Foreign Letters

The film is set in the nineteen eighties. Ellie has moved with her family from Israel to the United States. There is no electronic mail yet, and people write letters. She is waiting for letters from her best friend back home. She checks the mailbox every day. In the new country she struggles with the language. She is pushed out at school and feels alone. Then she meets Thuy. Thuy came from Vietnam and is a refugee of her own age. The two girls become inseparable before long. The days they spend together change Ellie’s life. At some point, though, they hurt each other. Ellie has to find a way to restore the trust. The film is also about poverty, prejudice and shame. The director drew on her own experience of immigration. Noa Rotstein and Dalena Le appear in the hundred minute film, an Israeli and American co-production Ela Thier finished in 2012.