Checkpoints

Rita Borodiyanski

Producer

Osnat Saraga

Lab Edition

2023

Production

Ananey Studios

Country

Israel

SYNOPSIS

The story of a young Israeli woman, daughter of first-generation immigrants, who grew in a poor neighborhood and decides to complete her army service in the Tulkarm checkpoints in order to qualify for the bonus release grant - with which she could both support her parents and fulfill her boyfriend's dream of starting a new life in Miami. But somehow, against all odds, it is in the hellish reality of the West Bank checkpoints that she is exposed to an alternate life, and begins to follow her own dreams.

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

I grew up in a poor neighborhood, hung out with a bad crowd and was in an extremely toxic relationship. My immigrant parents, who didn't have the tools or knowledge to help me, asked me to enlist in the army - in hopes that my service would be a ticket out of the neighborhood. My incentive was qualifying for the increased release grant combatants were entitled to. Terms such as "the occupation", "apartheid" and even "Palestinian" meant little to nothing to me, much like the vast majority of soldiers serving the checkpoints. Soon enough I found myself serving in the Tulkarem checkpoints. Most of the soldiers came from poor neighborhoods and difficult backgrounds. The only thing we cared about was our own survival. Morals were the luxury of elitist rich-kids, and those were never recruited to the checkpoints.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Rita has directed three short films which have been nominated and received awards in international festivals around the world. She was also nominated for the Best Casting Award at the 201 Ofir Awards for her work on ‘The House On Pin Street. Checkpoints is Rita’s first full length feature, and has received the award for second place in the 2020 Haifa International Pitching Forum, was featured in the 2021 Ronit Elkabetz’s residency program in cooperation with the Israeli Directors Union, was selected to represent Israel and won third place in the 2023 International Women’s Cinema Pitching Forum and won second place in the Cyprus International Film Festival, which was focused on Middle Eastern cinema. Currently Rita is working on a new television series, Crossing the Line, produced by Ananey Communication for KAN 11.

PRODUCER

Osnat Saraga

Osnat Saraga is SVP of Development & Production at Ananey Studios, is one of Israel's most experienced and beloved TV & film producers. Osnat has won 13 Israeli TV Academy Awards. Putting Ananey on the map as an innovator and elevating the company’s reputation in the local and international scenes as the go-to quality content producer. Osnat is responsible for some of Israel’s most successful productions in all genres; and most notably recently as executive producing Ananey’s Greenhouse Academy for Netflix and Malevolent Bride for Kan and A+E Studios.

PRODUCTION COMPANY PROFILE

Production company: Ananey Studios
Address Raul Wallenberg 24, Tel Aviv
Telephone 0525424285
Email Osnat.Saraga@paramount.com Ananey Studios is an award-winning Tel Aviv based studio that develops and produces inventive content spanning a variety of genres and target demos from live-action preschool shows to high-concept dramas, kids’ and teens’ must-watch TV shows, sitcoms, animation, documentaries, lifestyle programs and formats.

PRODUCTION BUDGET

Estimated Budget in USD: $1073000 Rabinovitch film fund development grant 15000 dollars

LANGUAGE

Hebrew, Russian, Spanish

GENRE

Drama

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