New Student Films

I always enjoy student shorts which reflect in many ways the issues which are affecting the up-and-coming generation of filmmakers.  I would like to share with you three compelling short films from the past year at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem. 

212, directed by Boaz Frankel (drama, 20 minutes), is a glimpse at a day in the work of the director of an old age home (played by Moshe Ivgi).  It’s a rainy morning, and the first thing that the director has to take care of is the death of the resident in room 212. It is obvious that deaths are a common occurrence and there is a complete protocol for how to handle it, and it doesn’t seem to truly affect anyone.  In fact, the other residents just want to get on with their breakfast, and the director is more concerned with the fact that someone parked in his parking space on this rainy day.

Big Sister, directed by Michal Gassner (drama, 13 minutes), is about gender issues and rape.  A young woman, who has taught herself to be tough when it comes to how men treat her, is entrusted with the care of her teenage brother when their parents are abroad.  She tries to teach him a lesson about how to treat women.

The Bride’s Tree, directed by Shadi Habib Allah (documentary, 17 minutes), is about a Palestinian adolescent boy.  Under the branches of a big and ancient tree, he spends his days, playing with friends, watching out for the Israeli army, preparing for wedding parties and helping his father with their small grocery store. This film is a bit lyrical in style, which makes it very special.

These films can be obtained from Cara Saposnik, the Director of International Relations – cara@jsfs.co.il

Lipstikka by Jonathan Sagall

A new film by Jonathan Sagall opened this week in Israel. 

As an actor, Jonathan Sagall has appeared in a number of international films, including Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and George Roy Hill's Little Drummer Girl.  He is well known to Israeli audiences for his role as a teenager in Boaz Davidson's Lemon Popsicle and its sequel, Going Steady, and he won an award for best actor for his role in Amos Gutmann's Drifting.  In more recent years he has turned to directing -- his directorial debut, Urban Feel, won prizes at Valencia, Varna and Haifa. 

Sagall's new film, Lipstikka, is about two Palestinian women.  Although the film is clearly critical of Israeli soldiers, this is not the focus of the film.  The story opens with two Palestinian girls living in Ramallah – Inam and Lara -- one is Christian and one is Muslim.  In order to celebrate Lara's birthday, they decide to cross the checkpoint into Jerusalem, where they have a terrible encounter with brutal and macho Israeli soldiers who manipulate and violently abuse them.

Years later, Lara (stunningly played by Clara Khoury) lives in a beautiful home in London with her husband and her 7-year-old son.  Her life is bourgeois and dull, her husband is unfaithful and she drinks too much.    The film begins and ends with her saying: "I could have had a different life," which is terribly sad.  One day, her old friend Inam shows up at the door -- she was the wild one when they were teenagers years ago.  Today, they have a difficult and ambivalent relationship, with many flashbacks to their growing up together in Ramallah.

This is a complex and difficult film, about themes of sexuality, emotional disintegration, suicide, rape, and a lesbian relationship. 

Rape in the Modern Orthodox Community

I went today to view student films at the Ma'aleh School for Film and Television – many thanks to Einat Kapach for inviting me and providing me with a special preview of one of the films that will premiere at the upcoming Haifa Film Festival over Sukkot.  The new film that I saw is called In Silence נעלמת  , directed by Tom Dadon-Mishaly (short drama, 23 minutes). 

The film is about the tragedy of rape and the dangers of not sharing what happens with your family and loved ones.  The story is set in the framework of an educated modern Orthodox ("dati leumi") family -- even though the parents are particularly caring and the mother is more attentive than most, they are unable to comprehend the changes that have overtaken their daughter.  She is often moody and disagreeable, has suddenly changed her style of dress, and is showing signs of crisis.

This is the tragic story of a bubbly and friendly high school girl who is suddenly transformed.  As the fictional story unfolds – and it unfolds in a surprising and remarkable fashion – the tension is heightened and we understand how this could happen in any family.

