Main Cast: Darya Zhovner, Atrem Cipin, Olga Dragunova, Veniamin Kac

1998, Nalchik, the North Caucasus, Russia. 24-year-old Ilana works in her father’s garage to help him make ends meet. One evening, her extended family and friends gather to celebrate the engagement of her younger brother David. Later that night, the young couple is kidnapped, and a ransom demand delivered. In this close-knit Jewish enclave, involving the police is out of the question. How will the family raise the money to save David? Ilana and her parents, each in their own way, will go as far as necessary, whatever the risks to themselves might be.

Closeness is a tough-minded, rigorously composed, quite brilliantly acted story of the challenges of everyday religious prejudice and ethnic divides and it won the International Critics Prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. The leading actress Darya Zhovner is a revelation and she’ll be in Kilkenny to present the film.