A quirky amusing film, “The Beetle” was shown at the ESRA Cinema Club recently. The audience relaxed, chuckling quietly, with “car enthusiast extraordinaire” Yishai Orians, the film’s director, whose battered Beetle was about to die, and with his soon-to-be-born child on the way and his hormone-fluctuating wife nagging him to get rid of this ‘heap of junk’. He was put to the ultimate test - “your wife or your car”.

Giving in to the illogical reasoning for keeping this little pile of junk, he took it to the “knackers’ yard” to be squashed into a square piece of metal.  On seeing the other cars meet this fate he stopped the process and set about trying to convince his wife, that his Beetle was something special and needed to be saved.

This took him to the previous owners and the film showed how precious the little car was to them all and how the Beetle was part of their lives, illustrating both the sad and happy times.

His decision to take the car to Jordan for a complete refit was so extraordinary that only car enthusiasts could comprehend it. His wife, Eliraz, was due to have their first baby in the few days, and there he was making his way to the Aquaba/Eilat border, hitching a ride on a car transporter as his little Beetle could certainly never make the journey.  In Aquaba he was told that the refit would take about a month.   Not having so much time to spare, he eventually ended up in a Jordanian village where a Bedouin garage set about putting his little car to rights.   He stayed for a few days, got to know the inhabitants, and at last his little car came out looking brand new.

This, of course, at the cost of not being at his wife’s bedside when she gave birth to their son.

Yishai, the director, answered many questions at the end of the film, and I for one, found the film to be a pleasant break from the current anxious political situation in the country.  He told the audience that his wife drives the car now and is happy to have it.  I don’t know if I would be quite so gracious.