Discoveries from Israel World Cinema

An Israeli family (father and son) is forced to take refuge in the underground shelter upon realizing that Israel is under missile attack.

When thirteen year old Aharon,is selected for the great honor of carrying the big Torah book around the neighborhood in 'Simchat Torah' celebrations, he feels life is finally about to change for the better. But his selection causes age-old tensions between his parents to surface, and the symbolic happy ritual becomes a life-threatening struggle.

A family is waiting for Shuli's fiancé to come and propose to her. But instead of him they're getting a very different guest.

Through a mosaic of stories intertwined and created a current picture of the sad social and economic situation in Israel. Mother forced into prostitution to support her son; Blind man must survive after losing his dog; Son is looking for his rocker father's; Apartment owner complicates his life while entering the underworld...

After 1,426 years of following orders, Ari receives an order that makes him question his superiors and fear for his life.

“Everyone here is an artist, there is no problem with art movements” – this is the approach in the painting classes for adults and children at Kibbutz Naan. Footage from the Mishkan La’Omanut established in Ein Harod, from the graduation ceremony of the IDF officers’ course, a comedic ballet show inspired by Swan Lake in Kibbutz Naan, documentation of the construction of the new kibbutz institutions, photos of the ship “Palmach”, and the inauguration ceremony of the monument in memory of the fighters of the Harel Brigade in 1951.

A look inside the work of Breaking the Silence, an organization of former IDF combat soldiers who collect and publish testimonies of soldiers who served in the occupied territories. For six months, director Silvina Landsmann, camera in hand, accompanied the staff of the organization. The many hours of footage have been refined into a film that dives into the heart of Breaking the Silence’s work: guided tours of Hebron and the surrounding area, public lectures and house meetings, internal staff meetings and media strategy. All the while the organization is forced to justify its very existence, both internally and to the broader public, and to justify its place in the political debate. The Good Soldier raises questions about Israel’s dynamic mainstream and the challenges of confronting it.

A criminal from south Tel-Aviv is released from prison to a new reality, his girlfriend left him for his mafia's boss, and his friends think he's an informer.

Yonatan and Dani are transferred to a parallel dimension, "Funtartica", where things are not as they seem.

A Tel Avivian man from the left wing camp uses the peace support rallies as an alibi to cover for his affair with a right-wing camp woman. Rabin’s murder disrupts his plans.

The first 20 years of the film-maker's life he grew up in two places: in Jerusalem, and in an ashram in India, a thing he had to keep a secret. in the ashram it wae expected of him to devote his entire being to his guru. Thus, in his words, he could finally define the purpose of his life, understand the "truth" of the meaning of life and be enlightened 20 years later (quite a few in psychological therapy), the director sets out on a quest to find out what was hidden in his life in India, why his life in the Ashram still affects him even when he has not visited in years, And whether he grew up in a cult.

At Jabotinsky Hostel in Tel Aviv, 23 autistic adults live together. Through Adi’s camera, a window opens onto a world of connection, difference, friendship, and hope.

An adaptation of Aaron Appelfeld's novel 'Night after Night'. In the sixties, a group of Holocaust survivors live together in a hostel in Jerusalem and struggle to revive the Yiddish Language .

Are we destined to make the same mistakes in life? Is my teacher attracted to me? Is this more than just a one-night stand? Will my family forgive me? What does the future hold? For these lost souls around the world questioning their paths in life, there are a multitude of answers.

Robert Hirsch impresses as he takes on 11 different roles in Alex Joffé's comedy about the six sons of a recently deceased Jewish Casanova. To receive their inheritance, the sons must convene in Israel and recite a Kaddish (memorial prayer) for their dad. But planning the gathering is no easy feat. The film's title is based on the nonobservant son's futile attempts to contact his siblings on the one day when working is forbidden by Jewish law.

Social isolation affects millions of people, even Mars-bound astronauts. A savvy NASA psychologist is tasked with protecting these daring explorers.

Ovadia Rachmim is the strongest and most violent doorman of Tel Aviv night clubs. He and his wife Rachel are trying to get pregnant for 5 years. A small time gangster named Shalom, offers Ovadia a job, to be a debts collector, offering him a lot of money. Ovadia sees this as great opportunity to start an expensive private treatment for his wife. As soon as Rachel gets pregnant, he decides to stop working for Shalom. Shalom wants him for the most important mission. The mission in which Ovadia has to betray all his best friends. Now it's the time to pay the price of becoming a father.

A look into the underground world of trafficking human body parts.

Omer and Bar are deliriously in love and can’t wait to start a family. On their first visit to the sperm bank, they are filled with hope and excitement for their future together. When one visit turns into five, however, emotions start to run high and things become tense. When Omer’s ex, Yoni, enters the picture as a potential sperm donor, more questions arise as the pair determine the lengths they will go to attain motherhood.