The Ma'aleh School distributes another film called Cohen's Wife, about rape in the ultra-orthodox community.  The film was previously reviewed on this blog.

Next time you are traveling on El Al, keep your eyes open for the possibility of viewing Ma'aleh award-winning films (available only on flights with the small screens).

Both films are available from the Ma'aleh School.

Doma

Yesterday at the DOCAVIV film festival, which is held annually at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, I saw an extraordinarily moving and beautiful film about sexual abuse in the Arab community – Doma, directed by Abeer Zeibak Haddad (documentary, 51 minutes).

The title of the film, Doma, means dolls in Arabic and the film opens with a scene from a puppet show called Chocolate that the filmmaker created -- we watch as a strange man approaches a little girl in the park and spins her on the carousel, faster and faster. We don't see what happens after but the pace quickens and we feel actual fear.

The film is about four women who were abused as girls and today they decide to speak up and break the silence dealing with this subject that is so prevalent in the Arab community. This is the story of women who were afraid to speak out as little girls, afraid to shout out, afraid to confront their attackers. A black Bedouin woman, photographed from behind in a moving car, explains, "In our society they always blame the victimized girl."

Only one woman, a sculptor named Manal, speaks directly to the camera about what happened to her. She is creating a sculpture installation incorporating sexual organs and using Christian symbolism. She says, "Women do not own their own bodies." In another scene, she talks about how she didn't want anyone to touch her breast, and as a result was not physically or emotionally able to nurse her twins when they were babies.

Another woman tells that she was repeatedly raped since she was 5-years old by her uncle, her mother's brother. Her grandmother knew, but kept silent. And yet another woman talks about the pain of having been abused by her own father and how she tried to resist it.

Each woman reacts differently. One woman decides that she must confront her rapist and another wants to file a complaint with the police.

This is a film about very brave women who are speaking out about a terrible tragedy in their lives, about a subject that is still difficult for them to confront. For years, they were afraid of speaking out because they could be murdered by their male relatives for bringing disgrace to their families. In fact, similar stories of family honor have brought death to many women. We watch as a Druze father, still in mourning for his daughter, is addressing a crowd at a demonstration and talking about so many girls who have been murdered.

The film is beautifully shot – the women are shot from the back, looking out a window, one is looking out at the sea, or slightly distorted in a window or mirror, or shot from behind in a moving car. One is also shot surrounded by a field of Sabras, a plant that symbolizes the deep contradiction between aggression and nature. This element of anonymity in the film makes it so authentic and emphasizes the fact that these four women are a voice for all those who have suffered similar experiences in their youth.

The film is available from the producer: Suheil Haddad (husband of the director)

suheilh@zahav.net.il

or from Go2 Films

Short dramas about the Women of Israel

Here is a selection of some of my favorite short dramas, all produced during the last decade, about the women of Israel – Jews and Arabs, secular and ultra-orthodox, including rape, family honor, the conflict, settlers, Ethiopians, coexistence and even one animated film.

Mulu
Directed by Alamark Marsha
2008, 25 min.

This drama provides a look at the position of women in traditional Ethiopian society by portraying a woman who is unable to break out of the bonds that her marriage imposes upon her. In loving close-up, we watch every step as Mulu prepares Ethiopian bread. She is already a grandmother and discovers that she is pregnant again. One of her grown daughters tells her that she has enough children – but Mulu won’t listen to her. The same daughter wants her mother to sell her handicrafts and maybe even get a job. But Mulu’s husband is unable to cope with such changes in his world. He takes all of his wife’s woven baskets off the wall, down to the street, and lights a bonfire. Watching him from the window, Mulu does not stop him. This is her life and she knows that she cannot change it. But we know that her daughters already live in a different world.

Available from tikshoret@telhai.ac.il


Miracle Lady
Directed by Michal Abulafia and Moran Somer
2010, 10 min.

