoned Chinese boy whose migrant-worker mother has ... See full summary »

Director:

Ayelet Menahemi

Writers:

Shemi Zarhin, Ayelet Menahemi

Stars:

Mili Avital, BaoQi Chen, Alon Aboutboul

2 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Mili Avital	...	Miri Calderone
BaoQi Chen	...	Noodle
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alon Aboutboul	...	Izzy Sason
Sinaya Ben-Dor	...	Ilana
Yiftach Klein	...	Mati Gueta
Daphna Shpigelman	...	Batya
Sarit Vino-Elad	...	Dafna
Anat Waxman	...	Gila Sason
Roni Yuria	...	Yaeli

Storyline

At thirty-seven, Miri is a twice-widowed, El Al flight attendant. Her well-regulated existence is suddenly turned upside down by an abandoned Chinese boy whose migrant-worker mother has been summarily deported from Israel. The film is a touching comic-drama in which two human beings -- as different from each other as Tel Aviv is from Beijing -- accompany each other on a remarkable journey, one that takes them both back to a meaningful life.

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Taglines:

Life is full of surprises.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Israel

Language:

Hebrew Mandarin

Release Date:

26 July 2007 (Israel)

Also Known As:

El pequeño tallarín

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$343,672

Company Credits

Production Co:

Norma Productions, EZ Films

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Remade as Cookie (2013)

User Reviews

A charming comedy-drama

I recently saw this at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival where it was among the announced audience favorites at the end of the festival. It's a good story from Israeli director Ayelet Menahemi who co-wrote the screenplay along with Shemi Yarhin. It's a sweet little comedic drama about Miri (Mili Avital) who is a woman who is only in her late 30's but is already twice widowed. Mili works as a El Al flight attendant and lives with her sister Gila (Anat Waxman) who is having marriage problems with her husband Izzy (Alon Aboutboul). One day the apartment's Chinese housekeeper (Vicky Lyn) asks Miri if she can leave her six year old son (BoaQui Chen) for an hour and Miri agrees to watch him but the mother never returns. They can't communicate with the Chinese only speaking boy and they give him the nickname Noodle while they search for his mother and ultimately a way to reunite the mother and child through the help of Mati (Yiftach Klein) who is a family friend and former neighbor of Miri and Gila. The story is sometimes hard to believe but it's a good ride none the less and certainly a charming tale. Director Menahemi has had a very sporadic career in his 20 years as a director making only three documentaries, three narrative features and one short in all that time. With this, his third feature narrative, I would hope he is inspired enough by it's success to create more films. It won the Grand Jury Prize and Best Screenplay at the Montreal World Film Festival and I'm sure it's been a crowd pleaser at other festivals it's played besides Montral and Palm Springs. I would give this an 8.0 out of 10 and recommend it.