Gruisberg and Mirka have only one child, Raphael he is now 3 years old and about to get his first haircut (“Upsherin”). Tonight, they’re taking a kosher, gender segregated bus up to Mount Meron where the ceremony is held. Mirka has come prepared with gluten-free alphabet cookies – since Raphael cannot eat gluten. This is the first time he is sitting apart from her, and Mirka is restless. Gruisberg and the boy sit in the front seats, and Mirka loses sight of them in the crowded bus. A tray laden with cookies makes its way through the women’s sections and toward the men’s, and Mirka worries that someone might accidentally give Raphael a cookie. Mirka decides that she must reach her child at all costs, and neither the fortified wall of religious men nor the conventions of the society to which she yearns to belong, can stand in her way. She waits for the moment when everyone is focused on the tefilat haderech (the traveler’s prayer) and makes her way to her boy. She pushes her way between the men crowding the narrow aisle, and breaks what seems like a million halakhic laws, and her actions are met with astonished and severe looks. She manages to make it to her son just in the nick of time to stop Rephael from taking a cookie from the cookie tray. Mirka embraces Raphael: he is safe, that’s all that matters. But then the shame of her actions hits her, and she sinks into feelings of humiliation and guilt.
Director: ELKIE LEONIE HERSHBERG
Producer: ORI SZTERNFELD
Script: ELKIE LEONIE HERSHBERG
Editing: GIL VESELY
Director of Photography: OMRI BARZILAI
Cast: HILA LENA ROIZENMAN, RIVKA MICHAELI , RONI KUBAN
With the support of: GESHER MULTICULTURAL FILM FUND
