An enlightening series capturing the first impressions of foreign tourists in Israel.
Archives
The Cemetery Club
10 oclock, Saturday morning. A group of elderly women and men carry plastic lawn chairs across the Mount Herzl National Cemetery in Jerusalem…In the shade of an old pine tree, they sit down, in a circle and discuss matters sublime and elevated.
If Man Could Fly
The Volunteers
My Own Daughter
Sivan, a 22 year old kibbutznik struggles with memories of her father who sexually abused her. The present intermingles with the story of the past: the institutions which lacked the sensitivity to deal with her trauma, the silence and impenetrability of the kibbutz, the indifference of the police and the legal system and the family that doesn’t know how to cope. After seeking professional help, Sivan decides to sue her father and take a stand against him for the first time.
A State Behind the Scene
A documentary journey to the backstage of the Declaration of the State of Israel. The last living witnesses to the historical moment and the makers of the myth explore what really happened in the 32 minutes of ceremony.
Sixty and the City
An Israeli film maker, divorced + two children, five grandchildren, a dog and a cat, decides at the age of 60 that she doesn’t want to get old alone. She photographed herself in a provocative way and registered with several internet dating sites.The movie follows her in her search.
World Class Kids
Second graders from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, in the center of Tel Aviv, contend with a stormy school year, of war and nationalistic currirulum.
Underground Man
“Which is better? Cheap happiness or sublime suffering?” (Dostoyevsky) Asher Tsarfati, actor-director, total artist, founder of the fringe theater in Israel, a prominent figure on the outskirts of the established theater, decides to direct his non-actor friend, Hezi Ben-Meir, to help him become an actor. The film is a tracing of Tsarfati and his daily interactions with the actors from the beginning of rehearsals until the unexpected end. The film portrays an artist and his tumultuous, tragic and funny life, through which the backyard of culture in Tel Aviv is exposed as well as the making of Fringe Theater in Israel.
Home: News From House
Abandoned by its Palestinian owner in the 1948 war; requisitioned by the Israeli government as vacant; rented to Jewish Algerian immigrants in 1956; purchased by a university professor who undertakes its transformation into a three-story house in 1980… This West Jerusalem building is no longer the microcosm it once was 25 years ago. Its inhabitants dispersed, this common space has disintegrated, but remains both an emotional and physical center at heart of the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Concrete reality has transformed into scattered stories and memories. A new identity, a new diaspora, have evolved.
With News from Home / News from House, Amos Gitai completes the trilogy which began with 1980’s House and continued in 1998’s A House in Jerusalem. Creating a sort of human archeology, Gitai explores the relationships between the house’s inhabitants, past and present, between Israelis and Palestinians. Each in his or her own way becomes a sign of the region’s, the world’s, destiny.