In a small quiet town, a documentary crew follows two teenage amateur detectives as they investigate local mysteries around their neighborhood. But when the pair unexpectedly discover a dead body hidden near a path, the investigation slowly begins to shift into something darker and more personal. As the case unfolds, the line between performance and reality starts to blur.

Tells the story of two families, one Jewish and the other Palestinian, who both lost children during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, known to Palestinians as the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, the Naqba, or "Catastrophe."

When Yaki becomes aware of Bella’s true identity — a curly plumed, extremely valuable dove and his sole inheritance — it’s already too late. Yaki embarks with Bilal, his childhood friend, and their wives on a road trip across Israel and Palestine to bring Bella back. Along the way, they navigate through checkpoints, ruin a wedding, steal the newlyweds’ car, participate in a family reconciliation ceremony, and revive the unconscious dove.... All in order to make it on time to a dove beauty pageant in Jerusalem.

A masseur has very capable "electrical" hands for the women who come to him. He begins to take a special interest in three of his clients to whom he offers treatment in a more intimate setting, his mother in-law's apartment. A series of misunderstandings, intrigues and some wrong timings lead him to be falsely accused of rape.

Not everyone is born to be a soldier. Not even in Israel, where universal conscription is the tradition. This movie is about a Sad Sack in the Israeli army, incompetent to complete training and yet incompetent to extricate himself.

Two extraordinary love stories unfold 500 years apart. As modern lovers struggle against those who seek to separate them, a Christian soldier pursues a perilous romance with a young Jewish girl in the shadows of the Spanish Inquisition.

he film tells the story of two brothers from a poor neighbourhood in Tel Aviv where almost all the residents are of Iraqi descent. Avi lives with his domineering and manipulative grandmother. The return of Roni, Avi's elder brother from Europe, awakens old demons as Roni, a compulsive gambler, stakes all on the football games of Avi's beloved team, Bnei Yehuda. Avi has to choose whether to remain pure and risk losing everything, or sully his hands in order to save his world. A charming and at times hilarious look at the Mizrahi subculture of soccer-worship.

Dorothy and Toto go on an adventure trip to the magic potion. Already at the beginning they are joined by Kash Kash - the straw scarecrow who wants more than anything for the magician to put some sense into his head, Pah Pah - the tin man whose heart is lost and dreams that the magician will give him a new heart so that he can feel again. The third entrant is a cowardly lion who yearns for the magician to give him courage. It seems that nothing will stop the gang. Neither the distance nor the dangers lurking on their way. Together they will overcome the obstacles such as an encounter with the three witches - Apricots and other encounters with a host of strange creatures.

A concerned citizen encounters a political writing on a public bus stop and decides to call city services. When they fail to respond he decides to take the law into his own hands.

In Tel Aviv, Yoav receives a visit from Delphine, the girlfriend of Emile, his boyfriend from Paris. Their day together in the city confronts their mutual expectations in the face of a complex Israeli society.

1973. Six years after returning from the Six Day War with a battle shock, Menashe realizes he will never be the man he used to be before the war. He can't communicate with his surroundings, and spends his days driving away in his red track for long hours. The young family he created collapses due to his lack of communication with his wife, Daphna, and their little son, Shlomi. At a time when PSTD is still not recognized as a medical condition, Daphna, his wife, struggles to get help from the military in order to maintain her husband's last bits of sanity, while 10 year-old Shlomi tries to understand what happened to his father and why he is different. When the Yom Kippur War breaks out, and Menashe is sent again to the battle field, the small family crumbles to the dust.

Negev Desert, Israel, 1987. Bashir Abu Rabi'a works as a pyrotechnics and special effects assistant on the film Rambo III, starring Sylvester Stallone, a shoot that will have far-reaching consequences for the local Bedouin population.

A pregnant woman and her husband leave Tel Aviv and begin house hunting in Haifa, the husband's hometown, revealing social reality through the various properties and human relationships that the couple encounter.

The film deals with the rare connection between two communities that, without the capricious fate that dictates the Israeli agenda, might never have met. It is an encounter and connection that Israeli society has not yet experienced. It is a film about people who, instead of losing hope, splitting up, separating, and dying as a community, chose to smooth over differences and seek common ground rather than division. It is a record of a 10-year journey. A journey of connection between people.

The film follows three renowned vocal coaches and their students during private lessons. As the pupils prepare for their upcoming final evaluations, perfect technique is expected to produce impeccable results. Listening primarily to their voices, we feel intensity and intimacy arise between teachers and students – an atmosphere in which transcendence is being built.

In the second part, Perestroika, Prior, Joe, Louis, Harper, and Roy continue to navigate love, loss, and loneliness in their attempts to pick up the pieces and find comfort in a chaotic world. Their stories quickly intertwine, as unlikely relationships emerge and develop.

