Israeli Feature films compete at the Jerusalem Film Festival

The Jerusalem Film Festival has begun and it is very exciting to see so many people gathered together to enjoy culture from Israel and from all around the world.  The opening event took place in Sultan’s Pool, where 6,000 viewers watched the new Israeli film, Tell Me Everything (previously reviewed on this blog).

There are six films competing in the prestigious Haggiag Competition for Best Israeli feature film. The first film shown was What is to Come שעתיד לבוא   , directed by Ruthy Pribar, which tells a story about a woman whose husband commits suicide and she has to face the trauma and pick up the pieces of her life.

Yehudit and her husband live in a modest house on a moshav.  After her husband commits suicide and leaves her with enormous debts, she leaves her home and takes a bus to Eilat to escape.  She gets a job cleaning hotel rooms and rents an apartment in a poor neighborhood.  After a few days, a family of African refugees shows up and claims that this is their apartment. They end up living together, and eventually, Yehudit becomes attached to the pregnant mother and her 5-year-old son. At the same time, Yehudit has an affair with the manager of the hotel where she works. The story is surprisingly lacking in complexity and under-developed, with too much left unsaid. At the end, there is a hint that she gets her life back together.  But it’s unclear how and we are left wondering how she could leave the little African boy behind!

The second feature film shown in this category was Where To? לאן a debut film, directed by Assaf Machnes.  The director spoke at the premiere screening at the Jerusalem Film Festival last night, and welcomed both of his grandmothers to the screening.   He apologized for not providing them with great-grandchildren, but he is presenting this film instead!  The film was produced with assistance from the Gesher Multi-cultural Film Fund and I am proud to sit on the board of that fund.

The story takes place in Berlin, almost entirely shot within the taxicab of Hassan, a middle-aged Palestinian Uber driver.  During the night-time hours, Hassan drives partygoers from one nightlife venue to another through the streets of Berlin.

One day, he picks up Amir, a young Israeli and they strike up a conversation about where they are from.  Hassan is from Jenin and Amir is from Nahalal. Not so far away from each other. Over a period of months, Hassan ends up driving Amir a few times, and a bit of a friendship develops.  Hassan helps Amir by driving him when he is very drunk and very lost.  Amir helps Hassan by talking about the importance of real love.

Although the film is not a comedy per se, it has a lot of humor and charm. The funniest scene takes place when Hassan is talking to his cousin on speaker phone in Arabic when an older Israeli couple gets in the cab.  The cousin says, I hear they are speaking in Hebrew. Let’s have a bit of fun.  I will throw in words like Jihad and Al-Aksa. And they get a laugh at playing on the paranoia of the Israeli couple.

Hassan is a charming fellow. We get a feeling for his life and the issues that are important to him as the film develops over several months.  But we are a little frustrated because so much between Amir and Hassan is left unsaid. Perhaps the importance and beauty of the story lie in what is unsaid. On the other hand, there could have been some more dialogue about some of the critical issues facing them as an Israeli and a Palestinian, such as why are they estranged from their homes and yet why do they both yearn to return home?

This film only gives hints about the major issues which divide Israelis and Palestinians. Instead, it is an attempt to humanize them by showing that relationships can be formed on their common humanity.

 

A Touching Story of Holocaust Survivors

 I recently had the opportunity to see the film, Soda, directed by Erez Tadmor, which was made in 2024. Tadmor also made Strangers and A Matter of Size.

I had missed the film, Soda, but I am glad that I had the chance to see it.  It is very special.

About 1950s Israel, this is a story which takes place during the early years of the State, when people lived more modestly, and there were large groups of Holocaust survivors still trying to cope with the traumas of their not-so-distant past.

A group of survivors, who had been partisans in the forests of Europe, live together in a neighborhood outside of Tiberias and work in a soda bottling plant.  They have their own laws and system of justice.  Their leader is Shalom (played by Lior Raz who we all know from Fauda).  He lives with his wife who is frail and his daughter who was born in the forests.  They often listen to the radio broadcasts which provide the names and messages meant for survivors.

