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Amos Gitai. If you can recall when Vincent D'Onofrio was sexy, Gitai has that sort of confrontational charm. He turns you on while he sets you on edge, even at age 66.

One of Israel's most prolific directors, this constant provocateur has let loose with over 80 shorts, documentaries and narratives since 1972, many of them exploring Israel in an acutely critical manner, from Orthodox misogyny (Kadosh (1999)) to his war experiences during which he was wounded (Kippur (2000) ), to a story of a residence, from its Arab owners to the Israelis who took ownership (House (1980)). The latter documentary was made for Israeli TV but was deemed inappropriate, and if Gitai hadn't smuggled it out of the station, it would have been destroyed.

But since House, no government would think of messing with Gitai and his work, especially since his oeuvre has been acclaimed at such world-class venues as Cannes and the Venice Film Festival.

In "Rabin, The Last Day," director Amos Gitai combines archival footage and staged re-enactments to examine the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1995, creating what The Playlist's Jessica Kiang called "a deeply absorbing... bold and declarative" political thriller—qualities on full display in the electrifying U.S. trailer. The film which screened in Venice and Toronto last year, comes to New York's Lincoln Plaza Cinema on January 29 from distributor Kino Lorber, with a planned national rollout to follow. Read More: "Kino Lorber to Release Pioneering Silent Serial 'Fantômas'" Gitai, who served in a rescue unit in the 1973 Yom Kippur War (depicted in his film "Kippur"), uses the subject of Rabin's assassination—now more than twenty years distant—to pose provocative questions about the contours of a political culture in which such grave acts are...

As usual, the Masters programme is cholk-full of carryover items from world renowned auteurs who’ve already premiered last February (Berlin), this past May (Cannes) or as part of the upcoming action on the Lido (Venice). Of the thirteen titles and personalities that need no introduction, it’s the likes of Hong Sang-soo (Locarno) and the Venice preemed, and not yet picked up items from Skolimowski, Bellocchio & Sokurov (all potential Golden Lion winners) that are still sight unseen for several North American based cinephiles. Here are the baker’s dozen of items:

11 Minutes (11 Minut) – Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland/Ireland

North American Premiere

A jealous husband out of control, his sexy actress wife, a sleazy Hollywood director, a reckless drug messenger, a disoriented young woman, an ex-con hot dog vendor, a troubled student on a mysterious mission, a high-rise window cleaner on an illicit break, an elderly sketch artist, a hectic paramedics...

While the Toronto International Film Festival has its fair share of both Hollywood and Canadian productions, the festival has also cultivated a strong look at foreign and arthouse films during its run. Most of these films get their own spotlight in the Masters programme, which featured films from Jean-Luc Godard, Michael Winterbottom, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan in its 2014 lineup. With the 2015 incarnation fast approaching, Tiff announced some of the films that will be seen as part of this year’s Masters lineup. The films, with their official synopses, can be seen below.

Masters

11 Minutes, directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, making its North American Premiere

A jealous husband out of control, his sexy actress wife, a sleazy Hollywood director, a reckless drug messenger, a disoriented young woman, an ex-con hot dog vendor, a troubled student on a mysterious mission, a high-rise window cleaner on an illicit break, an elderly sketch artist, a...

Amos Gitai’s drama about the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired international sales rights to Rabin: The Last Day, a drama about the events leading up to the 1995 murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Directed by Israeli film-maker Amos Gitai, the film will receive its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival (Sept 2-12).

Gitai has previously been nominated five times for Venice’s Golden Lion with Berlin-Yerushalaim (1989), Eden (2001), Alila (2003), Promised Land (2004) and Ana Arabia (2013).

Gitai, who co-wrote Rabin with regular collaborator Marie-José Sanselme, shot the film in February at various sites in Israel, from Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square to the settlement of Kedumim in the West Bank

At the Jerusalem Film Festival last month, where the director gave a masterclass, Gitai told ScreenDaily: “Israeli society is still feeling the shockwaves of [Rabin’s] killing, even if it’s...

Amos Gitai is hoping to screen Rabin: The Last Day at festivals in autumn.

Ahead of his Monday masterclass here at Jerusalem Film Festival (9-19 July), Israeli film-maker Amos Gitai sat down with Screen to discuss his upcoming Yitzhak Rabin feature, now titled Rabin: The Last Day.

Currently putting the final touches to the film, which he shot in February in Tel Aviv, Gitai is waiting to hear from one of the major autumn festivals about a programming berth.

