Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2016: #93. Hagar Ben Asher’s The Burglar

The Burglar

Director: Hagar Ben Asher
Writer: Hagar Ben Asher

Actress turned director Hagar Ben Asher’s first film, The Slut (2011) premiered at Cannes  and went onto a rather hushed reception. She’s back with a sophomore feature, which was been backed by Eurimages with the Match Factory picking up international sales in February, 2015. We’re hoping to see the burgeoning Israeli director get a bit more traction with her latest feature which concerns young pretty Yaeli, who lives in a small town by the Dead Sea where she works as a carer for the skin diseased. Her house is a small house, with two small bedrooms. One of them belongs to her absent mother and has not been opened for a long time. Only then, brutal thieves invade the house. The door is now open, but life is impossible to live. With no primal intent, she herself becomes a burglaress. This revelation will eventually lead her to save her soul, her mind, her longing, and her ability to grow.

Cast: Ronald Zehrfeld, Lihi Komowski

Production Co./Producers: Hagar Ben Asher, rohfilm’s Benny Drechsel and Karsten Stöter (My Sweet Pepper Land), Nathalie Vallet, Eitan Mansuri (The Congress).

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic). The Match Factory (international).

Release Date: We’d pegged this as a possible 2015 release, but it looks like Match Factory is holding the property, potentially as a Cannes 2016 hopeful.