Saint Clara 1996

Eddie Tikel, Halil Elohev and “Rozy” Rosenthal, Johnny Peterson, sprint toward their classroom in the Golda School, just moments before Headmaster Tissona, Igal Naor, and Zvi Munitz, Joe El Dror, arrive with the math results: the entire class has earned a perfect 100% on the test. The administration greets them with a sarcastic “praise” that quickly shifts into a harsh claim of rebellion, demanding a confession from the ringleader. As each classmate is called up, Tikel and Rozy decide to swallow pills to help dodge the inevitable interrogation. Among the students, Elinor Galash, Maya De-Fries, is singled out as the genius who helped solve the exam; Tissona, however, spares her any punishment and offers quiet sympathy. The next name on the list is Rozy, whom the headmaster tries to sow doubt about by insinuating he’ll be sold out, but the room falls silent when asked who pressured Elinor to cheat. Then it’s Tikel’s turn, and the headmaster tests him with a mix of taunting and old memories—an Edith Piaf dream, a youth flame, and a relentless pressure to confess a “pathetic act of rebellion” that Tikel insists he did not organize. The truth finally surfaces when Galit Biron helps uncover that Clara Chanov supplied the numbers and even hinted at which numbers the test would reveal, revealing Clara’s clairvoyant gift.

The next morning brings a chilling reversal: Tikel and Rozy plot retaliation against Galit Biron for informing the teachers, but Galit reveals that the day’s plan has shifted away from sport to a fresh math test—one that Clara predicted. Clara herself confirms, telling them five numbers from the book: 99, 404, 111, 890, and 1000. When the teachers try another nerve-wracking raffle quiz to test whether the last incident was a fluke, Elinor Galash calmly selects the same five numbers, matching Clara’s forecast. After class, Tissona and Munitz grow wary that Tikel and Rozy are using pills to dodge questioning, so the trio—Tikel, Rozy, and Liby, Maya Maron—mull their next move. They voice a shared itch to do something “real heavy” that will be etched into the country’s history books, and Rozy hints to Liby that Tikel is in love with Clara, though he also fears Tikel might be a double agent.

That afternoon, Munitz and Tissona descend on Clara’s home to challenge the idea of her clairvoyance. Clara’s family stands by her, and Clara herself has a vision: the class’s act will culminate in hanging the school’s Golda Meir statue in their homeroom and setting it aflame—an insult that runs deep for Clara’s own family’s devotion to Meir. With Clara’s power on display, Tissona declares that she and he will lead the revolution he had anticipated for years, warning Clara not to fall in love, for such a feeling might endanger her powers. The next day, Munitz tries to break Clara’s hold on the class by giving her an algebraic problem without a solution, cutting off any help she could receive—even from Tikel, who has just returned from Tissona’s office after being told to stay away. Yet a red sky and a sudden stork’s intrusion through a broken window hint that Clara’s influence remains alive and unstoppable. In a private moment, Munitz shares a veteran’s memory from Vietnam—one that reveals a chessboard victory over Bobby Fischer—while Tissona discloses a long-simmering past with Edith Piaf, including the iconic line Piaf wrote after their encounter: “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.”

As the students lie low, the Chanov family becomes a focal point. Liby, now identified with her own growing bond to Clara, visits Clara and then returns to Tikel’s home. Tikel’s dad, a cop, encounters Clara at Tikel’s house and quickly senses she has the numbers—so he asks her to uncover the mystery behind a missing girl he once loved, Sharon, who also turns out to be Tikel’s mom. Clara’s writing down of lottery numbers draws a surprising turn: her father-in-law, Elvis Chanov, or rather Elvis’s family circle, comes into play as the lottery numbers are called. Elvis’s shell shock from memories of the Ukraine conflict is invoked as a weight on the family’s shoulders, and Clara confides that Natasha—who disappeared—may have been taken by a bear, leaving Natasha’s fate unresolved. The lottery draw triggers a wave of mass suicides and angry protests, and a RTL program titled Catastrophes in Israel features a reporter who confronts Tikel’s father on live television, only for him to curse her out and quit his job on air.

Internal tensions simmer as Rozy, Liby, and Clara’s circle grow more complicated. Rozy and Liby begin to mock Tikel’s leadership—Rozy even warns that Tikel won’t survive the Shoah if he “can’t handle mental stress.” The trio’s mounting pressure finally erupts when Rozy, Liby, and Elinor openly betray Tikel; Rozy strikes him with a baseball bat and coldly proclaims that Clara would never choose him. Back home, Tikel and Sharon talk about the old days, and Sharon laments how people used to compete for her attention, except for Tikel’s dad. Clara visits again and encounters Tikel’s dad, who is surprised by her clairvoyant abilities and who is eager to have Clara write down lottery numbers to test fate. In a pivotal moment, Clara’s power—together with family support—wins Elvis’s lottery, with enough to share with the Chanovs, a gesture that only further unsettles the neighborhood.

Igor Chanov, Ronald Heilovsky, a figure of tension and memory, appears again as the consequences of the lottery ripple through the town: mass despair, protests, and a sense that nothing will be the same. Elvis’s shell shock and Natasha’s fate weigh heavily on Clara and those around her, including Clara’s mom, Evgenia Dodina, who holds the family together as the credits of the town roll by. The school’s atmosphere becomes charged with a blend of fear, awe, and fragile hope as Clara’s clairvoyance reshapes how the students behave and how adults respond to doubt. Vered Rosental, Ronny Bachar, appears in the background as the quiet threads of city life continue to intertwine with the extraordinary events unfolding in the classroom and around the Chanov home.

As the town braces for an aftershock, the students’ relationships tighten and fracture in equal measure. Tikel and Clara eventually acknowledge a budding romance, and Rozy and Liby pursue their own uneasy partnership, while Tissona, the enduring mentor-turned-observer, steps back to allow the unfolding events to run their course. The film reaches its quiet, final moment as Tikel and Clara walk away from the school toward a movie theater, where they share a first kiss amid the approaching tremor. An earthquake, rated a modest 4.0 on the Richter scale, rattles the town but cannot undo the moment they share. The screen freezes on Clara and Tikel together in the cinema, their future uncertain but already entwined, as the town settles into a tense, uncertain calm.