"World Cinema: Israel"

My book, "World Cinema: Israel" (originally published in 1996) is available from Amazon on "Kindle", with an in-depth chapter comparing and analyzing internationally acclaimed Israeli films up to 2010.

Want to see some of the best films of recent years? Just scroll down to "best films" to find listings of my recommendations.

amykronish@gmail.com

Sunday, July 5, 2009

New documentary about women living in an Israeli development town

As a member of the board of the Gesher Multi-cultural Film Fund, I had the opportunity to view a moving and intense documentary about three women living in Yerucham. The film is called Fata Morgana (mirage), directed by Amnon Binyamin, and portrays two parallel lines of stories – the personal stories of these three women together with their group story as they participate in a theater production of Moliere in Moroccan! These three women – Edva, Tsippi and Tami -- are all from Yerucham in the northern Negev – considered the periphery of life in Israel-- and they speak frankly and personally about life in this far flung development town.

Edva is a young woman who says she's trying to find something that will keep her in her hometown, but she can't find it. There is no work and no entertainment. Tsippi is a widow. There hasn't been music in her home since her husband died, but now her youngest daughter is playing piano, bringing music back into their lives. Tami is a single mother and she says there is nothing here for a single mother. She talks about loneliness, about unemployment, and about her dream of bringing her children to Tel Aviv where there is more opportunity for all of them.

In addition, to portraying some of the complex problems of life in Israel, this film opens a window into the lives of three very special women -- and each of the women deal with the difficulties of life in the development town in their own way.

The film is available from the producer Idan Regev at regev.idan@gmail.com tel: +972 (0)54 242 4243.

1 comment:

SFK said...

can you recommend good films at the festival?