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.

 

 

 

A New Student Film -- Carmen

As part of the program committee of the Gesher Multi-Cultural Film Fund, I have just had the opportunity to watch a very special short film called Carmen, directed by Yahli Maoz (18 minutes). The film was screened as the opening event at the 2025 International Student Film Festival which just took place in Tel Aviv.  It is about a woman named Carmen, from the Philippines, who is the caregiver for a resident of a moshav in the center of Israel, Ein Vered.

Walking down a street in their rural area, Carmen finds her employer's cat, who has been hit by a car.  She hesitates telling her employer and instead takes the cat and buries her under a bush and decides to keep the cat’s death a secret. But Carmen is a religious woman and she feels bad telling a lie. There is a beautiful scene in which Carmen goes to her singing group, which meets outdoors in someone’s yard, and is made up of people of Philippine background and some of the elderly people that they care for.  Carmen leads them in singing Amazing Grace in her mother tongue.

I love student films which provide us with a small window into the world of what is important to the next generation of young filmmakers.

 

Short Films from the Sam Spiegel Film School

I always find it fascinating to see what subjects are on the minds of our young filmmakers.  The latest crop of graduation films from the Sam Spiegel Film School are all professionally produced, compelling films on a wide variety of subjects.  There is one film that deals seriously with the issue of military service and post trauma, but just as our society is moving from national issues to issues of the individual, most of the films offer engaging glimpses at the lives of young people today, stories that emphasize the individual rather than the collective, the human rather than the national.  

Here are a few lines on some of the films –

This Film is a Reminder, directed by Rotem Dimand, offers a troubling look at a young woman and her relationships (16 minutes).

What Has Changed, Mah Nishtanah , directed by Salomon Chekol, which takes place on Seder night, is about the poverty of an Ethiopian family (16 minutes).

Storyboard, directed by Gil Ishai, is a humorous animated story about a high school teacher (5 minutes).

Vacant Space, directed by Shmueli Cohen, is a very hard-hitting film (30 minutes) about a bunch of army buddies who get together on zoom, catching up, telling stories about a friend who died from their unit, and eventually sharing with each other stories of their own grappling with post trauma.

Capsule, directed by Snir Aznovich, offers a sensitive depiction of a young woman’s thoughts and worries when the piano tuner arrives (14 minutes).

The Soloist, directed by Noga Tempkin, is a compelling film about a young woman dancer who is stressed before her performance and she decides to trade places with another performer (19 minutes).

Stagnant Water, by Coraline Zorea, is about a teenage girl from a kibbutz, who is a school drop-out, working at the nearby fish farm (18 minutes).

Distribution:  Cara Saposnik, Director of International Relations & Distribution at the Sam Spiegel Film School, cara@jsfs.co.il 

 

 

Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School

The Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School, established in 1989, celebrated its 30^th anniversary last year.  In honor of that event, they put together a collection of their best student films, produced during these past 30 years.  I was proud to participate in the choosing of the best films.  These wonderful short films can be viewed on VOD. 

All of the films are really great, but take a special look at The Red Toy by Dani Rosenberg (2004).  It’s brilliant!

Encouraging Understanding Between Women

I recently received publicity on a small film festival called Nashim Nehedarot which is taking place in different venues in Israel.  The festival offers films that will help to bridge the divide between ultra-orthodox and secular women in Israel.   

One of the films being featured is Barren, עקרה , a short drama by Esti Shushan.  This is a compelling portrayal of an ultra-orthodox, young woman.  Nomi is married just a few years, but her husband is terribly disappointed that they haven't been able to get pregnant.  After having already raised children as the big sister to five younger siblings, however, Nomi is ambivalent about having children.  Short and to the point, extremely well-made and touching, this film provides a different perspective on ultra-orthodox women.  

This film was produced with monies from the Gesher Multi-Cultural Film Fund.  I sit on their Board and they provide me with the possibility of previewing so many of the latest Israeli films.  Many thanks to Ziv Naveh and the staff!

Student Films from Ma'aleh

Just last week, I had the opportunity of attending the screening of this year's graduation films from the Ma'aleh Film School.    I love viewing and analyzing student films because they provide us with a window into the subjects that are of concern to the younger generation.  If you are doing film programming, take note of this year's group of six films which are of particularly high quality and definitely worthwhile!  There are three short dramas, one video-art and two documentaries.

Three Short Dramas

Muktzeh

short drama, 28 min., Dir: Alon Rabinovich

Valdimir is the lighting technician at the Jerusalem Theater, but he dreams of much more -- he wants to be an actor and play Shylock on the stage.  This is an interesting and authentic drama about Jewish identity, about who is a Jew, and about who has a monopoly on being Jewish. 

Riding his bike to work one day, Vladimir meets an old friend from Russia who has become haredi and is helping people put on tefillin on Ben Yehuda St.  His friend puts the tefillin on him and Vladimir is quite moved by the experience.  But he finds it a challenge to discuss with his wife the changes that he is feeling.   The story develops and it is interesting to see how the couple eventually finds their way.

