Pals Eddie Tikal (Halil
Elohev), skinhead wannabe Rosy (Johnny Peterson) and the boyish-looking
Libby (Maya Maron) swallow some pills before entering school. Instead of
going to class, however, they are summoned to the principal’s office to
be questioned about a strange event. It seems that the students at Haifa’s
Golda Meir Junior High School have turned in perfect scores on a Math test
and the perplexed teacher and principal of the school are determined to
hunt down and punish the cheater. The teacher asks, "Aren't you guys smart
enough to make a few mistakes so we won't catch on that you're cheating?"
When they find out, however, that the class did not cheat but were provided
answers by a clairvoyant Russian immigrant, their authority is shaken.
Based on a novel by Pavel
Kohout, a Czech writer who adapted its story from a screenplay by his wife
Jelena, Ari Foman and Ori Sivan’s Saint Clara is a film of surreal charm
that bears comparison to Bunuel and Truffaut. While it is quirky, it is
not self consciously so, and contains characters that we can recognize
as real people. Contrary to typical Hollywood fare, the film shows psychic
abilities such as clairvoyance to be natural attributes of the human mind,
although in this case, according to a family tradition, they will last
only until the young girl falls in love. The psychic is 13-year old Clara
(Lucy Dubnichek), a very quiet girl with deeply expressive eyes. While
she is regarded as odd by her punk classmates, they are more than happy
to receive her help on their examinations and equally eager to enlist her
help in planning a revolution that never quite gets off the ground.
The oddness in the film
is not limited to the students. Mathematics teacher (Joseph El Dror) had
a tour of duty in Vietnam where he claims that he once beat international
chess champion Bobby Fischer. The principal (Yigal Naor), nattily dressed
in a red suit, claims to have made love to French singing star Edith Piaf.
On television, we see a weirdly dressed newswoman who constantly speaks
about the impending environmental catastrophe and we learn from Rosy that
the Richter scale was inspired by Marilyn Monroe. While it has its uneven
moments, Saint Clara is an offbeat gem that offers with deadpan humor some
intriguing insights into adolescent behavior. As Tikel becomes infatuated
with Clara, the film hints at a more conventional outcome but maintains
its irresistible charm and originality until the end.