Hunting Elephants

Sir Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and an impressive cast of Israeli top talent give bravura comic turns in Hunting Elephants, a bank heist caper and coming-of-age tale.

At the bank where his father works, 12-year-old Jonathan watches helplessly as his father succumbs to a sudden heart attack while testing a new high-tech security system. In a cruel double blow, the evil bank manager refuses to pay the father’s pension. In the aftermath, widow Dorit leaves her son in the care of his cantankerous grandfather Eliyahu (Sasson Gabai) and mate Nick (Moni Moshonov), both former Zionist freedom fighters now barely existing in a nursing home. Guilt-ridden over his father’s death, and mortified when his mother begins dating the bank manager out of financial desperation, Jonathan and the aging misfits hatch a plot to rob the bank that wronged his family. Joining the misadventure is Jonathan’s great uncle, a disgraced British lord and frustrated actor (Stewart in a scene-stealing role).

Nominated for seven Israeli Academy Awards including Best Film, Hunting Elephants is a delightful concoction of jocular hijinks and tender moments sure to leave audiences smiling.

Part of the 11th JCC Rockland International Jewish Film Festival.

Hebrew and English with subtitles