Karaoke

Southeast US Premiere

Nominated for 13 Israeli Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and winner of the Audience Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Karaoke stars Israeli superstars Lior Ashkenazi and Sasson Gabay (acclaimed for his work in Shtisel) in a bittersweet comedy about a married middle-class suburban couple who are drawn to their new neighbor, a charismatic bachelor who holds karaoke evenings at his apartment. Meir (Sasson Gabay, star of The Band’s Visit) and Tova (Rita Shukrun) are a Sephardic, upper-middle-class couple, seemingly resigned to live out the rest of their semi-retirement in the banal comforts of an upscale apartment complex in a suburb of Tel Aviv. When Itsik (Lior Ashkenazi, also at MJFF 2023 with his film Perfect Strangers), a sexy bachelor from Miami, moves into the building’s penthouse, their lives are gleefully upended. Joyous and poignant all at once, Karaoke is an optimistic portrait of midlife self-discovery, laced with both wisdom and barbed humor.

The special opening night premiere event will feature director Moshe Rosenthal and actor Sasson Gabay in attendance to introduce the film and participate in a Q&A afterward.