Kippur War changed two generations as it created a new relaity both had but weren’t necessarily willing to adapt to.

The post Three and One appeared first on Israel Film Center.

This landmark documentary celebrates the pioneering labors of early Jewish settlers in Palestine. With striking visuals and a remarkable soundtrack by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, the film records the technological and agricultural accomplishments of the pioneers and extols the idea of a socialist Jewish state. Footage includes shots taken at the Jaffa port and on various kibbutzes of the time; Strasbourg-born director Lerski’s expressive style creates an almost mythic image of the Jew in Palestine, toiling and triumphing amidst the sweeping desert landscape.

The post Avodah appeared first on Israel Film Center.

Two European Jews, Holocaust refugees who have been swiftly transformed into Israeli soldiers, are roasting in the sun on a remote desert hill at the height of the 1948 War of Independence. The tanned and muscular Mintz denies his European past and reinvents himself as a Hebrew-speaking Israeli warrior.  His compatriot, the bony, pale, Lolek, has been dragged into the war by mistake, solely wishing to search for his European sweetheart, Nina, who awaits him in Haifa. HOMELAND, a film set at a major turning point in Jewish and Israeli history, examines the contrast between the Disapora and new Zionist Jew.

The post Homeland appeared first on Israel Film Center.

Noted Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai directs this documentary about the history of Zionism, focusing particularly on the life and work of Theodor Herzl, who founded the movement in 1897. Gitai features not only standard interviews with a number of historians and journalists, but also more lyrical imagery such as a woman reading the Old Testament over family photographs

The post Zion, Auto-Emancipation appeared first on Israel Film Center.

Based on a true story, Braids tells the tale of So’ad, 14 year old Jewish girl imprisoned by the Iraqi government in 1947 for her participation in the Zionist movement. This feature film illuminates a complex and sensitive period of Jewish life in Iraq when Jews felt their security threatened as antisemitism surfaced with the growth of Zionism. Jailed for 3 years, So’ad joined other political prisoners in a campaign of civil disobedience until Iraq opened its gates in 1950 and allowed Jews to emigrate to Israel.

The post Braids appeared first on Israel Film Center.

Four women – Selma Dejani, daughter of an Old Palestinian Moslem family; Wadad Shihade, a Palestinian Christian, originally from Jaffa; Olga Belkind, daughter of a prominent Zionist family; and Sharona Aharon from the heart of cosmopolitan Tel-Aviv – who were roommates at an Anglican boarding school in Jerusalem in 1939, meet 50 years later for a reunion. For Olga and Sharona, the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was the fulfillment of a dream but for Selma and Wadad it spelled the beginning of a lifelong tragedy. Their emotional reunion encapsulates the drama and pain rocking the region.

The post Four Friends appeared first on Israel Film Center.