Crazy Romance

Maya Gavish, an 11th-grade high school student is a serious, highly-motivated girl, active in the student council, the preservation of nature and other worthy causes. To her great displeasure her teacher pairs her off for a school assignment with Niko, who is unpredictable, undisciplined and a prankster. They also come from different backgrounds: Maya’s father is a well-known economist, while Niko works as a waiter to help his family. The gradual change is beautifully described: Niko is attracted to Maya and “wants them to meet on a crazy planet, where two parallel lines meet.” He makes fun of her inflexibility, tries to loosen her up, takes her to the beach when she has “important” things to do, sends her flowers, asks her forgiveness on a poster at school, for all to see. For Maya, the change is slow. She doesn’t believe that he really wants to work on the assignment and is surprised when he does. As they get to know each other, Maya can’t help liking Niko and his eccentric ways. For their school project – an anti-smoking campaign – they collect material, interview people, shoot a movie and get involved in various adventures. Maya finds, to her surprise, that Niko shares her love of movies, and is quite knowledgeable about her favorite films.  When Maya’s studious boyfriend Aviv can’t give his talk at a school gathering, Niko jumps in and appears with his band, to the delight of the audience. In the end, Maya realizes that she is in love with Niko, leaves Aviv at the restaurant, and goes off with Niko, paraphrasing the final scene from Casablanca which they both love.