“We will know by the end of the month,” he said. “We’ve been showing the film without the final mix and the reactions have been very strong. I’m really discovering how much he meant to so many people in many different countries.”

“Israeli society is still feeling the shockwaves of his killing even if it’s already 20 years ago,” he added. “It’s an open wound and looking at the current situation in the Middle East, there...

If there was one stylistic trend at Venice this year, it was bravura, lengthy shots. The festival kicked off with the twenty-minute opening shot of "Gravity," and the rest of the festival sometimes felt like some kind of who-can-hold-a-shot the longest competition, with Steven Knight's "Locke" and Tsai Ming-Liang's "Stray Dogs" also getting in on the real-time act. But if this competition had a winner, it was undoubtedly Amos Gitai, with his latest film "Ana Arabia." Almost uniquely ("Russian Ark" is the obvious forerunner here), the film is made up of a single take, an unbroken 81-minute Steadicam shot without a single cut. It's a bold and ambitious move for the Cannes and Venice favorite, behind films like "Kadosh," "Kippur," "Promised Land" and "Free Zone,"  but while "Ana Arabia" is well-meaning, its central gimmick ultimately proves to be the only really interesting thing about it. Gitai's camera follows Yael...

As the fifth volume of Focal Press’s exceedingly readable and loving exploratory series of the filmmaking process, Mike Goodridge’s FilmCraft: Directing follows the success of its predecessors with expectedly enjoyable results. Featuring discussions with sixteen of the world’s most influential and exciting working directors and five profiles of authentic legends that help shaped cinema as we know it, the brisk 192 page collection manages to touch on a wide range of creative epicenters, their immensely differing ideologies on the medium, and the egotistic, yet somewhat ambiguous job that a film director’s capacity really encompasses. The book serves an intimate peak into the stressful task of helming a feature, whether it be a massive Hollywood extravaganza or a homegrown intimacy.

Broken down by filmmaker, each section is structured around a principal discussion by the director at hand, with a variety of asides that fill out the full color...

One Day You'll Understand, the 2008 French film, is not an unexpected work by Amos Gitai. The Israeli director's past efforts include a searing dissection of Orthodox Jewish society (Kadosh (1999)) plus countless semi-experimental narratives and documentaries such as House (1980), the biography of a home from its original Palestinian owners to its current Israeli inhabitants.

In this recent effort, an adaptation of a novel by Jerome Clement, Gitai once again sidesteps sentimentality, as is his wont, to tell the tale of a Jewish woman, Rivka (Jeanne Moreau), who was married to a Gentile during World War II. They had two children, but only one -- her son, Victor (Hippolyte Girardot), who was born after the war and raised a Catholic -- now wants to know what occurred during those years.

The film begins in France in 1987. Rivka, graceful even with her hair in curlers, is cooking dinner as the eighth day of...

A memorial service for Kino International's former president Donald Krim will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 27, between 10 a.m.-12 noon, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater in New York City. The former President of DVD and film distributor Kino International, Krim later became co-President of the recently formed Kino-Lorber. He died last May 20 at his New York home following a year-long battle with cancer. He was 65. During Donald Krim's tenure, among Kino's Us releases were films by Wong Kar Wai (Happy Together; Fallen Angels), Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher), Amos Gitai (Kippur; Kadosh), Aki Kaurismäki (The Match Factory Girl; Ariel), Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth), Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust), and Andrei Zvyagintsev (The Return). Kino also distributed independent American productions (e.g., Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy), and both Hollywood and international classics, including numerous silent films, e.g., Fritz Lang's Metropolis,...

Sad news today: the passing of veteran independent distributor, Kino’s Donald Krim, who has been responsible for the U.S. release of many of the best films ever made. Throughout his long career, he handpicked excellent world cinema titles as well as the best of the American independents, creating one of the most enviable libraries around. Remarkably, Krim’s taste remained on the cutting edge even in his later years — witness last year’s release of the extraordinary Dogtooth. He will be missed.

Below is the press release we received from Kino.

May 20, 2011 – Donald B. Krim (b. October 5, 1945), the President of Kino International and co-President of Kino Lorber Inc., one of the most prestigious independent film distribution companies in the United States, died at his New York home on May 20, 2011, after a one-year battle with cancer. He was 65. A funeral service is planned for Monday, May 23 (11:45Am) at Riverside Memorial Chapel,...

