Shoshana Damari

Shoshana Damari was the first Israeli diva. She graced local and international stages, stirring millions with her beguiling voice and spectacular performance. Yet behind the larger-than-life persona and her memorable songs was a woman about whom we know little. She didn’t like to be interviewed and never volunteered details about herself and her family. Hers was the life of a Hollywood legend and she paid the price for it. This is a story about fame and loneliness, acclaim and loss, daring and compromise. For the first time, the woman behind the crown, the cloak and the palace will come to light.

The story is set in 1926, Yemen. Naama, a popular nightclub singer, learns of her Jewish roots whilst around her, a series of violent Antisemitic attacks, orchestrated by the local Arab population, continues. Following an encounter with a shepherd and a Jewish boy whose parents were murdered, she joins a small group of Jews who are planning to move to the Holy Land (then-British Mandatory Palestine). This is the first Israeli film to have been shot in technicolour.

In 1948, immediately before a ceasefire takes effect, four volunteers fighting for Israel are ordered to take Hill 24, overlooking the road to Jerusalem.