One day, Eva and her daughter move into the neighborhood.  She is an elegant lady, a seamstress, and sexual tension develops between her and Shalom.

Terrible stories are uncovered – for example, one man’s wife was shot while searching for food at a farm house.  Eva is suspected of having been a kapo in Auschwitz and her adolescent daughter being the result of her liaison with a German officer.  Everyone with their memories, traumas, searching for lost relatives.

This is a tender story of loss and love, based on a true story of the filmmaker’s grandparents. A story about a resistance fighter and his community trying to rebuild their lives.

Watch the trailer here --

 

Tell Me Everything, a new film by Moshe Rosenthal

Tell Me Everything  עצמאות is a new Israeli film, directed by Moshe Rosenthal, who also directed the highly acclaimed film “Karaoke”. This new film won acclaim at the Sundance Festival, and has been chosen to be the opening film (to be screened at the Sultan’s Pool) at the upcoming Jerusalem International Film Festival next month!

This somewhat artsy and complex film is about homosexuality in Israel during the 1980s when men were still closeted and hiding in unhappy marriages.  This is the time of the AIDS epidemic, when much was still unknown and there were irrational fears about the spreading of the disease.

The story revolves around Boaz at two different times in his life.  The first half of the film is about Boaz at the age of 13, preparing for and up to his Bar Mitzvah party.  He discovers that his father, Meir, is gay, and he becomes afraid that his father has AIDS and will give it to his mother.  Then he tells his two older sisters, and eventually Meir is outed to his mother.  The second half of the film is about Boaz’s developing guilt over what he did to his father, his relationship with his friends, and with his lonely mother. In everything he does, you see images of the younger Boaz’s face and eyes.  Eventually, we realize that Boaz is burdened by his love of family – he needs to be released from his mother’s hold on him, today, and he needs to be released from the feelings of guilt for having ruined his father’s life, back when he was an adolescent.

I went to see the film at the Israel Film Center Festival at the JCC of the Upper West Side in Manhattan. Following the screening, the filmmaker was interviewed on stage by Isaac Zablocki, the director of the Israel Film Center.  Rosenthal talked about how this film is largely autobiographical.  He explained that although his life story has been very different, “the texture and the family dynamic are the same”. In writing the script, he said, you take a story and then you change something crucial so that it isn’t your own story.   In real life, he explained, he isn’t the Boaz character.  Rather, “I am the one who came out. If I had lived earlier, I would be married and I would be Meir, the gay father.”

Tell Me Everything is about family dynamics---father-son relations and mother-son relations.  The film has very high aesthetic and artistic elements, including and especially the Bar Mitzvah scene, and makes wonderful use of music. Highly recommended!

 

 

A Family Comedy

The Big League (ליגה של גדולים), directed by Yaniv Berman, is a feel-good, family comedy for those who enjoy soccer! 

This week, during the war against Iran and against Hizbollah, I went with my grandkids to see a family movie.  The movie theaters are mostly underground at Yes Planet in Jerusalem, so they are considered relatively safe.  We all enjoyed ourselves and came out with a smile on our faces.  Don’t expect too much depth from this one!

Our hero, played by Yisrael Attias (who we know from the TV hit, HaShababnikim), is a professional soccer coach who has a problem with anger management.  After an incident in which he attacks the referee, he is sent as punishment to the periphery of the country where he is meant to coach a junior high team.

Of course, he is antagonistic to the whole enterprise and, at first, refuses to even attempt to make this work.  But eventually the kids, the team spirit, one particular woman, and the smalltown lifestyle of this northern town, all contribute to his becoming committed to his newfound role.

At a time when Hizbollah rockets and Iranian missiles are falling in the north of Israel, this film, partially about the lure of living in the Galilee, proved to be especially poignant.

The Big League is produced by Transfax and distributed by United King.

