- An old Kibbutz isolated in the Hills of Galilee in Israel find itself immersed in deep debt and threatened by lawsuits from bankers and creditors to the point of bankruptcy. On the evening prior to the arrival of the bailiffs, the great exodus begins. Men, women and children abandon their homes, taking with them all their possessions. The sun rises over an abandoned and desolate kibbutz. No living soul can be seen. Twelve senior citizens awake in the kibbutz old people's home to discover they have been deserted and left to fend for themselves. The group initially sink into deep depression, but later begin to organize an effective communal unit. They begin to rebuild the kibbutz.—Ozgur Seyben
- The film opens with a flashback of parents putting their preschoolers to bed in the childrens houses on a kibbutz circa 1965: The duty child-minder shoos the parents out, turns out the lights, and leaves, whereupon a little boy gets out of bed and goes to the window. He watches his father pass by, turn around, and sheepishly wave to him.
The image of the father is replaced by an elderly man, presumably that same father, now residing in the kibbutz senior citizens complex. Its nighttime, and outdoors cars and trucks are being loaded up: the kibbutz members, mired in debt, are leaving in a mass exodus.
The next morning, the dozen kibbutz founders discover that save one Chinese laborer and one errant cow, the kibbutz is empty, and the electricity and water have been cut off. No one had bothered to inform them that the kibbutz had been placed in receivership. Once discovering this, they manually shut the electric gate and hunker down to the business of survival.
While they are all at the swimming pool -- the only water source for the moment -- bathing and shaving, a helicopter lands on the premises and out climbs the tycoon and his secretary, who cant wait to get his hands on the place so he can build a spa and inn thereon. He stumbles onto the Chinese, who leads them to the group at the swimming pool, where the tycoon offers them millions and to set them up in a luxury retirement home for life at his expense. They refuse.
As the intrepid old-timers eventually uncover the original well and turn on the water, restart the generator for electricity, and uncover their old War of Independence weapons cache, we observe that underneath their sniping at each other and their dusting up of old rivalries lies an unshakable foundation of caring and mutual aid.
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