Noodle

Ted came home the other day with free tickets to see the screening of Noodle at the 13th Annual Contra Costa International Jewish Film Festival. I didn’t even know that Contra Costa County had an international Jewish film festival, let alone that it had been going on for 13 years. Shows what I know. Anyway, Ted had free tickets to go see this screening, but he had to work filling in for his brother, who broke his collar bone and three ribs last week in a bicycle accident, so he couldn’t go. So Maya and I invited Cherry and Eric to come along, which they happily did. (It’s smart to invite them, and then to run home at the last minute to get glasses with which to read subtitles, because then they will surprise you with yummy movie goodies! Yay! Thanks again, Cherry and Eric!)

I’m not sure whether this film will get picked up for distribution beyond film festivals in the United States and Canada, but if it does come to your neighborhood, I suggest you go see it. Or maybe it will be picked up by Netflix.

Noodle is the story of an Israeli flight attendant, Miri, who lives in Tel Aviv with her sister, Gila, and her niece. Miri is twice widowed, and getting to the age when the likelihood of her ever having children is quickly dwindling. Her bereavement for her two lost husbands is etched into the pain on her face, and she makes her way through life displaying a peace born from her resignation to having her dreams twice crushed. Because she cannot bring either of her two soldier husbands back from the grave, and because she genuinely loves her sister and brother-in-law, she meddles and tries to save their marriage, which is clearly beyond saving.

Into this situation comes Noodle, the son of Miri and Gila’s housekeeper. One afternoon, the housekeeper receives a phone call, and runs out in a panic, promising to be back in one hour, asking Miri to please watch her 6 year old son. The housekeeper doesn’t return, though Miri tries again and again to get in touch with her. The boy doesn’t speak Hebrew, or English, or any other language that Miri and Gila can understand. The isolation that he seems to feel in this foreign land, without his young mother to care for him, is tragic. Finally, Miri and Gila discover that the housekeeper has been deported to Beijing, and they set about trying to figure out how to return the boy, whom they’ve nicknamed ‘Noodle’, after his favorite food, to his mother. Matters are complicated by the fact that Noodle’s mother was an illegal immigrant to Israel, so when she gave birth to Noodle, she did so without any official papers being produced, and Noodle is therefore a non-person, with no papers proving that he exists either in Israel or in China.

The friendship formed between Noodle and Miri was lovely to see, as they both slowly overcome their fear and reticence, and branch out toward one another. You can see that Miri is falling for the boy, and would happily keep him as her own if she could, but at the same time, she knows that he and his mother need to be reunited if at all possible.

The movie relied on some mighty convenient coincidences, such as a friend suddenly appearing who speaks the same dialect of Chinese that Noodle speaks, another friend who understands the paperwork involved in processing this child legally, etc. It is an improbable story. But it is told with such charm and grace, with hope and redemption for all of the parties involved, so you forgive the plot devices that help the story along. A sweet film, definitely a bit of a tear jerker, and well worth seeing if you get the chance.