Acclaimed Palestinian Actor and Filmmaker, Mohammed Bakri (1954 – 2025), dies at the age of 72

Mohammed Bakri died last week at the age of 72.  He was a well-regarded actor of film and theater and a documentary film director.  In his memory, I would like to share a few words about him.

Bakri studied at Tel Aviv University during the early 1970s, at which time he was the only Arab in the theater department.  He began acting in the Haifa Theater ensemble, and since that time, he acted in dozens of theater productions, films, and a one-man play, which brought him much recognition.  The play, adapted for the stage by Bakri himself, was called The Opsimist (a combination of “the optimist” and “the pessimist”), based on the literary work by Israeli Arab author, Emile Habibi. I saw Bakri in this play with my husband a long time ago, and we both loved it.

Bakri’s first major role on the screen was as the Palestinian political prisoner in Beyond the Walls (directed by Uri Barbash, 1984), one of the greatest Israeli films of all time.  According to legend, Bakri did not agree with the ending of the film.  In the film’s story, the warden is trying to break the strike which is being staged by both the Jewish and the Palestinian prisoners.  In an attempt to bribe Bakri’s character, Issam, he brings his wife and young son, whom Issam has never seen, to the prison.  The cell door is opened, and Issam peeps out to see his wife and son waiting for him at the end of the corridor.  His first reaction is to return to the cell.  Encouraged, however, by the demanding clapping of his fellow prisoners and strongly tempted, he tearfully makes his way down the corridor.  On the set, Bakri insisted the Palestinian prisoner would never break the solidarity of the strike.  So, the ending was rewritten.  And Issam approaches his wife and tells her to go home.  Together with the leader of the Jewish prisoners (played by Arnon Zadok), he resists the bribe and demands concessions from the warden.

Bakri appeared as the leader of a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) unit in the award-winning Cup Final (Eran Riklis, 1991).  He also appeared in many international films, including Hanna K. (Costa Gavras, 1983), Haifa (by Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Mashrawi, 1996), All That’s Left of You (Cherien Dabis, 2025).

He is also remembered for his documentary films: Jenin, Jenin, 1948, and Zahra.

Jenin, Jenin (2002) was highly criticized and was eventually banned in Israel, as it covered a supposed massacre that Israeli troops purportedly carried out against the people of the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank during the Second Intifada (the uprising against Israel 2000-2005). The massacre was later proven untrue, but Bakri stood behind his film, and as a result he lost a great deal of status among members of the Israeli public. 

Bakri believed that only by learning about the most painful chapters in each other’s histories could we understand the pain and suffering of the other.  Thus, he supported Palestinians learning about the Holocaust and he made an important film, called 1948, about the Nakba, the tragedy that befell the Palestinian people in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel, when hundreds of thousands became refugees. Both of his documentaries, 1948 (1998) and Zahra (2009), show a creative and beautiful cinematic aesthetic.  Zahra is about his Aunt Zahra who lived in the village in the Galilee where he was born, Al-Bina. She lived through the upheaval of 1948 and mothered ten children.

A documentary film, Not a Beginning, nor an End (Lena Chaplin), about Bakri and his family, portrays the issues of dual identity of a Palestinian living in the state of Israel, issues that are present in Bakri’s life.

Bakri was one of Israel’s greatest film personalities. His acting, directing, strong presence and strength of character will be sorely missed.

 

Living within the Haredi community

Ambiguity (בהסתורה} is a new TV series created by Yossi Madmoni about people living within the Haredi community who are conflicted about their faith and their lifestyle. I had a chance to see the first two episodes which were premiered at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, which took place at the Jerusalem Cinematheque last week.

You might be surprised to learn that there is a Haredi movement, albeit small, of those who are living with a complicated inner battle about their lifestyle.  On the one hand, they are driven to live a freer life, on the other, they are deeply bound or even chained to the ultra-Orthodox community for a variety of personal reasons. This TV series delves deeply into the lives of fictional characters who are living as part of this movement.

