Hora 79 wasn’t just any folk dancing company, it was the face of Israeli folk dancing.
Hora 79
A Film by: Eli Cohen
(Israel, 2013, 92 Minutes, Color, Hebrew, English subtitles, Cast: Hora79 Dance Group, Gila Almagor, Nathan Datner, Yossi Graber)
Hora79 wasn’t just any folk dancing company, it was the face of Israeli folk dancing. Following a traumatic event - An accident? A murder? A suicide?—the group ceased its activity and the members went their own way. As the years passed, the group became a legend among folk dancing aficionados. Now, thirty-three years later, the Karmiel Dance Festival is initiating a reunion of the scattered members of the troupe for a one-time performance—a tribute to Hebrew dance, to its achievements and to its future. The members of the group gather; some are still working, some are retired, some are excited, and some skeptical. The encounter brims with nostalgia, tension, and guilt.
The difficult feelings intensify when it becomes apparent that Dori is slated to return to run the group. Dori—talented, charming, charismatic, but also with a good measure of malice—was the one who built up the troupe, but also the one who brought it to its traumatic end. Will they be able to overcome the dark ghosts of the past, the old conflicts, the betrayal of the body and of the memory? Will they not make a laughingstock of themselves in their attempt to reconstruct the past? Or will they be granted a moment of mercy and return, if only for a moment, to their lost youth?
AWARDS, FESTIVALS & SCREENNINGS
• Jerusalem International Film Festival 2013 - Feature Competition
• Toronto JFF 2014
• The Avalon, DC 2014
• AICE - Australia 2014
• Palm Beach JFF 2014
• UKJFF 2014