Our Loves, a new film by Avi Nesher

Our Loves is a film about October 7^th, 2023, which focuses on love and resilience. Although it is a bit sentimental, the film is hard-hitting, emotional and meaningful. I viewed the film at the opening event of the Haifa Film Festival, which is held every year during Succot for the past 42 years and I am thankful to the people at the Gesher Film Fund for providing my husband and myself with invitations to this event. This year, the event gave homage to Avi Nesher as he was presented with a life achievement award. 

Avi Nesher is well-known for many films made during his long career – Image of Victory, Past Lives, Secrets, Turn Left at the End of the World. During his early years, in the 1970s, he made two films about young people in Israel – Sing Your Heart Out or The Troupe (הלהקה) and Dizengoff 99. As part of the homage to him at the film festival, there was a full orchestra and a group of singers, including Sassi Keshet (who was one of the stars in Sing Your Heart Out) who sang a medley of songs from these two early films.  The audience loved it!

When called upon to speak, Avi Nesher remembered when he was in his 20s and he directed these first two films. He recalled how shy he had been on the set, and when he called for “action”, Gidi Gov yelled, “what did you say?” just to taunt him! 

The new film, Our Loves, opened at the Toronto Film Festival, just two weeks earlier.  Nesher related that due to Canadian anti-Israeli sentiment, the Toronto Film Festival takes almost no Israeli films any longer.  But he was lucky that his film was chosen to be screened as part of this prestigious festival. The screening was set for Rosh Hashanah, so there weren’t any Jews from the Toronto community there.  But the 500 plus people in the audience loved the film and gave him a standing ovation!

At the Haifa Film Festival screening, the master of ceremonies of the evening was the famous Israeli actor, Lior Ashkenazi, which seemed so appropriate for the opening of a major film about October 7^th, because Ashkenazi had been the master of ceremonies for so many of those Saturday night protests in Hostage Square since October 7^th.

The film is made up of a series of stories about families and couples, and it is quite beautiful to see how the stories come together at the end.  Liri’s father, Shabi, has left her mother and she is very resentful.  Shabi’s story and his heroism become the central link tying everyone together in the story.  Sapir is a young religious woman who attended the Nova with a girlfriend.  There is Sandy, the Ashkenazi woman, and her Moroccan girlfriend, Milly, who is a cop on the Ofakim police force. Alfasi is considering leaving Israel to work for his uncle abroad.  There are four young army recruits, providing a bit of comic relief.  Rita lives on a border kibbutz in the Gaza envelope. Her son, Matan, is Liri’s boyfriend.

The review in the Hollywood Reporter criticized the film for being told only from the Israeli perspective.  This is true -- the film portrays the human stories behind this immense Israeli tragedy.  In a completely different style, Nesher’s earlier film, Image of Victory, was told both from the Israeli and Egyptian perspective of the 1948 war.  But in this film, that is clearly not intended. In fact, we don’t really see the human faces of the terrorists who came to perpetrate such terrible murder and destruction.  They are seen here only as dehumanized masked men.  

In the dialogue, once or twice, the film refers to the army’s lack of preparedness on the border, criticizing the government at that time, which is still the same irresponsible government today, three years later.  But this is not the focus of the film.  Rather, this is a film about Israelis who were unwittingly caught up in the events of October 7^th.  It tells their stories -- authentic stories about love, hope, heroism, and trauma.  The subject matter is extremely compelling and hard-hitting.  Highly recommended!

 

HaKeves HaShisha Asar – The 16th Sheep

Last night was the opening event of the Docu-text Film Festival at the National Library in Jerusalem.  There were hundreds of people sitting outside in the library’s garden, under the heavens. It was beautiful. The opening film was the premiere screening of The Sixteenth Sheep: The Reunion, directed by Ran Tal, who is well-known for his documentary filmmaking, including Children of the Sun and The Museum.

The Sixteenth Sheep: The Reunion is a fantastic film, another film that I am proud to say was produced with assistance from the Gesher Multicultural Film Fund with which I am involved.  The film is about Israeli culture, nostalgia, and icons of great popular Israeli music. 

Back in the late 1970s, Yehonatan Geffen wrote a book which became the lyrics for a children’s song album and Yoni Rechter composed the music. The resulting album was called The Sixteenth Sheep (HaKeves HaShisha Asar) הכבש השישה עשר. Performing the music was Yoni Rechter, Gidi Gov, David Broza and Yehudit Ravitz, who were then young and up-and-coming Israeli musicians. The album became a landmark of Israeli culture and the songs became well-known children’s songs, often heard on the radio, sung by kids and their parents all over Israel in nursery school and kindergarten. 

The film follows the preparations for an historic reunion concert, almost 50 years later, which took place last year against the backdrop of the turbulent movement to bring home the hostages.  The viewer watches rehearsals, learns about the four major singers and their backgrounds, and is provided with in-depth interviews with the performers themselves and with many of their fans. 

