Charlie Ve'hetzi (1974)

Original title

צ'רלי וחצי

Directed by

Boaz Davidson

Genre

comedy film

Country

Israel

Runtime

1h 36m

Rating

5.5 of 10 from 12 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A con artist from a working class neighborhood teams up with a streetwise orphan to run schemes. He tries to romance a wealthy woman from the other side of town.

lightheartedplayfulcharmingcomicstreetwiseenergeticromanticretro

What happens

Charlie and a Half (Hebrew: צ'רלי וחצי, romanized: Charlie Ve'Hetzi) is a 1974 Israeli comedy bourekas film directed by Boaz Davidson and produced by the Filmor company. The film stars Yehuda Barkan as Charlie, a charming but unscrupulous con artist from a working-class Tel Aviv neighborhood, and David Shushan as Miko, a streetwise orphan who helps Charlie run his schemes. The story follows Charlie's romantic pursuit of Gila played by Haya Katzir, a wealthy North Tel Aviv woman. Charlie and a Half was influenced by the Iranian Luti genre and written by journalist Eli Tavor. Its soundtrack, composed by Yair Rosenblum with lyrics by Yonatan Gefen, featured songs that later became classics. Despite receiving mixed reviews at the time, particularly from critics opposed to so-called "ethnic films," it became a commercial success and has since become a cult classic. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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