Transit begins and ends in an airport during a father and son’s transit flight from Tel Aviv to Manila. It tells the story of Moises, a Filipino single-dad working as a caregiver in Herzliya, Israel, who comes home to his son Joshua’s 4th birthday. It was on that day that Moises, together with their Filipino neighbors, Janet and her daughter Yael, find out that the Israeli government is going to deport children of foreign workers. Afraid of the new law, Moises and Janet decide to hide their children from the immigration police by making them stay inside the house.
The Northern port city of Acco (Acre) is a mixed (Jewish-Arab) city. The city’s Palestinian population—both Muslim and Christian, and for the large part “Palestinians of 1948,” who were the residents of Israel when it was granted statehood—has been there for generations. As Acco has become an increasingly-popular tourist destination, however, there has been a concerted push to change the long-standing demographics, resulting in a government-backed push to move Palestinians out of the Old City. In the hands of the filmmakers, a traditional rite of passage in Acco, the act of jumping from the ancient 40-foot seawall, becomes a metaphor for the perilous situation and great bravery of the city’s Palestinian population. A tough, deeply empathetic film that may suggest uneasy parallels between subtler gentrification, as we know it, and actual forced relocation.
Unlike the majority of 18 year old boys in Israel, for whom army service is mandatory, Ameer is exempt from military service under the assumption that his enlistment might endanger Israel’s security. That is because Ameer, An Israeli citizen, is a Muslim Arab. And yet, Ameer decides to volunteer. He believes that his induction is the way to equality, he believes this is the way to belong to the state he lives in, the state he wants to love. Ameer is setting a voyage to civic and self definition, while carefully navigating the thin line between Jewish and Arab societies. Being an eternal optimist Ameer wishes to be both a proud Arab and enthusiastic Israeli while his only enemy is reality.
Ilan, an astrophysics professor, is married to the younger and very beautiful Naomi. One day, he finds out that his wife has a lover… A film about guilt, love and unlimited devotion. Based on the best-selling novel by Edna Mazya, one of Israel’s most successful playwrights.
No one really appreciates Kamel Nadjer, the young Bedouin security guard at the Be’er Sheba central bus station, neither his family, nor his Israeli colleagues. When the poor tin shacks he shares with his family in the desert are menaced by demolition orders, Kamel decides to take action. He will stage a bombing in the bus station and then prevent it, in order to establish himself as a hero, save his village, and win the admiration he so desires.
Yoseph returns to his native Druze village after 17 years with his son and daughter, whose Jewish mother he has divorced, and plans to settle down. This leads to friction within the closed conservative Druze community. Despite the problems and difficulties, Semadar, Yoseph’s daughter, unexpectedly finds love.
Two girls meet online. Samar, 12, has an Arab Israeli mother and a Palestinian father from the Occupied Territories. She lives in Lod, a mixed city marred by poverty and crime. Linor, 11, was born in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip but now lives in Tlamim, a religious settlement in the Lachish region. Only 67 km separate Lod and Tlamim, but the girls are also separated by a vast national, cultural and ideological abyss. As participants in a program combining education and technology, their relationship starts from online correspondence. Meeting face-to-face adds an exciting, tense and often surprising component to the two girls’ lives, sweeping them and their families into a profound and complex experience.
A look back at that old Friday afternoon ritual, when Israeli families of all backgrounds would watch the Arab movie of the week. Arabic Movie takes us back to that fleeting moment when Israelis shared the same cultural heroes as everyone else in the Middle East, even as it raises disturbing questions about the relationship of Israelis with their neighbors across the border.
An intimate portrait of poet and national myth Mahmoud Darwish, from an unexpected perspective: the women who influenced his work. Intensive research into the poetry of Darwish, archival materials and personal interviews unearth the story behind the man who became the mouthpiece of the Palestinian people.
As a child, Eli Amir was torn from his community in Baghdad and educated in Mishmar HaEmek, where erasing his past was just part of the process of turning him into an Israeli. This film, based on a book of the same name, is narrated by a teenage protagonist named Kabi, and depicts the final years of the Jewish community in Baghdad before its expulsion and resettlement in Israel in the 1950s. When his uncle Hizkel is arrested and imprisoned, Kabi sets off to find him, joining the Zionist underground. The film paints a portrait of a family living in a world full of contradictions and ambivalent relationships; it illustrates the complex existence of the Jewish community in Iraq, which had strong ties to the surrounding Muslim world and Arabic culture, yet simultaneously feared for its safety. It pays tribute to the nearly 130,000 Jews who fled Iraq, never to be the same again.
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