Yoni Rechter, Yehudit Ravitz, Gidi Gov, and David Broza are each famous entertainers in their own right, and here in this wonderful reunion, they perform together, creating a stupendous event!  There is some talk about politics in the film, since they perform a well-known song written by Yehonatan Geffen and sung originally by David Broza, written during the period of the peace agreement with Egypt in 1977-79. The song is called Yehiyeh Tov – It will be good!  Hearing it in the film last night, performed during the hostage crisis last year, was particularly meaningful.

As part of the film, Yehudit Ravitz talks about the years that she didn’t perform because performing took up too much space in her life.  Gidi Gov talks about the good ole days back in the 60s and 70s when life in Israel was good and less complex.  And David Broza sings his classic song, We Came Here Under the Heavens, which the audience loved last night as we sat outside, in the beautiful garden of the National Library.

Last night’s audience sang along and was tremendously enthusiastic about the film, especially at the end, when Yehudit Ravitz and Yoni Rechter stood up in the audience to take a bow! 

Watch for the film on Israeli TV.  It will be broadcast both on HOT and on YES during September. The Sixteenth Sheep: The Reunion (documentary, 88 minutes) was produced by Dikla Barkai and Ran Tal. It can be obtained from Dikla Barkai, at dikla@abotbarkai.co.il at the production company, Abot Hameiri Barkai.

Award for Best Feature Film at the Jerusalem Film Festival 2026

The big prize winner for best feature film this year is Where to? directed by Assaf Machnes.  

In the category of the Haggiag Award for Best Feature, the following are the jury comments: 

“The film portrays what makes us human with remarkable clarity and deep sensitivity, transcending personal beliefs and cultural conflicts.”

In the category of the Anat Pirchi Award for Best Script, the following are the jury comments: 

“A simple and nuanced way to tell a complex story with humor and humanity.”

In the category of the Anat Pirchi Award for Best Performance, the award goes to Ihab Salami.  The following are the comments of the jury, 

“A convincing, subtle and truthful performance that takes us on a journey.”

The Survivor in a Tuxedo - a new documentary film about Elie Wiesel by veteran filmmaker, David Fisher

The Survivor in a Tuxedo, Tracing Elie Wiesel is a new documentary, directed by David Fisher, a veteran documentary filmmaker, noted for his films, including The Round Number, Six Million and One, and Love Inventory.

This new film, which is both complex and fascinating, on the famous Holocaust survivor, author, spokesman, storyteller and public figure Eli Wiesel (1928-2016), premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival last night. I viewed the film, with my husband, Ron Kronish, and since we both loved the film, the review below is from both of us.

Introducing the people who worked on the film, at the screening last night, the director David Fisher talked about his father, also a survivor.  His father came from a town not so far from Wiesel’s in Romania, and they were on the same train to Auschwitz, but their paths were so different.  Elie Wiesel used the power of the word to give witness, non-stop, to what happened to the Jews in the Shoah.  Fisher’s father, instead, took up arms and became part of the struggle defending and creating the modern State of Israel, working as a pioneer in the new state, using deeds instead of words to cope with what he had experienced at Auschwitz.  The stories of these two Holocaust survivors are weaved together in this intensely personal and poignant documentary film.

Using interviews, animation, and raw footage, which are all weaved together brilliantly, Fisher has made a complicated and respectful portrayal of this famous Jewish thinker and activist.   We learn a great deal about Wiesel’s thinking, writing, activism and leadership in the USA and internationally.  Wiesel’s strength was seen and heard in his many speeches and his prolific literature. Throughout his career, he was always involved in giving witness, in keeping the memory of the Shoah alive. He was relentless in this mission.  Wiesel wrote 58 books in his lifetime and he had a clear agenda.

The film provides an intimate portrayal of this historic figure in contemporary Jewish history and does not shy away from some of the controversial issues which came to be associated with Elie Wiesel in his later years. For example, many people were critical of him because he became wealthy, and they accused him of using the Holocaust to get rich. Others were unhappy that he didn’t raise his voice to denounce Israel’s immoral policies against the Palestinians living under Occupation, since he had raised his voice for so many oppressed people in so many other places in the world. Others were bothered that Bibi Netanyahu used him as a prop in the gallery when he spoke in the US Congress against President Obama’s policies with regard to negotiating with Iran.

Other people were critical of his need for more and more international recognition.  Wiesel was a man of great ambition, dreaming of receiving the Nobel Prize for literature.  He never received that prize, but he did receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his dedication and work in areas of human rights around the world.  He said many times in many places that we must have a moral voice and may never stand silent. Yet, perhaps because he was a Holocaust survivor and a strong supporter of the state of Israel, he was not able to use his voice to be critical of it, as noted above.

Michael Berenbaum, who served for many years as the project director at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, spoke at the screening and also figured prominently in the film. He spoke about Wiesel’s power to “transform victimization into witness”.   The title of the film—The Survivor in the Tuxedo—summarizes the irony inherent in Elie Wiesel’s “witness”. On the one hand, he was a survivor, with a strong message and constantly bearing witness to the Shoah. On the other hand, he became a celebrity in the USA and internationally, hobnobbing with presidents and kings, and ultimately receiving the Nobel Prize for peace. 

