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Ronit Elkabetz: A Stranger in Paris

With charming sincerity, world-renowned actress and filmmaker, Ronit Elkabetz, shares her personal life story of theater, film, family, childhood and future aspirations.

Wadi

Wadi is a valley located east of Haifa. A former stone quarry, it is a sort of enclave where Eastern European immigrants, survivors of the camps, live in a state of fragile coexistence with Arabs who have also been expelled from their homes. In 1981, Amos Gitai went there to film the intimate story of Yussuf and Isha, Iso and Salo, Miriam and Skander, an Arab family, a Jewish family and a mixed couples, together in this remote and isolated place. By choosing a particular location and making a detailed study of it, by examining the complex relationships that make up life in society, he turns the valley into a specific place, the symbol of a possible coexistence. This film is the first part of a trilogy about the site (Wadi 1981, Wadi Ten Years After 1981-1991, Wadi Grand Canyon 2001).

Ashkenaz

Ashkenazim-Jews of European origin-are Israel’s “white folks.” Like most white folks in a multicultural society, they don’t think of themselves in racial or ethnic terms because by now, “aren’t we all Israeli?” Yiddish has been replaced with Hebrew, religion with secularism, tradition with modernity, exile with sovereignty, landlessness with occupation, the shtetl with the settlement, irony with cynicism, and pale girls with dark curls by bleached blonds with a tan. But the paradox of whiteness in Israel is that Ashkenazim aren’t exactly “white folks” historically. A story that begins in the Rhineland and ends in the holy land (or is it the other way around?), Ashkenaz looks at whiteness in Israel and wonders: How did the “Others” of Europe become the “Europe” of the others?

Lone Samaritan

As a tiny sect constantly in danger of extinction, the Samaritans have very harsh rules about assimilation. After Sophie Tzdaka and her three sisters left the community, one after the other, the family became subject to terrible physical and mental harassment by sect members.
Director Barak Heymann (“Bridge over the Wadi”, “Dancing Alfonso”) follows Sophie, who is the youngest daughter as well as a TV personality, on a journey to her family’s open wounds in an attempt to understand who the real victim of their shattered home was.
Lone Samaritan is a touching father-daughter journey, which raises universal issues of belonging, faith and identity, and forces its heroes to confront the difficult isolation of those who seek a personal path within a closed tribal world.

Jenin Diary – The Inside Story

The documentary Jenin Yoman Miluim (Jenin Diary) chronicles what happens to a group of Israeli soldiers after a Palestinian attack that results in the death of 13 servicemen. The director, a member of the group that came under attack, interviews fellow soldiers as well as superior officers who question why reservists were stationed at the city rather than better trained soldiers. The interviews capture the churning emotions of the men who have seen horror and carnage. Jenin Diary was screened at the 2003 Israel Film Festival.