Director Evgeny Ruman
Staring Mariya Belkina, Vladimir Friedman, Evelin Hagoel
Rated M
Score 4/6

Victor and Raya Frenkel were the golden voices of the Soviet film dubbing for decades. All the western movies that reached Soviet screens were dubbed by them. In 1990, with the collapse of Soviet Union, the Frenkels decided to do Aliyah – immigrate to Israel, just like hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews. There’s no need in Israel for Russian speaking dubbing artists, and Victor’s and Raya’s attempts to use their talent will cause bizarre and unexpected events during their first months in Israel.

Okay, apologies for procrastinating for so long on getting this review up. I am certain that this the first film that I have reviewed that is from Israel, according to IMDB Golden voices was released in 2019 and it looks like it has been largely ignored at the box offices so its good to see that it is getting a release in Australia 2 years later in 2021 with its Australian cinematic release on March 25th. For those of you who might not like movies with subtitles you might want to give this one a miss.
I was completely unfamiliar with director Evgeny Ruman’s work and everybody cast in Golden Voices. I loved how Golden Voices was shot and the beach scene was stunning. I got the impression that even though Golden Voices was a slow movie it did not seem as melodramatic as some Hollywood movies.
I enjoyed the onscreen chemistry between Mariya Belkina, Vladimir Friedman who portrayed Victor and Raya Frenkel as an odd yet overbearing husband and his seemingly long-suffering wife, this was highlighted by his photo taking of significant moments in their life. It was interesting to see how passionate Victor was about film I loved the moment when he was talking about Fellini’s 1963 film 8 1⁄2. It was also interesting to see the different ways Victor and Raya used their fresh start in a new country with Victor finding work as voice dubber and Raya who finds work as a phone sex operator. I loved the final act of the movie as it showed a kind of love that everybody should want to aspire to.