The Song of the Siren

This slightly sour, not particularly funny romantic comedy, set in Tel Aviv at the outbreak of the Gulf War, centres on Talila, a young advertising executive who vacillates between the lover who ditched her for a 22-year-old, her boss, and a seemingly sweet hick named Noah with whom, against her own expectations, she falls in love. The precautions widely adopted against Saddam's SCUDs and the marital problems of the heroine's sister contextualise and counterpoint Talila's own reckless rush towards marriage, though she's too moody, possessive and self-obsessed, even selfish, to elicit wholehearted sympathy.