Wiesel was an important Jewish thinker and activist in contemporary history. He was a complex man, but one with a message and a method. His message was to remember the Shoah. His method was his writing and speaking. This excellent film helps us all understand a nuanced and complex view of this man.

The Survivor in a Tuxedo is a fantastic documentary film (71 minutes) and was made for broadcast on KAN Israeli TV by Fisher Features Ltd. 

 

"Heart of Gold" - a quirky film about a woman struggling with abandonment issues

Heart of Gold לב זהב , directed by Efrat Corem, is a new Israeli feature film which premiered at this week’s Jerusalem Film Festival. 

Mali, is single in her 30s, living alone, working as a ticket inspector on buses in Ashkelon. She is a quirky character, and extremely charming and compelling.  She is a survivor of her own past which has left her particularly vulnerable and we see the scars of that past erupt in her own violence against a couple of disrespectful teens on her bus. Her brother, Shimon, whom she loves dearly, works for the prisons and she is troubled by his having left his wife and kids.  She has a lover, an older man who lives in her apartment building, obviously a bit of a father figure. One day, Mali finds an abandoned baby on one of the buses, and she takes him home.  As she is growing more and more attached to the little baby, her brother and her lover are both trying to convince her to bring him to the police.

When her mother appears on the scene, we realize that this is a story about Mali’s own abandonment by her father, whom she never knew, and by her mother, who left Mali and her brother to make it on their own, about 15 years ago. How can Mali even consider abandoning this child?

Heart of Gold is a wonderful story about a strong, struggling woman, the difficulties and issues in her past and present, and her quirkiness and uniqueness as an adult.  This is a complex film about abandonment, loneliness, working class poverty and family issues in Israeli society.  Highly recommended!

 

 

"Amal" - a new film about violence within the Arab community of Israel

Amal, by Sharon Azulay-Eyal, David Ofek, Nahad Bashir, is a new Israeli feature film which premiered this week at the Jerusalem Film Festival.  The film deals with violence within the Arab community.

Today, when we think about violence in the Arab community, we think about gangs extorting businesses for protection money and shooting anyone who refuses to cooperate.  But this film is about something else – the cycle of revenge shootings between two families who have a long-standing disagreement between them.  Unfortunately, it leaves out this wider context, which might have helped viewers in Israel and abroad get a fuller understanding of this serious problem in Israeli society today.

Amal and Hassan are happily married with three children, living in a village in the Galilee. They both work at a nearby moshav for a Jewish family which runs B&B units. Hassan’s brother was murdered a number of years ago. When the murderer is released from prison, violence and revenge begin to endanger Amal and Hassan and their family and even overwhelm their lives.  

The culture of revenge is seen by the men in the story as one that you cannot stop.  Only the women seem to feel that reconciliation and peace-making could work.  The hard-hitting story and complex script is told with a lot of compassion and the viewer feels strongly for Amal and the dangers that her family faces.

It’s important to note that the Arabic name “Amal” means “hope”. However, this film does not offer much hope. Just pain. One feels empathy for those who suffer in this film, especially for the women and children, but the film ends on a note of despair.

Some feel that there is not much than can be done to solve this problem in Arab society.   Actually, the great rise in crime in the Arab communities of Israel in recent years is due to the policies of the current government, especially those of Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security, and by his policy of non-enforcement by the Israeli Police, thereby permitting most murder cases in the Arab community to go unsolved.

 

Good Morning, Gaza - a new Israeli TV documentary about the war in Gaza

Good Morning, Gaza is a hard-hitting documentary film, directed by Hanan Brandes and Matan Sacofsky, which premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival this week.

Similar to its namesake (Good Morning, Vietnam), the film is mostly made up of radio or podcast interviews and broadcasts, edited with tons of visuals of raw footage from combat and from the destruction in Gaza.  The film is about normal reserve soldiers, especially in the tanks, serving in Gaza, during the first 2 months of the war, following October 7^th. 

The Robin Williams character is Or Brandes, a reserve tank driver. Since he gets bored sitting in his seat waiting for something to happen, he begins to broadcast an improvised podcast to his fellow soldiers.  Nothing is left unsaid.  The soldiers talk about every subject.  There is a lot of charm and humor, and much sadness.

The soldiers talk about their fears, their experiences at the Nova and the friends they lost at Be’iri, they talk about people they know who have been taken hostage, they talk about issues of morality and revenge, and about combat. Our “talk show host” successfully talks one soldier through a crisis when he says he’s losing it. And they tell funny stories about their children and they joke around. 

With no spoiler intended, I want to say that the end of the film is a real knock-out.  These are real people, mostly reservists, who sacrificed so much during this war.

Good Morning, Gaza (documentary, 52 minutes) was produced by Lama Films for broadcast on Yes Docu. Watch for the Yes broadcast on Israeli TV during the coming months.

During the roll of credits at the end of the film, it is stated that some of the soundtrack was reconstructed by AI.  I suppose we are going to see more and more of that during coming years.