Israeli Film Opens at a Commercial Cinema in Manhattan

Dan Wolman's Valley of Fortitude (Gei Oni) is opening at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan!  Congratulations to Dan Wolman on a fantastic achievement and a wonderful film!

Valley of Fortitude (Gei Oni) is Picking Up Awards

Dan Wolman's film, Valley of Fortitude (Gei Oni), based on the novel by Shulamit Lapid, has picked up 5 awards during the past year.  The most recent was received at the Golden Rooster, One Hundred Flower Film Festival in Hefei, China, which took place in October.  I am told that 40,000 people attended the opening event in a huge stadium!   

Not surprising, the film won the audience award – perhaps due to its humanity, its sensitivity, and its special attention to how human beings learn to adapt to their surroundings and their relationship to nature. It is wonderful to think of far-off Chinese festival goers choosing an Israeli film that really speaks to them! 

Check out more on this film, which has previously been reviewed on this blog. 

Valley of Fortitude is currently playing in a TV adaptation as a 6-part series on Israeli TV Channel One, on Tuesday evenings.  Don't miss it!

Dan Wolman's Valley of Fortitude (Gei Oni)

I just returned from the Central European Film Festival that took place in Medias, Romania, where Dan Wolman's latest film, Valley of Fortitude (Gei Oni) -- previously reviewed on this blog -- was awarded the Special Jury Prize.   The audience loved the film and offered resounding applause for Dan Wolman, and the star of the film, Tamar Alkan, who were both present.

At a seminar on Israeli film during the festival, Wolman talked freely about the difficulties he had in finding an appropriate actress for the lead role.  At first he was looking for an actress who spoke with a Russian accent, who knew Yiddish and could play piano.  After interviewing 250 young women, he found Tamar Alkan.  Her Hebrew does not have a Russian accent; she doesn't know Yiddish, and doesn't play the piano! But Wolman knew immediately that she would be perfect.  And she didn't disappoint him!  She resonates the innocence, naivety and idealism which are so much a part of the Israel of the early pioneering period. Wolman himself referred to the naivety of that time by saying that it is fading today and Israelis are afraid to think that it might disappear.

Tamar Alkan plays the role of Fanya, a woman who survives a pogrom in Russia at the end of the 19th century and flees with her little baby to Palestine. She goes to live with a group of religious Jews from Tsfat.  But she is not from a religious background.  They speak a fluent Hebrew, but her Hebrew is broken and stilted, perhaps a reflection of her broken spirit.  She was traumatized back in Russia, and as a result cannot touch anyone or be touched.  As her Hebrew improves, so does her emotional capacity for love and physical contact. 

The film is based on a novel by Shulamit Lapid which was published in 1982 – a hundred years after the immigrants of Rosh Pina came to settle in that valley. 

Gei Oni -- have you had the chance to see it yet?

Dan Wolman's latest film, Gei Oni (Valley of Fortitude), is still running strong at theaters all over Israel.

I highly recommend it!

It's at nine different venues this week!

In Tel Aviv it's in Cinema Dizengoff.

In Jerusalem it's at Beit Moreshet Begin and will be shown at the Jerusalem Theater on the 17^th of March.

In Haifa it's at Café Moriah.

In Modi'in it's at Cinematque Herzliyah.

Also in Nahariah, Hod Hasharon and Beit Gavriel.

Valley of Fortitute (Gei Oni) by Dan Wolman

Check out my recent posting on the Lilith magazine blog about Dan Wolman's beautiful and sensitive literary adaptation, Valley of Fortitude (Gei Oni), which opened this month at theaters in Israel.

Gei Oni – Valley of Fortitude

A new artistic film by Dan Wolman premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival last week. I have written about Wolman's films many times on this blog – his early films: The Dreamer, Floch, My Michael and Hide and Seek; also his later films: Foreign Sister, The Distance and Tied Hands. His latest film, Gei Oni – Valley of Fortitude, is based on the best-selling novel by Shulamit Lapid.

A period piece, the story takes place during the late 19th century, a period of Jewish history in which waves of Jewish migration left Russia and the Ukraine, mostly for America. A smaller number of immigrants went to Palestine.

Combining the historical narrative with a love story, the film tells the story of Fanya, a young woman who arrives on the shores of Palestine with a little baby, accompanied by her aging uncle and her emotionally scarred brother. They are running from Russia, having lost all of their family in a terrible pogrom.

Yehiel, a pioneering farmer from a tiny northern village near Safed has recently lost his wife to malaria and is looking for a mother for his two little children. Fanya has no real choice and although she is harboring a terrible secret she agrees to the arrangement. Through the warmth of their welcoming neighbors, through her growing connection to their life of cultivating the land and through the love of Yehiel, she is able to rebuild her life and cultivate her capacity to love.

This period piece beautifully reflects the period which it portrays. It is slow-paced, yet sensitive, beautifully directed and acted, and a true pleasure to watch – a small piece of Jewish history.

The film is available from Dan Wolman at danwol@zahav.net.il