Bar 51 1985

In Tel Aviv-Yafo, Thomas and his sister Mariana arrive after fleeing Migdal HaEmek when their Christian mother, Ewa, dies, and they set up a precarious life in the city’s seedy fringe. The brothers and sisters’ fragile world begins to tilt as Thomas uses himself as a kept man for two nightclub entertainers, Luna and Zara (a.k.a. Sarah Azulay), who perform at a bar crowded with a rough crowd of homosexual, deformed, and inebriated workers. His search for steady work leads him first to a hotel, where he is fired after being caught stealing supplies for Mariana, forcing him to take shelter in a dirty, crowded refuge.

Amid this instability, he attracts the attention of an amorous transvestite prostitute and stripper, Apolonia Goldstein, a character based on the real-life performer Gila Goldstein who performed in Bar 51. [Apolonia Goldstein] offers the siblings a place to live in his apartment, providing a temporary respite from their mounting hardships. Yet beneath the surface, Thomas’s love for his sister [Mariana] remains intense and unspoken, a deadly jealousy simmering just beneath the surface and shaping every decision he makes. If Mariana is to pursue any semblance of normal life, she must find a way to break free from his orbit and carve out her own path.

The film, developed at Herzliya Studios and distributed by Shapira Films, features a stark, intimate soundtrack with music by Arik Rudich and Shimrit Or, including a song performed by Sarah’le Sharon and written by Dudu Barak and Yeshayahu (Shaike) Paikov, with additional contributions in cinematography by Yossi Wein and editing by Tova Ascher. The production is led by Enrique Rottenberg and Efrat Stieglitz, weaving a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere that mirrors the protagonists’ entangled lives. The story culminates in a brutal, tragic turn: Thomas violently rapes Mariana, and she, in turn, kills him, leaving a wake of pain and unresolved longing that lingers beyond the final frame.