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“Holy Ghetto” follows Olga, Dave, Yana, and Ohad on a journey through their memories, dreams, hopes, and fears, and through the red-light district of Tel Aviv, a city of contrasts. It is a portrait of the human capacity to endure and even to grow in the face of the most devastating circumstances. Each character embodies different aspects of ourselves, our struggles and potential, hopes and realities, best and worst moments.
Olga, once an honors student who dreamed of becoming an astronaut, was kidnapped by the Russian mafia and sold into Israel’s sex trade. A tenacious fighter who refused to accept her fate, she has battled endless obstacles. Her daughter is now her saving grace and beacon of hope. Yet shadows linger from seventeen years as an undocumented sex worker and drug addict. To avoid deportation and offer her daughter a better life, Olga petitions the State for citizenship, while her ex-husband’s addiction remains a constant reminder of the past she is working to leave behind.
Dave, an American expatriate escaping a toxic childhood, founded The Door of Hope, a precariously funded shelter in the red-light district. He offers homeless, drug-addicted women trapped in prostitution a safe bed and a glimmer of possibility. In this role of healer and big brother, Dave’s warm, down-to-earth compassion has a calming effect, helping the women tentatively believe in themselves and in the chance for renewal. He created the home that we all want, a warm home that loves unconditionally. As Dave says, “I love you, but not what you do”.
Yana, struggling to feed her five children, endured years in prostitution, gang rapes, and near-fatal assaults, numbing the pain with drugs and alcohol. Now a recovering addict and volunteer at The Door of Hope, she leans on Dave’s mix of counseling and tough love while striving to rise above her circumstances and hold on to hope for her children’s future.
Ohad, abandoned and racially discriminated against as a child, found refuge in one of Israel’s most notorious mafia families. At seventeen, he became the right-hand man to a trafficker he once admired but later rejected. Today, he carries the weight of his past, seeking to make amends by volunteering at The Door of Hope, all the while wondering if he bears responsibility for the condition of some of the very women he now serves.
The red-light district is a fifth character in the film, a stage upon which Olga, Dave, Yana, and Ohad navigate cycles of abuse, survival, and hope. Their stories intersect as they struggle with the past and fight for transformation.
