This article analyses a recent trend in Israeli film-making: the use of foreign languages, intended to convey an authentic impression of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Israel. Film productions of the last twenty years often feature actors and actresses who are foreign speakers or speak other languages in addition to Hebrew to capture demographic changes in a modern, dynamic society but also its confrontation with the traumas of the past; the Shoah. However, the subtitles frequently fail to communicate the linguistic complexity of the characters.