Mazal

Filmmaker:

Helli Hardy

Producers:

Kobi Mizrahi, Ohad San

Production Company:

KM Productions

Country:

Israel

Language:

Hebrew

Genre:

Children

Lab Edition:

2026

SHORT SYNOPSIS

Mazal Ben-Baruch, 11¾, believes she is the unluckiest girl. She dreams of a perfect Bat Mitzvah (12 year old traditional birthday) that will finally make her popular. But when war breaks out, her father loses his job and her mother is called to reserve duty, her dream falls apart. Everything changes when her father finds work at an evacuee hotel, where Mazal sees a chance to reinvent herself and pretends to be an evacuee, earning her the first real friends of her life. But the better the lie works, the harder it becomes to escape.

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

I grew up in Israel, through periods of wars and conflicts. Looking back, what stays with me is how fear existed alongside everything else: worrying about whether I belonged, whether I had friends, whether a boy in my class liked me. Even when frightening things were happening around me, the everyday struggles of growing up could feel just as urgent. That contradiction is at the heart of "Mazal". Also, I never had a Bat Mitzvah myself. Maybe this is my chance.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Helli Hardy is a screenwriter, director and producer. Graduate with honors of the Steve Tisch School of Film & Television at Tel-Aviv University. Her short films include "Just Ask Dad" (Best Short at Golden Ball FF), "Make Yourself at Home" (Busan FF, Clermont-Ferrand FF), and "The Babysitter" (Best Short Fiction at Montreal World FF). Hardy has spent the past decade working on TV and film sets, as a script supervisor. She also worked as a producer at Gaudeamus Production, was Head of Development at Alma Films.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

PRODUCERS:

Kobi Mizrahi, Ohad San

KM Productions by EAVE alumnus Kobi Mizrahi and Ohad San is focusing on creating sustainable relationships with young, innovative directors in order to produce shorts, features, and documentaries.
The company’s feature films include "Cabaret Total" (won 2 Israeli Film Academy Awards, Honorable Mention at Mar del Plata). "The Road to Eilat" (won 3 awards including Best Feature at Jerusalem IFF), "The Dive" (won 4 awards at JFF, 2 awards at Locarno, screened a.o. at Toronto); "Water" (won Amnesty International Award, opened Venice Critics’ Week).
KM Productions’ short films include "White Eye" (Oscar-nominated), "Mission Hebron" (EFA shortlisted), "I See You" & "A Bird's wish" (both winners of the Israeli Academy Awards) and others that have been screened at major festivals worldwide such as Cannes, Venice, IDFA, Locarno, Toronto, Telluride, SXSW, DOC NYC, Annecy and sold to HBO, Canal+ and more.

PRODUCTION COMPANY PROFILE

○ KM Productions
○ 16, Shtand St. 6437426 Tel-Aviv
○ kobmiz@walla.com
○ +972-525785388

PRODUCTION BUDGET

○ Total budget: 1,268,000 USD
○ Confirmed budget and source: 16,800 USD (Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation Development Grant)

LANGUAGE

Hebrew

Genre

Children

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