Adapted from a book that in turn was adapted from the author's own early life at an orphanage in British Mandatory Palestine, this movie follows the progress of a preteen from new kid to queen bee. That's the underlying arc, but it's visited only occasionally as the movie spends a great deal of time on the adult characters. One of Israel's classic movies, The Summer of Aviya, was about a fatherless little girl who imagines a man living nearby must be her real father. In The Fifth Heaven, the author seems to have turned a similar childhood fantasy into part of the story, as the principal of the orphanage has trouble ignoring the possibility that he may be the little girl's biological father. Another orphanage worker is played by Rotem Zussman, who seems to get all the Israeli cinema's best supporting roles in recent years, or at least she makes them look like the best, and she has an Ophelia scene where she remarks about trees with no roots. That may be a symbolic reference to the community around her, as almost everyone seems to be a refugee from somewhere and the orphans are certainly rootless. Whether there is broader, even political symbolism intended I couldn't say, but there is certainly a depiction of the political and social tension between the violent and nonviolent approach to achieving independence for Israel. I wasn't around at that time of history, but the script-- helped by the props and the award-winning costumes, although there are no street scenes-- seems like a credible snapshot from 1944-1945.
