New Israeli Film, Kissufim, Now Available on Netflix

Kissufim 77, directed by Keren Nechmad, is a coming-of-age film, set in 1977, just when Sadat came to Jerusalem and extends his hand in peace. 

After their military service, the Kibbutz Kissufim Garin Nahal members return to the kibbutz for a few months of service. 

The kibbutz is located on the border with the Gaza strip and was violently attacked by Hamas terrorists on October 7^th, 2023.  22 persons were massacred including 6 Thai agricultural workers.  Four members of the kibbutz were taken hostage that day. Although the viewer cannot help but think about that terrible day while watching the film, the film was actually shot before October 7^th, but it is dedicated to the victims of the atrocities of that day.  In addition, the narrative takes place in 1977, so the film is actually a period piece – both in story and in style.

Yoav and Ron are friends, and are both vying for Eli’s attention.  Eli is still a virgin and is not so sure that she’s so interested.  Meanwhile, a bunch of German volunteers arrive to work on the kibbutz.  Add into that a bit of Israeli dancing, late night partying, and visits to the Gaza beach.  There is also one flashback to their army service, when all the guys were on a patrol, waiting on a hill for an enemy unit.  As the enemy passes by, Yoav decides not to engage.  Was he a coward or was it the right decision?

The young members of the group are given a number of rules – no fraternizing between boys and girls; no taking food out of the dining hall; no taking kibbutz vehicles off the kibbutz.  Needless to say, they succeed in breaking all the rules!  There is the inevitable pairing off, drinking, partying, jealousies and the dangers of living on a border kibbutz. 

Kissufim 77 is a film that takes us back to when kibbutzim were actually kibbutzim and there was hope that because peace with Egypt had arrived, perhaps we would be able to live in peace with our neighbors.

 

 

Highway 65 Premieres at the Jerusalem Film Festival

Highway 65 (כביש הסרגל) directed by Maya Dreifuss, is a captivating and forceful thriller.  It is a story of how one police detective, conscientious and persistent, can make a difference.  

Dafna is a police detective working in Afula in the Galilee.  She’s a quirky and compelling character, 41 years old, single and, as is so typical in Israel, she is often asked why she doesn’t have any children.  She’s quite assertive in her detecting manner, asking questions right to the point, not beating around the bush.  You might say she has a big mouth and often puts her foot in it!  This is what got her transferred from her police detective position in Tel Aviv and sent to Afula (a real demotion) where she is now working on petty crimes.

When an Arab teen is found with a cellphone that belongs to a local woman named Orly, Dafna is tasked with trying to locate her.   Orly, however, cannot be found.  She is a military widow and she has been living with her in-laws who are very important people in the local business scene.  The question becomes why hasn’t anyone reported her missing?  Dafna is bothered by the apparent indifference to Orly’s fate all around her.  All of this comes together to make this a case which should perhaps be handled with kid gloves.  But Dafna rushes ahead, haunted by how she identifies with the apparent victim, suspecting and butting heads with everyone.

At the Jerusalem Film Festival this week, Highway 65 won an Honorable Mention in the category of best Israeli feature film. According to the judges: “We were impressed by the courage it took, especially in this country, to turn a bereaved mother into a murderer. Sometimes, the very, non-glamorous local resonates and this film with its excellent cast, is both very local and universal.”

Highway 65 is distributed by MK2. 

Award for Best Israeli Feature Film at the Jerusalem Film Festival

Eid by Yousef Abu Madegem, and produced by Haggai Arad, Elad Peleg, Shlomi Elkabetz,Galit Cahlon, was the big prize-winner at the Jerusalem Film Festival, winning the Haggiag prize for best Israeli feature film!  Congratulations to the director and producers!

According to the judges:  The award was made due to the film’s “sensitive, completely mature, and authentic portrayal of the preservation of one’s own self-respect in a rigid environment bound by traditions in contradiction with painfully unfulfilled love, yet leading to reconciliation and forgiveness.”

Shadi Mar’i, in the main role, won the Anat Pirchi Award for Best Actor. According to the jury: “For a completely convincing portrayal of the main character, all his conflicting emotions, along with a sensitive understanding of his defiance, pain, and hope.” Congratulations!

