Yellow Peppers

Yellow Peppers (Hebrew: פלפלים צהובים; Pilpelym Tzehubym) is an Israeli drama television program^[1][2][3] about a family that raises an autistic child^[4][5] in a rural village lacking any therapeutic resources. The program was well received by critics.^[6] It was also presented as a part to the World Autism Awareness Day at the United Nations.^[7]

Plot

Ayellet (Alma Zack) makes good money as the village tailor, and when her father, Meir (Yehuda Barkan), turns to agricultural politics, her husband, Yaniv, turns the family farm into a profitable business exporting yellow peppers. Both men help her raise Natty, her teenage daughter from a former marriage, and Omri, her toddler son from the present one. The few indications she has of Omri's developmental problem do not bother her because the village physician says everything was okay.

When Ayellet's brother, Avshy, returns to the village, it seems like a new opportunity: Avshy would replace Yaniv in the greenhouses and Yaniv would build their new biker restaurant. However, Avshy's wife, Yaely, a physician, wants to give her marriage a second chance and comes with her husband to live on the farm. Yaely is concerned about Omri's symptoms. Meir drives the child to the closest town where he is diagnosed as autistic.

Ayellet removes Omri from kindergarten, and the family organizes an intensive therapeutic homeschooling plan. Ayellet stops spending time with her daughter and stops working. No money is left for completing the restaurant. Ayellet fires her brother from managing the greenhouses, and he becomes depressed and leaves his wife. Yaniv stops participating the homeschooling.

Yaniv wants Ayellet to get pregnant again but she refuses.

Yaniv fights with Ayellet about taking Omri to the parties they have in the village. Yaniv wants to take him to a celebration at the kindergarten but Omri disappears. Yaniv forces Ayellet to tell the police and the village, who are searching for Omri, that he is autistic. The family explains to everyone that calling Omri by his name will not make him answer. When night falls, Omri is found in the kindergarten.

References