In the first episode, Rochele is unhappy about a shidduch (arranged marriage) that is planned for her.  It is during the covid pandemic and there are apartments in the Haredi community which are setup for either men or women to be quarantined.  Rochele is invited to such an apartment where a group of about 20 haredim who call themselves “Marranos” (hidden Jews) are living, under cover of such a quarantined apartment.  She has to deal with many new things – forbidden foods, more revealing dress, attraction to a young man, an overture from a lesbian – all things which are providing great temptations and great confusion.

In the second episode, Sarah, who is older than Rochele and was her teacher in the midrasha (institute of study for religious Jewish women), has to deal with her owns issues and problems, especially issues within her marriage. 

During the discussion following the screening, someone in the audience asked if this series is based on a real phenomenon within the Haredi community.  A young woman raised her hand and said she would like to answer that question.  She proceeded to tell the audience that she herself usually wears a wig and lives in the Haredi community because she is afraid to break away for fear of losing her children. Moreover, she added that she is part of a community of about 300 persons such as herself who live within this gray area, not sure where they belong, and living a lie.

In the discussion, another person asked if all the roles are played by secular actors and if that makes for a difficult issue in the creation of the series.  I was troubled by Yossi Madmoni’s response.  He quipped that American actors can play aliens and no one would question that! This didn’t seem to me to be a fair parallel.  Do we really look at Haredim as aliens from outer space? 

Perhaps this TV series will open our eyes to the complexities of living in that community and will help us to understand that not all Haredim are the same, their clothes notwithstanding.

I strongly recommend this series – it is quite compelling, with good acting and a great script which deals with serious issues.  It will be broadcast on KAN-TV during the early months of 2026.  Watch for it!

This year’s Graduation films of the Ma’aleh Film school’s Ultra-orthodox track

In the framework of the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, I went to see the graduating films of the Ultra-orthodox women filmmakers who have been studying at Ma’aleh.  The films were varied – documentary and fiction – and dealt with a wide range of subjects. Seven short films were screened.  All of them were compelling and provocative and succeeded in portraying important issues.

An award for outstanding student filmmaker was presented to Esti Viye.  She directed two films that were screened today:

• ·       Happily Ever After (13 minutes, drama) – Shira is a young mother who has left her kids with her parents and has organized a romantic anniversary getaway with her husband, who is a reserve soldier. She is excited to see him and is terribly disappointed as reality sets in and their time together is cut short.  Shira is finding it hard to hold it together.  This film really talked to me because there were so many miluim families in Israel who were traumatized and severely affected by the demands of the war of the last two years.
• ·       The Lifeguard (13 minutes, documentary) – Esti’s father is a lifeguard and he loves the water.  But Esti finds it difficult to enter the pool or the sea.  In trying to reconnect with her father over a past trauma, she realizes she must overcome her fear of the water.

There were two films by filmmaker Bat Sheva Haddad:

• ·       Houses of Silence (20 minutes, documentary) – The filmmaker and her daughter go on a personal journey documenting the homes in their neighborhood in Gedera which are hiding terrible secrets about babies who were kidnapped during the early years of the State.
• ·       He’s Coming (8 minutes, drama) – A story about abuse in the home. Before their father comes home, we can already feel that the mother and two daughters are afraid of him.  When he arrives, the 12-year-old takes her younger sister and runs away, while in the background we hear the father abusively yelling at their mother.

There were two films by filmmaker Sarah Libah Hanfling:

• ·       The Bride (15 minutes, drama) -– In the weeks leading up to her wedding, a woman, who has been previously married and traumatized, is grappling with her fears.
• ·       Still Here (14 minutes, drama) – A young mother is exhausted, depressed and overworked and finds herself pregnant again.  Out of despair, she contemplates suicide. A stunning performance by the actress, Tamar Diskin.

One more film was directed by Chayaleh Arnster:

• ·       Unacceptable (15 minutes, drama) -- Moishe is a yeshiva student and he loves music.  His parents are arranging a match for him but he only has eyes for Ayala.  In a world in which you can only get married by shidduch, he has to come up with a plan.