Michal Bat-Adam facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Michal Bat-Adam
מיכל בת-אדם
Bat-Adam in 2011
Born	Michal Breslavy (1945-03-02) March 2, 1945 (age 80) Afula, Mandatory Palestine
Occupation	Director, screenwriter, producer, actress, musician, teacher
Years active	1972–present
Spouse(s)	Moshé Mizrahi

Michal Bat-Adam (Hebrew: מיכל בת-אדם; born March 2, 1945) is an Israeli film director, producer, screenwriter, actress, and musician. She is known for making movies that explore complicated family relationships. Her films often look at the difference between being healthy and having a mental illness. Many of her movies include parts of her own life story.

As an actress, Michal Bat-Adam is well-known for her strong performances. She often starred in films directed by her husband, Moshé Mizrahi.

Michal Bat-Adam's Early Life

Michal Bat-Adam was born in Afula, Israel. Her parents, Yemima and Adam Rubin, moved from Warsaw in 1939. When Michal was a young child, her family lived in Haifa. Her mother, Yemima, had a mental illness and found it hard to care for the family.

When Michal was six and a half years old, she went to live with her older sister Netta. They lived at Kibbutz Merhavia in the Harod Valley. While there, both sisters changed their last name to Bat-Adam, which means "daughter of Adam." At 17, Michal left the kibbutz to return home and help care for her mother.

Michal first wanted to be a musician. She studied at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music. Later, she became interested in theater. She was accepted into the Beit Zvi School of Performing Arts in Ramat Gan. There, she began to focus on acting. Early in her acting career, Bat-Adam played main roles in famous theaters. These included the Habimah National Theater, the Cameri Theater, and the Haifa Theater.

Michal Bat-Adam's Career in Film

Michal Bat-Adam in 1984

In 1972, Michal Bat-Adam played the main character in Moshe Mizrahi's film I Love You Rosa. This movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It was also shown at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. This role helped start Bat-Adam's career as a film actress.

After a short first marriage, Bat-Adam and Mizrahi got married. She continued to act in many of Mizrahi's movies. These included The House on Chelouche Street (1973) and Daughters, Daughters (1973). She also appeared in his Academy Award-winning French film, Madame Rosa in 1977.

In the late 1970s, Bat-Adam lived in Paris. There, she began writing screenplays and directing films. Her first film was Moments (1979). It was a French-Israeli movie. In the United States, it was called Each Other. This film explored a very close friendship between two women. Bat-Adam wrote, directed, and starred in the movie. It received good reviews and a lot of attention.

After Moments, Bat-Adam made two films with themes from her own life. The Thin Line (1980) was about a mother dealing with mental illness. Boy Meets Girl (1982) was filmed on Kibbutz Ma'ayan Tzvi. This movie was inspired by Bat-Adam's memories of being a young girl left at a kibbutz by her parents.

In the late 1980s, Bat-Adam directed two films based on books. These were The Lover (1986) and A Thousand and One Wives (1989). For television, she worked on a drama called The Flight of Uncle Peretz (1993). She returned to personal stories for later films like Aya: Imagined Autobiography (1994) and Maya (2010).

Michal Bat-Adam is still active as a film-maker and actress. She also teaches at Tel Aviv University and Camera Obscura. She performs poetry readings and has recorded a CD of her readings with music.

Michal Bat-Adam's Acting Roles

• Ha-Pritza Hagdola (1970)
• I Love You Rosa (1972) - Rosa
• The House on Chelouche Street (1973)
• Daughters, Daughters (1973) - Esther Alfandari
• Ha-Diber Ha-11 (1975)
• Rachel's Man (1975) - Rachel
• Madame Rosa (1977) - Nadine
• La fille de Prague avec un sac très lourd (1978) - Milena
• Moments (1979) - Yola
• Real Game (1980)
• Hanna K. (1983) - Russian woman
• Silver Platter (1983)
• The Ambassador (1984) - Tova
• Atalia (1984) - Atalia
• The Lover (1985) - Asia
• The Impossible Spy (1987, TV Movie) - Nadia Cohen
• Aya: Imagined Autobiography (1994) - Aya
• Women (1996) - Rebecca
• Rita Shem Zemani (2007)
• BeTipul (2008, TV Series) - Tami Savyon (final film role)

Michal Bat-Adam's Directed Films

• Moments (1979)
• The Thin Line (1980)
• Boy Meets Girl (1982)
• The Lover (1986)
• A Thousand and One Wives (1989)
• The Deserter's Wife (1991)
• The Flight of Uncle Peretz (1993)
• Aya: Imagined Autobiography (1994)
• Love at Second Sight (1999)
• Life Is Life (2003)
• Maya (2010)
• Hila (2023)

Awards and Recognition

Michal Bat-Adam has received several important awards for her work:

• She won the Best Actress award from the Israel Film Institute for I Love You Rosa (1972) and Atalia (1984).
• She also won Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress awards from the Israel Film Institute for Moments (1979) and The Thin Line (1980).
• In 2019, she received the Ophir Award for Lifetime Achievement. This award honors her long and successful career.
• In 2021, she was given the Israel Prize for film art. This is one of Israel's highest honors.

See Also

• List of female film and television directors
• List of Israeli submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film