Last week, the winners of the Jerusalem Pitch Point 2019 Awards were announced. Writer and director Maya Dreifuss took home the Wouter Barendrecht – Lia van Leer Award for her upcoming feature film HIGHWAY 65. The film also won second prize at the Sam Spiegel Film Lab, and received funding from the Israel Film Fund.
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HIGHWAY 65 tells the story of Daphna, 40, a promising police officer with a big mouth, who finds herself in the small town of Afula. She is dealing with petty crimes, seeking shade from the scorching heat, taking care of her aggressive cat, but more importantly, dodging the nagging question: ”When are you going to get married and have children?”.

The disappearance of Orly Elimeleh, a beautiful and wild 36 year-old army widow and former beauty queen, soon raises another troubling question for Daphna – why isn't anybody looking for her? This indifference towards Orly’s uncertain fate shakes Daphna to the core as she begins to identify with her and to suspect the worst. Her concern gradually consumes her life, blurs her reality and causes her to question whether she is just imagining things, or is she on the contrary, the only one seeing things clearly.

Matan, the younger 34 year-old son and “black sheep” of the powerful Oheyon’s, Orly’s late husbad’s family,seems to be the only one who shares Daphna’s concerns,  which pushes her to step beyond her professional boundaries.  As her faith both in herself and in everybody surrounding her is called into question, Daphna will have to do something she has managed to avoid her entire adult life;  put her trust in a man.

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