Ayed Morrar, an unlikely Palestinian community organizer, unites all Palestinian political factions and Israelis. Together, they wage a lengthy lunch-counter-sit-in-style unarmed struggle to save his village from destruction by Israels Separation Barrier. Victory seems improbable until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a womens contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. They not only save the village, but the Barrier is pushed back behind the Green Line into No Mans Land. In the process, Ayed and Iltezam unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary featuring archival footage of this movement from its infancy, Budrus will inspire and challenge audiences worldwide.
A Universal Language, documents the exciting once in a life time journey of six Canadian comedians, among them Canadian comedy icon Mark Breslin, as they explore comedy, identity and history throughout the Holy Land and use the weapons of comedy to try and bring laughter to the Middle East.
Pole dancing may have started in strip clubs, but over the past few years it has won international recognition as an art form, a sport and a means of empowering women. Director Isri Halpern follows Neta Lee Levy, the founder of Israel’s first pole dancing studio, as she competes for the European title. He discovers an outspoken and frank woman, who challenges the very world she lives in no less than she challenges the world she came from. She demonstrates that, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, a woman in a bikini and high heels may also be made of the same material champions are made of.
Dancing in Jaffa follows the journey of internationally renowned ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine as he returns to his birthplace, Jaffa, to fulfill his lifelong dream of teaching Jewish and Palestinian Israeli children to dance together. For generations, Jaffa has been a city divided with the two communities living side-by-side but growing increasingly apart. The film explores the stories of four children forced to confront issues of identity, segregation and racism, as they dance with their enemies. We watch Pierre transform hundreds of lives over the course of four months with the belief that this will forever change the future and bridge the gap between the Jewish and Palestinian people.
Obsession is a documentary film which examines the clear concept of obsessive sensation. The film digs a subterranean-inner consciousness tunnel via the different kinds of obsessions; obsession with love, obsession with death, food, knowledge, money, sex, control, exposure, cleaning, fame, etc. The film sketches a line connecting obsession, to the spirit of the time and to the modern lifestyle, while considering the determination that obsession is the most common “disease” of the 21st century. The intense process, through which the film takes the viewer, examines how is obsession created, what feeds the obsession, how does obsession serves the person, and how it is motivated by an endless aspiration of the person to achieve salvation, a state of euphoria.
Ronen and Orit have been together for almost three years. Both of them come from highly respected Bukhari families. Ronen is the star of Handa Handa theater troupe, a hit among the Bukhari community in Israel and around the world. According to the strict Bukhari tradition couples must marry after a brief acquaintance. But Ronen and Orit rebel against their families and refuse to get married. Even making every effort to protect Orit’s “honor” is not enough for her parents, who demand they either marry or break up. Their love is trapped between tradition and modernity.
A documentary is a desperate attempt to document that which cannot be documented. Heresy thoughts of a veteran documentarian. A neighborhood in the city of Ramat Gan. A grocer, a watchmaker, dancers, sheep, a hairdresser, a furious prophet and more. Real? Staged? Fragmentary – like cell phone chats, like TV broadcasts, like life itself. Finally someone asks – Is God counting us again? Has the Lucky Number, Heaven forbid, been picked again?
The film follows the preparations for the Bar Mitzvah of Guy, the director’s younger autistic brother, from the moment his parents decide to have Guy do the ceremony in the synagogue up to the day of the Bar Mitzvah itself. During the course of preparations for this unusual event, the daily and complex reality the family must cope with is revealed, paved with difficulties and humor, and Guy’s unique view of the world is discovered.
A documentary that goes beyond the image of the well-known figure, Theodor Herzl, to examine Herzl’s personal story and life. A man utterly devoted to his Zionistic dreams, Herzl threw everything he had into his aspirations, often at the suffering of other important components in his life, including his family and finances. Through interviews from many, and varied, sources, the film also explores what Herzl means to people in contemporary Israel and the rest of the world today.