Donald B. Krim, who was head of one of the most prestigious independent film distribution companies in the United States, died at his New York home today after a one-year battle with cancer. He was 65. According to his official bio, Krim, as the president of Kino International, helped introduce some of the world's most revered film directors to U.S. audiences, among them Wong Kar-Wai (Happy Together, Fallen Angels); Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher); Amos Gitai (Kippur, Kadosh); Aki Kaurismäki (The Match Factory Girl, Ariel); Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust); and Andrei Zvyagintsev (The Return). After law school, Krim began his career at United Artists, first becoming head of the 16mm non-theatrical film rental division, then working on the formation of United Artists Classics, the first major studio-owned art house division and the model for today's Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures Classics. Eventually, UA Classics also began to handle...

Donald Krim Donald B. Krim, the President of DVD and film distributor Kino International and co-President of the recently formed Kino-Lorber, died today at his New York home following a year-long battle with cancer. He was 65. As head of Kino International since 1977, Krim, who discovered the magic of movies after watching Disney's Cinderella in 1950, helped to introduce some of the world's most respected filmmakers to American audiences. Among those — untouchables, as far as Us majors are concerned — were Wong Kar Wai (Happy Together; Fallen Angels), Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher), Amos Gitai (Kippur; Kadosh), Aki Kaurismäki (The Match Factory [...]...

Israeli (and Palestinian) actors, directors, and artists all mourn today the assassination of actor, director, and peace activist Juliano Mer-Khamis. Born in 1958 in the Arab city of Nazareth (North of Israel) to a Jewish mother and an Arab father, Mer-Khamis embodied in his life, as well as in his death, the division and the conflict between the two people sharing this bloody land. Appearing in numerous films and plays, he is most known to the international crowd in his appearances in movies directed by Amos Gitai (Kippur, Yom-Yom, Kedma). Mer-Khamis was a controversial figure in the Israeli society, never stifling himself from expressing his political views, as unacceptable as they may be. Following his mother's footsteps, he too became a political activist, raising his voice against the occupation of Palestinians, and for human rights in Arab culture. A theater for children his late mother managed in the Palestinian city...

As ominous projects for cities such as Rio and Shanghai are being put together, it looks like Jerusalem, I Love You is taking shape with the confirmation of three signed directors in Oscar nominated Joseph Cedar (Beaufort), Cannes Golden Camera winner Etgar Keret (Jellyfish) (pictured above), and renowned director Amos Gitai (Kadosh, Kippur). There is a rumour that Ari Folman might also be a part of the project which is entirely possible as his next project The Congress will necessitate a longer working timeframe than most productions. Following such projects as New York, I Love You, and Paris, Je T'aime, this Cities of Love project promises much more than the previous two, for Jerusalem is a much more complicated setting, containing endless conflicts between religions (the city holds holy places for all three major faiths), between religious Jews and Secular Jews (the percentage of religious people living in Jerusalem is...

The only authoritative voice of Israeli filmmaking prior to the recent influx of micro-masterpieces -- let's see if it constitutes a "wave" -- Amos Gitai has had a rocky time of it. He's dared to iron-maiden his audience with hyper-long one-shot sequences and elaborate camera roamings, he's seduced Natalie Portman into doing an Israeli film right after "Closer" and the second "Star Wars" prequel, he's made "Kippur" (2000), an indisputable home run that explored the soldier's experience of the Yom Kippur War. On the other hand, and at the same time, many of his films have been broad, goonish and didactic, and for the most part, his approach toward the Palestinian question has been to not have one. His new film, "One Day You'll Understand," is an all-French probing of the Euro-legacy of the Holocaust, so Gitai has again avoided his own nation's actions in a post-Holocaust world. But it is...

ROME -- Hard-nosed Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai will be given the prestigious Leopard of Honor prize for lifetime achievement at the 61st annual Locarno Film Festival.

The four-time Palme d'Or nominee is best known for such powerful works as 1999's Kadosh, about two sisters' clashes with orthodox Jewish society; 2000's Kippur, a drama based on the 1973 Yom Kippur War; and as one of the 11 directors behind 11'09'01, the controversial Venice UNESCO award winner released on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

A well-known presence in Locarno, Gitai served on the festival's jury in 1992 and his polarizing documentary Zirat Ha'Rezach (The Arena of Murder), which explored the aftermath of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, premiered there in 1996.

"Amos Gitai occupies a very special place in the landscape of contemporary cinema," Locarno artistic director Frederic Maire said. "Every one of his films confronts us with the infinite complexity of reality."

The prize ceremony will be one of the main events of the Aug.