Two American girls on vacation follow a mysterious and handsome anthropology student on a trip to Jerusalem. They are walking around the Old City, visiting the holy sites and having a great time. The party is cut short when the trio is caught in the middle of a biblical apocalypse. Trapped between the ancient walls of the holy city, the three travelers must survive long enough to find a way out as the fury of hell is unleashed upon them.
Twelve-year-old Mussa doesn’t speak, and no knows why. As African refugees, he and his parents have been living in Tel Aviv’s worst neighborhood for the past six years. In a strange stroke of luck, however, he is bussed to an uptown school every day. Leaving behind addicts and prostitutes each morning, he silently navigates to within an upscale world, befriending privileged kids with gestures, reading and writing in Hebrew, and making a considerable bond with his teacher Anna. Trying to fit in, he wordlessly connects with his classmates and friends, and bravely witnesses the random deportation of fellow African students. Little solace is found at home as his largely absent parents work during all hours, leaving him even more alone with his voiceless thoughts. When a series of unexpected crises hit, Mussa’s precarious place between two separate worlds is heartbreakingly revealed through this look at the human cost of immigration policy.
Maya (Netta Shpigelman) is a happily married mother of two. She is a successful choreographer, and everything seems to be perfect, but this life is a lie. Unbeknownst to her family, and everyone around her, she has a hidden past.
Founded in a bomb shelter in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Boxing Club brings together hundreds of teens from all around the city. For many of these young people, the desire to excel and to win the national championship is nourished by the tough training and boundless love of Gershon Luxemburg, club manager and trainer, who claims that “nobody comes to box without a reason.” Jerusalem Boxing Club follows four teens from different walks of Israeli life as they learn from Gershon, call his club home, and compete together for the national title.
David Broza, the Israeli singer-songwriter, sets out to realize his dream of cooperation and dialog between Israelis and Palestinians through music. During 8 days and nights of joint creation in an East Jerusalem studio a hopeful message of equality and unity arises.
The film portrays the story of Safaa Dabour, a religious Muslim from Nazareth, struggling to fulfill her dream of personal independence and to establish a cinematheque in Nazareth, the first of its kind for the Arab population in Israel. Safaa’s father and husband both died while she was still a young mother of two boys and she chose to take charge of her own fate and establish the cinematheque.
A new and previously unseen viewpoint on Yitzhak Rabin – his own. Beginning with his childhood in Tel-Aviv, we follow him through his teen years at the Kaddouri Agricultural High School, his early days in the Palmach, his military career in the IDF as commanding officer and later Chief-of-Staff, and his political career as a diplomat, Prime Minister, opposition leader, Minister of Defense, and Prime Minister once more.
This powerful film follows several Israeli and Palestinian teachers over the course of an academic year. It asks: How do the Palestinian, Israeli Arab, and Israeli Jewish educational systems teach the history of their peoples? By observing teachers, the film shows us their exchanges and confrontations with students as they transmit the values of religion, politics, and nationalism in the classroom. In Teaching Ignorance, educators from all sides of the conflict debate their peoples’ official curriculum, wrestling with is restrictions. This film offers an intimate glimpse into the profound and long-lasting effect that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict transmits to the next generation.
This beautifully shot documentary offers a rare glimpse into the unique community of the African-Hebrew Israelites.
At “Fifi’s,” a small hair salon located in the heart of Haifa’s Arab community, director Iris Zaki installs a mini film set over the washing basin. While she shampoos their hair, Zaki speaks candidly with the salon’s Arab and Jewish clients, discussing their views on politics, history, and love. Within the space of this hair salon, the women of the neighborhood achieve a temporary freedom, examining their differences and friendships within a community that many consider a model of Israeli coexistence. What emerges from these conversations is an honest and nuanced portrait of contemporary Israel.