Two Films about the Bedouin of the Northern Negev Premiere at the Jerusalem Film Festival

 I had the opportunity to see two extraordinary films about the Bedouin community of the northern Negev.  Eid by Yousef Abo Madegem, is a full-length feature film. Desert Laws, by Ilan Moskovitch and Dan Bronfeld, is a documentary.  I am proud to say that both films were funded (in part) by the Gesher Film Fund (of which I am a member and sit on the funding committee).

Eid, which is a debut feature film (90 minutes) by Yousef Abo Madegem, is the first Bedouin-made feature film in Israel.  The filmmaker studied film at Sapir College in Sderot and is a graduate of the Mandel leadership program.  In addition, I have a personal connection to him -- he is a graduate of a program that I initiated in 2008 that brought together Jewish and Arab young filmmakers, to participate in a two-part seminar: a coexistence seminar abroad (hosted by the International YMCA of Jerusalem and the YMCA of the USA) and a film seminar in Jerusalem (run by Gesher). The idea was to make connections across the divide within your own profession. I remember at that time that Abo Madegem made a big impression on me, talking about his growing up in the Bedouin community of Rahat and his experiences as a child in a family with two wives.  

After the world premiere screening at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Abo Madegem told the enthusiastic audience that he has 10 children and this film is his 11^th! He also explained that the story of the film is based on a true story that happened to his friend when he was young.  It is also interesting to note that the film stars Palestinian actors from the north of Israel who had to learn the special dialect and accent of the Bedouin.

The title of the film refers to the name of the main character of the film.  Eid is a young man who has experienced trauma in his life.  He was sexually assaulted when he was a child by someone close to the family, and no one has provided him with any sense of consolation, closure or even minimal understanding.  In addition, his father, who came from Gaza and is not a native-born Bedouin, sold land to the Jews, and therefore is considered a traitor in the community.  As a result, Eid is bullied by those around him.  Eid is educated and wants his wife to be educated also.  He writes lines for a play that he is dreaming of staging.  It is a play that would help him come to grips with his experiences.  When his parents announce that they have arranged a marriage agreement for him and his sister, he must figure out how to realize his dreams.

Eid, the film, is superb – it is lyrical in many ways, the acting is compelling and effective, the sets are minimalistic but the script holds the viewer and the film unfolds like a thriller.

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Desert Laws, directed by Ilan Moskovitch and Dan Bronfeld, is an anthropological portrait of a Bedouin elder, living in an unrecognized village at Tel Arad.  Farhan lives with his two wives and 13 of his children.  There are 300,000 Bedouin living in the Negev and one third of them live in villages which are not officially recognized by the State of Israel, which means that they are not hooked up to basic infrastructure, such as water and electricity.

Farhan is a respected elder of the Al-Nabari tribe, a mediator between the different factions of the tribe, and between tribes.  What he says goes.  This is the justice system of the traditional Bedouin. Today, there is terrible crime – armed robbery and an ongoing cycle of revenge murders – within the Bedouin society.  These are the types of crimes that he is dealing with in his verdicts and he takes his role and his responsibility very seriously.

We watch as Farhan, aided by his sons who span a wide range of ages, cares for his camels, slaughters sheep for the eid (the holiday at the end of Ramadan), and during Ramadan, we see them laying out a feast for the iftar dinner.  But most importantly, we are witness to how he deals with the clansmen and their contradictory claims and grievances.

The title of the film, refers to two sets of laws, not just the Bedouin law, but also the laws of the State of Israel.  Farhan lives in a reality in which the government can confiscate their land and evict them from their homes. Although his family has been living in Tel Arad since 1952 when the military governor moved them to this site, now, the Israel Lands Authority has decided to evict them.  Farhan decides to fight this unfair and ironic decision of the government.

Desert Laws is a hard-hitting portrait (documentary, 80 minutes) of one man, his leadership in his community, his work with his sons on his land, his work as an arbitrator within the community, and his terrible plight vis-à-vis the Israeli government.

A New Film about Breast Feeding opens at the Jerusalem Film Festival

The Milky Way, directed by Maya Kenig, is a quirky parable about young mothers and how they relate to being chained down by breast feeding.