This is an animated feminist fable. Fortuna is an old lady who waits in her wedding gown for her husband, who died on their wedding day. Her next-door neighbor, Marcela, the servant of Rabbi Toledano, is even older and is awaiting death to come and take her away. One is waiting to live her life, the other is ready to end it. About broken promises and growing old.

available from: Bezalel academy of art and design, Jerusalem
festivals-liaison@bezalel.ac.il


Survival and the Art of the Joystick
Directed by Tsipi Houri
2002, 4 min.

Two sisters are riding on a road in the West Bank, on their way to visit their parents in Beth-El. One sister is experiencing more fear than the other. She says that riding along the road is like playing a computer game – either we’ll get there or we won't. She finds the landscape threatening, everything that she sees screams danger to her, she finds something to be afraid of hiding behind the trees and around each curve in the road. When they arrive at their home, there is fear there too since now they must lock the door. The other sister, who still lives at home with the parents in Beit El, says, you are part of the cult of fear, you can be blown up in Tel Aviv also. Two sisters who seem to be very different from each other.

From the series: Moments 2002, available from the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University



Cohen's Wife (Eshet Cohen)
Dir: Nava Heifetz-Nussan
2000, 24 minutes

A hard-hitting drama about how ultra-orthodox Judaism deals with the rape of a Cohen’s wife. Even though a man who is a "cohen" must divorce his wife if she is raped, this film shows that even this can be interpreted with flexibility and compassion.

The young neighbor, Hannele, is witness to the rape. She is an interesting image – perhaps an image of naivety standing and watching. She symbolizes both knowledge and innocence. She is also witness to the reconciliation at the end.

At the end of the film, the husband returns to his wife, happy that the rabbinic court has permitted him to stay with her. But the woman looks at her husband at the end of the film with sadness. Why is she sad? Because no one has dealt with her trauma, helping her to come to terms with what happened. In fact, the rabbinic court’s “liberal" and "flexible” interpretation of the law has stifled or even denied her experience. Also, perhaps she is sad because her husband even considered leaving her, if need be. Rather, he should have stood up and declared that he wouldn’t turn her away, especially in her time of need.

So, this is a good ending – the court permits them to stay together and she has to forgive her husband for his wavering – instead of him having to forgive her for being impure and for being "guilty" of being raped. He begs her for forgiveness for his silence.

Available from Ma'aleh Film School
Available on streaming from Oomanut

Bus Station
Directed by Lily Sheffy
2008, 5 min.

Two women are at a bus stop – both wear black scarves, both are carrying vegetables from the market, both seem weary. When the tomatoes fall all over the ground, and both women stoop to pick them up, a conversation begins. The ultra-orthodox Jewish woman is interested in tomatoes bought from an Arab vendor because this is the shmita or sabbatical year and she is not permitted to buy fruits and vegetables from a Jewish vendor. She offers her tomatoes to the Arab woman. The Arab woman tries to pay for them and slips some money into the other woman’s bag. Right away, a Jewish man comes running. Having caught the Arab woman with her hand in the other’s bag, he is ready to accuse her of stealing. When matters are straightened out, the two women share pictures of their sons – one is called Ibrahim and one is called Abraham. The film -- a chance encounter on a Jerusalem street between two very different, yet similar women, each with a son whom she loves – puts a human face to the conflict.

Part of the Jerusalem Moments project 2008 -- Available from Ir Amim


Stitches
Dir: Dana Keidar
2010, 24 min.

Nadin is an Arab girl, preparing to be married. Her mother is making her a beautiful wedding dress. At a fruit picking and packing center, she picks berries with her friends and embarks on a sweet love affair with Shahar, the Jewish foreman. Her red nails are like the red berries, blood red, like the blood on her panties when she first sleeps with Shahar, the red of passion. Since she is about to be married, her girlfriend at work pushes her to go to a Jewish doctor to have her virginity restored. As planned, she marries her intended, a boy she doesn't love. A small slice-of-life in the Arab community.

Available from the Sam Spiegel Film and TV School, Jerusalem.