The Little Dictator

short drama, 29 min., Dir: Nurit Cohn

Yossi is a nerdy professor whose area of specialization is totalitarian leadership.  Unappreciated by his students, Yossi goes home at the end of the day to a domineering wife and three children.  At a family weekend where the extended family is celebrating Grandma's 90th birthday, he finds himself in a surreal situation, but is able to vindicate himself.  A tour-de-force in acting and directing. 

The French Revolution

short drama, 21 min., Dir: Hai Afik

A noisy street disturbance bursts into the home of a young couple as two hooligans barge in and destroy their well-being.  A very hard-hitting film about cruelty, humiliation and self-respect.

Video-Art

Wall, Crevice, Tear 

video-art, 11 min., no language, Dir.: Tehila Ra'anan

A poetic visit to the Kotel (Western Wall).  This is a film of beauty and yearning,  filmed during different seasons of the year, expressing  feelings about the meaning of the Kotel for both the pious and the secular. 

About Disabilities - Two documentaries

Hannah is Beautiful

doc., 22 min., Dir.: Shira Meisher

Hannah is a 37-year-old woman with mental challenges, who lives in an apartment sponsored by the non-profit organization, Shekel.  This is a touching look at a woman who desperately wishes she could find love.  She works full-time in a government cafeteria and is terribly disappointed when she is refused a raise.  She takes great care with what she wears, her make-up, how she looks.  On the one hand, we've seen films like this before.  On the other, it is a poignant portrait of a wonderful woman who believes that she has to make the best of what life has given her.  

Mazal Means Luck

doc., 29 min., Dir: Mazal Ben-Yishai

The filmmaker's parents are mentally challenged and the filmmaker was brought up in one household by both her parents and grandparents.  In fact, the film beautifully integrates old family movies in order to tell the story of this remarkable family.  Now that her grandparents are getting older, they are grappling with where her parents will go to live when the grandparents are gone.  Is it the young woman's responsibility to live with her parents, sacrificing her life to them in order to take care of them? 

Student Shorts

I love recommending student films because they are a reflection of what issues and subjects are important to young Israelis today.  This collection of short dramas by film students at the Sam Spiegel Film and TV School in Jerusalem is distributed by RuthDiskin. 

• ·         Tateh by Yaniv Linton (short drama, 24 min., 2012)

A touching and intimate tale about the relationship between a grown man and his father.  In this case, the grown man is a Bratslav hassid, driving around in his van, spreading the message of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav.  He receives a phone-call  that sends him on a journey and he goes to reconnect with his father on the kibbutz where he grew up.  A small moment of intimacy and reconciliation provides a strong ending. 

   

• ·         How I Killed Rabin by Michael Alalu (short drama, 17 min., 2012)

A tale about growing up during a period of great national drama.  The story is about an adolescent boy in Jerusalem -- his struggles and angst portrayed on the background of the night of Rabin's assassination.  The film uses an interesting technique of the adolescent talking to himself and it provides insight into how each of us sees an event through our own perspective. We see the boy in his youth movement (HaShomer Hatzair), follow him with the girl that he likes, and learn about his obsessions and fears.  Finally, we travel with him and his family to the big peace demonstration in Tel Aviv, that night in November 1995, when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was shot.

·      

•           Papercuts by Gilad Deutsch (short drama, 13 min., 2013)

Boy meets girl on the Haifa Carmelite (funicular).  Even though they are both lonely and unhappy souls, a relationship is born.  A compelling story. 

• ·         Tormus by Sari Bisharat (short drama, 14 min., 2013)

A 16-year-old boy from an Arab village wants to earn money. He takes his grandfather's old cart, and with the help of his younger brother, he sets out to try to sell beans which his mother has prepared.  Not having a lot of success in their village, they try to sell at a nearby community where the Jews are willing to pay more for Arab food.  Everything is going well until the city inspector asks for their license.

• ·         Driver by Yehonatan Indursky (short drama, 30 min., 2011)

A touching portrait of three people -- a haredi  (ultra-orthodox) man who drives around two lost souls in an attempt to help them.  The entire film takes place within the car during one evening.  He's driving a man from apartment to apartment, where he's schnoring (begging for) money because the man is dying of a disease and wants to be sure that his seven children will be cared for.  In the back seat is a woman who is obviously having trouble with her husband.  

• ·         Diploma by Yaelle Kayam (short drama, 20 min., 2009)

In Hebron, a young Palestinian woman is graduating from the local college and wants to go to her graduation ceremony.  There is a curfew because it's the Jewish holiday of Purim, so she sets out with her younger brother to accompany her.  Brother and sister go over the rooftops and down narrow alleyways to try to get to their destination.  At first there is tension between them.    But after they are stopped by an Israeli Army patrol and as their dangerous adventure continues, they share a moment of real companionship.

Religious Extremism on the Screen at the Recent Jerusalem Film Festival

The subject of ultra-orthodoxy and religious extremism has become an important subject in Israel recently,  due to the fact that ultra-orthodox groups have been pushing the status quo in an attempt to deny women their rightful place in the public sphere -- women are being pushed to the back of buses, orthodox soldiers are encouraged to get up and leave when women singers perform in front of troops, and a new phenomenon -- divisions are being put up on crowded Meah Shearim streets during certain holiday seasons in order to separate between men and women.  As if this weren't enough, the issue of sharing the burden and responsibility of army service has become a critical issue in the public discourse. 

