David is discharged from the army after serving 27 years. He finally returns to his family and tries to find himself in his new civilian life. When a friend suggests working for a company that markets dietary supplements, David sees this as an opportunity to get his foot in the door of the business world and make something out of himself. But this decision slowly gets him and his family entangled in the web of dark forces that rule life in Israel.
In Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, Israelis and Palestinians work alongside one another to tend to the elephants, crocodiles and rhinos. Inevitably, tensions within and across animal species reflect themselves in the mostly good-natured, always edgy interactions between employees, who lead regular tours of schoolchildren through the zoo’s grounds. Comprised of Jewish and Muslim students, these tours are always led separately, and each group learns different details about the same animals, stories which are constructed to reflect the glories and struggles of the children’s distinct yet neighboring cultures. Katharina Waisburd’s keen eye results in a sensitively shot film, offering an unforgettable and innovative glimpse into the current conflict in the Holy Land.
Isaac and Shfisil, two brothers born in a DP camp after World War II, lived in the shadow of secrets hidden from them all by their closest relatives. When they were babies, they were separated and did not know anything about each other. Investigate the mysterious history of family reunion after six decades, gives a rare glimpse of life in the DP camps in Germany after World War II: a lively social life and communities flourished wild young survivors, a period that is hardly spoken about on the screen.
#uploading_holocaust is the first documentary based entirely on existing YouTube materials.
Every year, a quarter of all Israeli high school students embark on a school trip to Poland to commemorate the Holocaust. This trip is known in Israel as “The Journey to Poland”.
Since it began in the late 1980’s, the traditional journey includes 100 teenagers, 4 concentration camps, 3 mass graves, 2 ghettos and 14 memorial services within 8 days, but the fact that many of the students upload videos of their journey to YouTube, is a newer phenomenon.
As the last Holocaust survivors are nearing the end of their lives, young Israelis are eager to immortalize the collective trauma. Video sharing becomes a central tool in the commemoration efforts. Teenagers, teachers and parents film every testimony, gas chamber and ceremony, as well as late-night hang-outs at the hotel and video selfies.
They edit their version of history and share the clips online, adding to an ever-expanding YouTube archive of more than 20,000 clips.
#uploading_holocaust is a curation of these user-generated videos, offering a unique point of view of a new generation, while revealing a moving and troubling image of the way collective memory is formed in the web-age.
For the past seven years Muhi, a brave and spirited boy from Gaza has been living in an Israeli hospital, the only home he has ever known. Caught between two homes and two peoples, Muhi is unable to return to Gaza. He is saved and raised by those considered enemy by his people, in paradoxical circumstances that transcend identity, religion and the conflict that divides his world. His time at the hospital is running out and Muhi now faces the most critical choices of his life.
The Farewell Party is a unique, compassionate and unlikely funny story of a group of friends at a Jerusalem retirement home who decide to help their terminally ill friend. When rumors of their assistance begin to spread, more and more people ask for their help, and the friends are faced with a life and death dilemma.
As the Allies sweep across Germany, Lore leads her siblings on a journey that exposes them to the truth of their parents’ beliefs. An encounter with a mysterious refugee forces Lore to rely on a person she has always been taught to hate.
A Palestinian in Ramallah, Mosab Hassan Yousef grows up angry and ready to fight Israel. Arrested for smuggling guns at the age of 17, he’s interrogated by the Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, and sent to prison. But shocked by Hamas’s ruthless tactics in the prison and the organization’s escalating campaign of suicide bombings outside, Mosab agrees to spy for Israel. For him, there is no greater shame. For his Shin Bet handler, Gonen, there is no greater prize: “operating” the oldest son of a founding member of Hamas.
An Israeli woman (Ronit Elkabetz) fights for three years to obtain a divorce from her devout husband (Simon Abkarian), who refuses to grant his permission to dissolve the marriage.
Oma and Bella is an intimate glimpse into the life of two dynamic elderly Jewish women in Berlin. The film follows them as make elaborate dishes recalled from their childhoods, before the Holocaust. Through the cooking of the sumptuous meals, they retain a part of their past past while remaining very much engaged in the present.
