The Commune

Yair, 30, is rushed back to Israel from his life in Germany, where he currently lives with his girlfriend and has a promising career. As he arrives, he finds the Kibbutz he was born and raised at, has fallen upon hard times and is actually in the process of bankruptcy. Yair learns that a few of his former classmates from the Kibbutz are being kicked out of their current home – the Kibbutz’s old packaging house, located at a poor neighborhood of Tel Aviv. His classmates have been taking care of Yogev, another classmate with special needs and a brain injury, stemming from a prank gone horribly wrong in their youth. Yair’s former classmates are now being evicted by an official receiver who sold the old packaging house and this ultimately means that Yogev might find himself homeless. The guilt Yair feels towards Yogev’s situation overwhelms him and he is forced to stay, deciding to help Yogev and the others. Along with his former classmates, who never really found themselves in the big city, Yair stages a siege of the old packaging house and they stumble upon a dangerous secret, kept hidden and hushed by the Kibbutz’s elderly founders.

12 years after they all left the Kibbutz for various reasons, despite the resentment of the neighborhood’s residents, they find themselves living again in a commune in the middle of Tel Aviv.

Surprisingly, not a lot has changed. This is the same dysfunctional and intimate group of people, who as kids and teens ate together, studied together, spent every waking and sleeping moment together, fought and talked about everything. Their childhood experiences have created a a strong familial bond, often overtaking their own biological one with their parents. These aren’t relationships between mere best friends, but a relationship similar to multiple twins or siblings close to the same age. They have a common language, humor, openness and lack of privacy, as though they live in their own world, with a shared history and secrets, leading to some uncommon scenarios like interrupting bathroom breaks, screaming matches over who does the dishes etc., which from the outside, seem absolutely insane.

This is the premise of the drama and humor in the show, in addition to the financial situation in which they all find themselves. Ultimately all of the mistakes in which they blamed their parents for and made them leave the kibbutz in the first place, backfire them.  . The show explores the ideals of groups of people living together who are emotionally, financially, and socially intertwined and raises the question – what is it like living in a world with no sense of community? Which world is better?

A HOT Original Production

Created by: Yona Rozenkier, Avner Shefa, Amitai Ashkenazi, Ori Weisbrod

Directed by: Boaz Frankel

Production Company: Sumayoko