Madam Yankelova's Fine Literature Club

Madam Yankelova's Fine Literature Club (Hebrew: המועדון לספרות יפה של הגברת ינקלובה, tr. HaMo'adon LeSifrut Yaffa Shel HaGveret Yankelova) is a 90-minute 2017 Israeli Hebrew-language independent dramatic art film directed by Guilhad Emilio Schenker, at his directorial debut. Synopsis The film, which premiered on 6 September 2017 as part of (general release followed on 7 June 2018), was screened at the 2017 Haifa International Film Festival, at the 2017 , at Sderot Cinematheque's 2017 , at Fantastic Fest on 22 September 2018, at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con, and at the 2018 Montreal World Film Festival (where it was nominated for the Golden Zenith), and was released on DVD on 4 March 2019, has been in development since 2013, was financed by 's Channel 10, B Communications's Bezeq's Yes's , Mifal HaPayis's, Ministry of Culture and Sport's Israel Film Council's, and Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality's , the Ministry of Culture and Sport's Israel Film Council, Mifal HaPayis's , and the , was produced by , was scored by (with the music being performed by the , conducted by ), and has won the and the at the Ophir Awards (where it was also nominated for the , the , the , and the ). It follows Sophie Kafry (Keren Mor), a librarian and member of a women-only bookclub founded by Madam Yankelova (Lea Koenig) and managed by Razia Harari, which meets once a week inside a Gothic castle to discuss works such as Shmuel Yosef Agnon's 1943 short story and Elfriede Jelinek's 1983 novel The Piano Teacher. All members are required to attend in the company of a man, whereupon said men are judged according to their attractiveness, and the member whose man has received the highest marks wins a trophy. The men, at the end of each meeting, are murdered and turned into hotdogs. Having already won ninety-nine such trophies, Sophie finds it difficult to win the one-hundredth trophy, which shall promise her a seat at the Lordesses's House, the highest status in the club's stratification system. Should she fail to do so, she might find herself demoted into a cleaning lady, together with her friend, Hana (Hana Laszlo), who tells Sophie she plans on escaping to Paris and who invites her to join. One day, Joseph (Yiftach Klein) arrives at the library in which Sophie works, in order to inquire about Agnon's works (Sophie's field of expertise) for research purposes, and she invites him to join her at the club.