The Story Behind Elish's Notebooks

Elishs Notebooks

The kids of Elisheva Rise Source: Supplied / Golan Rise

Golan Rise is a director and screenwriter. We talk to Golan about his poignant documentary Elish’s Notebooks


The fascinating story of the late grandmother Elisheva and the notebooks encapsulates the most interesting aspects of growing up and parenting in the Kibbutz movement. The boundaries between the individual, the family and the movement are movingly explored in this memorable documentary.

82-year-old Elisheva Rise passed away. As her children clear out her home, they find journals she secretly wrote to each of them documenting their lives from their birth until her last day. Every evening she would sit in her kibbutz home and write about her 7 children, from their prespectrive, whom she had never hugged nor kissed. Following the treasure she left behind, they embark on an emotional and painful journey, learning about childhood, motherhood, and parenting.

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