Israel

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Rivka is happily married to Meir, but they remain childless. The yeshiva’s rabbi, who is Meir’s father, wants Meir to divorce Rivka. Rivka’s sister, Malka, is in love with Yakov, a Jew shunned by the yeshiva as too secular. The rabbi arranges Malka’s marriage to Yossef, whose agitation when fulfilling religious duties approaches the grotesque. Can the sisters sort out their hearts’ desires?Read More »

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A slice of life – day after day – in Haifa, where Moshe and Didi’s marriage is on the rocks, affairs are casual, and Moshe’s angst about health, his parents, sex, communication, and business are pervasive and existential. Moshe’s mother is Jewish, his father an Arab; his father may or may not sell ancestral land; his wife and mistress have lovers, one is a close friend; much of Moshe’s surroundings seem under construction or in renovation. A cousin watches a security monitor without comment. Is there allegory in this portrait of an anxious Israeli approaching middle age?Read More »

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Laila In Haifa is set over one fateful night in a club in the port town of Haifa and explores the interweaving stories of five women. The film aims to present a snapshot of contemporary life in one of the last remaining spaces where Israelis and Palestinians come together to engage in face-to-face relationships.Read More »

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Reportage showing views of old and new Jerusalem and the modern buildings of Tel-Aviv. It is one of two (along with ‘Tel Aviv’) reportages made in the late 1930s by Romuald Gantkowski in what was then Palestine.Read More »

In Nazareth, an old couple lives wearily to the rhythm of the daily routine. On the other side of the border, in Ramallah, their son Tarek wishes to remain an eternal bachelor, their daughter is about to give birth while her husband lands a movie role and the grandmother loses her head … Between check-points and dreams, frivolity and politics, some want to leave, others want to stay but all have personal affairs to resolve.Read More »

The Buddhist concept of reincarnation, while both mysterious and enchanting, is hard for most westerners to grasp. UNMISTAKEN CHILD follows the four-year search for the reincarnation of Lama Konchog, a world-renowned Tibetan master who passed away in 2001 at age 84. The Dalai Lama charges the deceased monk’s devoted disciple, Tenzin Zopa (who had been in his service since the age of seven), to search for his master’s reincarnation.Read More »

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Robin Wright plays an aging actress with a reputation for being fickle and unreliable, so much so that nobody is willing to offer her any roles anymore. She agrees to sell the movie rights to her digital image to Miramount Studios in exchange for a hefty sum and the promise to never act again. After her body is digitally scanned, the studio will be able to make movies starring her using only computer-generated characters.Read More »

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With an ensemble cast of both Israeli and Palestinian actors, “Laila in Haifa” explores the interweaving stories of five women set over one night in a club in the port town of Haifa. Laced with wry humor, Amos Gitai presents a candid snapshot of contemporary life in one of the last remaining spaces where Israelis and Palestinians come together to engage in face‐to‐face relationships.Read More »

Or shoulders a lot: she’s 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or “my treasure,” but Ruthie is a burden. She’s just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or’s emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she’s in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or’s choices narrow.Read More »