 Tala is a single woman, an offbeat singer who has just given birth to a baby girl. She lives with her mother, who is trying to help out.  Tala finds work at a factory where dozens of young mothers are pumping breast milk for sale.  This place is a big business, with pumping stations, a bottling plant with an enormous conveyor belt carrying the bottles filled with breast milk, and even a fleet of delivery trucks.

Through a series of charming incidents, Tala meets Nili who is a client and whose baby is thriving on Tala’s breast milk.  Tala learns a lot from Nili’s lonely lifestyle, and it helps her to appreciate and understand her own relationships – with her mother, with her baby daughter, and even with the father of her baby. 

Although a bit strange, this film, which is about motherhood, about connecting to your baby, and about the difficulties of being a single mom, includes great acting, a super script, and tremendous charm.  The film is filled with humor but also angst and pathos.

Filmmaker Maya Kenig is known for her previous films, the quirky Off-white Lies, starring her husband Gur Bentwich, and the charming Bentwich Syndrome, co-directed with her husband, both of which have been reviewed previously on this blog.

 

Documentary Film about Ada Karmi at the Jerusalem Film Festival

These are difficult times in Israel, but life is going on, the best that it can, and the Jerusalem Film Festival is being held this week, as planned.  I am enjoying the films, the guests, and the special events.  The opening event in Sultan’s Pool was thrilling, with more than 5,000 people in attendance. 

The first film that I chose to write about is Ada – My Mother the Architect, by Yael Melamede, a portrait of one woman, Ada Karmi Melamede.  Ada Karmi’s father and brother were both prominent architects in Israel, and she herself is a household name, one of the most prominent and award-winning architects. 

As a young married woman and mother, she moved to New York with her family, where they lived for many years, and she taught architecture for 14 years at Columbia University.  When she was denied tenure there, she made the decision to move back to Israel and work together with her brother, designing monuments and iconic buildings within the public sphere of the country.  Together they designed the magnificent Supreme Court building in Jerusalem which opened in the early 1990s.  Since that time, she has been creating and working in Israel.

If Ada Karmi had been a man, no one would blink an eye at the fact that she left her husband and three adolescent children behind, when she returned to Israel.  But this seems to be an unusual move for a woman.  Her daughter, the filmmaker, tries not to judge her, but rather asks her questions about why she left them and how she relates to motherhood. 

The film is made against the backdrop of the terrible coup that the rightwing government was attempting to enact against the justice system during the year 2023. 

Yael Melamede studied both architecture and film.  Her previous documentary credits include 1341 Frames of Love and War (2022), the Steven Spielberg six-part series Why We Hate (2019), When I Walk (News & Documentary Emmy Award Winner, 2015), (DIS)Honesty – The Truth About Lies (her debut film, 2015), Inocente (Academy Award Winner, Best documentary Short, 2013).

Ada – My Mother the Architect (82 minutes) is an extraordinary documentary film, produced by Hila Medalia and distributed by Medalia Films.

 

Hemda, a new film by Shemi Zarhin

 I recently had the opportunity to view the new Israeli feature film, Hemda by Shemi Zarhin. The film stars two wonderful veteran actors of Israeli stage and screen – Sasson Gabai and Assi Levi, who were paired together also in Shemi Zarhin’s Aviva My Love (2006).  Zarhin, whose earlier films include Passover Fever (1995) and Dangerous Acts (1998), is one of the great Israeli filmmakers of humanistic narrative films about family issues. 

Hemda is an extraordinary film about family, loyalty, relationships and love and includes both comic and tragic elements.

 The film opens with Sassi and Effi going together to the doctor. Ever since Sassi’s major prostrate surgery about two years earlier, he has a problem with sexual dysfunction.  Effi is Sassi's second wife and there seems to be a major age difference between them.  Sassi has two grown children with his first wife, one of whom is a son living abroad, having run away from his debts. 

 Sassi and Effi are each working tirelessly to pay back those debts. She is a watsu water therapist and, in the evenings, a music teacher.  He drives a truck around the Galilee, emptying enormous recycling bins. Things become complicated when two young men enter the picture -- Sassi’s grandson arrives from Brussels, and David, a previous student of Effi’s, shows up needing water therapy.

 In addition to visually seeing the fields and communities of the Galilee, we can also feel its diversity as there is a fair amount of Arabic language and Arab characters throughout.

This is a complex story, portraying compelling and quirky characters, who we care about and worry about.