 

Three new Israeli films on the subject of religious extremism are worth mentioning --

My favorite is a short animation, Stairs to No End, made by a film student, Daniella Koffler.  The film  portrays a girl who is trying to reach the light but her father believes that knowledge can be a dangerous thing.  Stairs to No End (7 minutes) is available from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. Watch it on-line!

God's Neighbors, a feature film directed by Meni Yaesh, is the story of a small group of self-righteous Bratslav religious guys who are like the kosher squad, setting rules for their Bat Yam neighborhood.  They use violent means to ensure that women are dressed modestly, that no one blares loud music on Erev Shabbat, and that Arabs from nearby Jaffa keep away.

Different from religious coercion in the political realm, these are just neighborhood thugs who decide that they know what's right for everyone in the local neighborhood. And they have embraced a particularly racist and extreme form of ultra-orthodoxy. Avi, the leader of the group,  works for his father as a green grocer and spends his spare time mixing music CD's for his Bratslaver friends to use in their public celebrations and dancing.   But there is interesting plot development as Avi learns from one of the Bratslavers about a more human and loving type of ultra-orthodoxy.  When he falls for a girl in the neighborhood, things begin to change.  God's Neighbors won the Gaul's Society of Authors, Directors and Composers award in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.  (The feature film is available from Transfax).

Fill the Void, a feature film directed by Rama Burshtein, which will be screened at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, tells the story of a girl from a Hassidic family who is excited about the match that has been made for her.  Things begin to unravel when her older sister dies in childbirth.  Fill the Void is available from Norma Productions.

Additional films of recent years (all have previously been reviewed on this blog) that take place within the ultra-orthodox or hassidic milieu include:

• Features -- Secrets by Avi Nesher, Eyes Wide Open by Haim Tabakman

• Documentaries --  Haredim: The Ultra-Orthodox Community in Israel, a trilogy by Ron Ofer and Yochai Hakak, including Religion.com and Haredot: The Rabbi's Daughter and the Midwife.

Eight Short Films about Coffee

Student films are fascinating to watch -- even though they might not be the best films cinematically speaking, they offer a glimpse at the subjects and issues facing young people today.  In a cross-national collaboration produced by the Film and TV Department of Tel Aviv University, Coffee-Between Reality and Imagination (Artistic Director: Yael Perlov, 2011), we are given the chance of seeing films by young Palestinian filmmakers (2 documentaries and 2 dramas) and Israeli filmmakers (4 dramas). 

The Palestinian Films

Of all of the Palestinian films, my favorite is The Clock and the Man by Gazi Abu Baker (drama, 11 minutes), based on a story by Samira Azzam.  This is a very special tale about a young man named Fathi who gets a job as a clerk in a government office.  On the morning of his first day of work, he discovers that an elderly man named Abu Fuad (Mohammed Bakri) wakes all the government workers in the town so that they can get to their morning train on time.  

Wajeh by Murad Nassar (documentary, 16 minutes) is about a coffee vendor at the Kalandia checkpoint near Ramallah.  The different metal gates and pathways make it seem like the workers are caged animals.  Wajeh is witness as the checkpoint fills with people trying to get to work early in the morning and they talk about the terrible reality of everyday life with these checkpoints.

Sense of Morning by Maysaloun Hamoud (drama, 9 minutes), inspired by Memory of Forgetfulness by Mahmoud Darwish (1987) is an art film about the siege of Beirut in 1982. 

A Cup of Coffee from Palestine by Kareem Karaja, Ameer Ahmarwo, Murad Nassar (documentary, 8 mintes) is about the bitter life stories of Palestinians living in the Al-Amari Refugee camp.

The Israeli Films

My favorite of the Israeli films in this collection is Tasnim by Elite Zexer (drama, 11 minutes), about a 10-year-old Bedouin girl living in a neglected village in the Negev.  When her father appears in a surprise visit, she runs to bring him coffee.  But she is surprised at the circumstances  of his visit.

Audition by Eti Tsicko (drama, 14 minutes) portrays an encounter between Haled and the female director/actress with whom he is auditioning to work.  At first awkward, their encounter develops.  The line between fiction and life itself becomes blurred.

A Trip to Jaffa by Eitan Sarid (drama) is a story of two illegal Palestinian construction workers who want to buy a ring for one of them who is getting married.  His family was from Jaffa, so they set off to find the same jewelry store where his grandfather originally bought the ring for his grandmother.  But things are different from what they imagined.  

Eva is Leaving by Aya Somech (drama, 15 minutes) is about a husband and wife who run a coffee shop.  He has become newly-religious and it is a point of contention between them, especially when he becomes obsessed that a cup of coffee from a non-kosher take-out pace has spilled over the vegetables in the kosher kitchen of his coffee shop.  

This set of 8 short films is available from Tel Aviv University -- films.tau@gmail.com