A guy meets a lost girl in the streets and offers to help her, but when she leaves the streets, she meets her boyfriend whom she abandoned.

The royal family is in conflict and at its center - a rejected, hurt and injured child who in his adulthood becomes a cruel dictator, a malignant disease that mercilessly brutalizes those who brutalized him. An eloquent and touching murderous clown who takes us on a spectacular journey of self-destruction. The damaged villain who steps on corpses on his way to the throne - is actually a mirror of human society, for all its flaws, a warning light for all of us, because why stop at the family when you can eliminate the country?

Three stories set among the Bedouin of Jahalin in the hills of the Judean desert. On an almost deserted highway, two Israeli truckers strike a Bedouin lad accidentally. Before they can flee, the boy's people appear and circle the truckers. Retribution? In a tent, elders judge a woman seeking divorce; she wants to leave with her young daughters. They deny the suit. That night she gathers her girls and runs. Her husband pursues her. The Bedouin maid of a married Israeli hot-house farmer is discovered in adultery; with her life in danger, she seeks protection from her lover. He turns her away and involves a Bedouin farmhand in disposing of her. What tribal justice awaits?

Tal is an agent full of ambition, Ori is an insecure singer. To find out who they are, they will have to find each other, overcome the differences between them and let love and music do the rest.

This particular summer, at an age that falls between childhood and young adulthood, while their grandparents are taking their afternoon nap, Keren and Noam play games in the attic ("Boydem" in Yiddish) that introduces them to a new level of intimacy.

An excessively ambitious police investigator pursues a tip that a singer with underworld ties is responsible for a recent robbery/homicide, becoming obsessed with the case and the suspect's wife.

Sigal, a cynical high school teacher, bets that she can make the worst senior student pass an upcoming exam. When a personal connection is formed, Sigal begins to question her initial motives.

This is a story that is less a developed tale than a thumbnail sketch about imaginary events on a kibbutz in Palestine. Set in the period just before Israel gained its status as an independent nation, the drama shows the occupants of the kibbutz engaged in typical hard work. They have to find a source of water, construct their buildings, and do all the chores needed to stay alive, and these pressures as well as the times in which they live cause tensions to rise. The mix of kibbutzim covers a wide range of personality types, from the deeply religious to the ingrained soldier.

Five characters in three interwoven stories confront childhood traumas in pursuit of self-redemption. They all experience a moment of grace; perhaps a turning point in each of their lives, that until now has been a constant struggle to survive. Yossi and Chris fight for love. Anna and Asaf fight for financial survival, and Elias, a Christian Palestinian who was forced to collaborate with "Shin Bet”, fights for life

Eviah, a young and timid kid on the brink of puberty and his best friend sneak into the Black slide, the most terrifying ride in Aqua Fun. There Eviah will gain insight to prepare him for events about to unfold at home. Eviah is about to confront more than just a scary slide.

Israeli director Natalie Assouline chronicles the lives of women, mostly young mothers, in prison for involvement in failed suicide attacks/terrorists attacks in Israel. Filmed over two years, this portrait strives to unearth the motivations behind their crimes. With the women's heads and feelings firmly covered, the film reveals no answers, just the heart-breaking tension between humanity and ideology.

The life of Avihao (Morris Cohen), a television personality with an excessively big mouth, is getting more and more complicated: his mother Sarah (Levna Finkelstein) stopped talking, fell into complete silence and his father does not understand why. Aviv (Oshari Cohen), his beloved former student, unexpectedly becomes the leading candidate in the prime ministerial elections even though no one knows what he has to say. He doesn't give interviews, doesn't talk, doesn't give speeches - he just stays silent all the way to victory, a silence that challenges Avihao to the point of risking his career and his family.

As long as Abraham Sutskever lived, he wouldn't let a film about his life be made. Today, eight years after his passing, Black Honey tells the incredible story of the greatest Yiddish poet of modern times. Sutskever led the Paper Brigade underground movement that saved Jewish manuscripts from the Nazis, survived WWII due to Stalin sending him a private rescue plane, testified in the Nuremberg Trials, and immigrated to Israel in 1947 where he led Yiddish culture, while writing in astonishing vitality.

When a new troupe leader joins the 'Bnai Akiva' boy scouts movement, Yotam's world trembles. He is forced to cope with his sexual orientation and the difficulties he faces with family and religion, and is torn between his love of religion that forbids homosexuality and his mother who tries to 'cure' him.

Ravit spends all of her time spreading her love wherever it is needed. During the day she cooks for hundreds of Tel Aviv's homeless. In the evenings she hugs abandoned babies in the birthing ward. Without human touch and the warmth of a hug, the abandoned babies won't develop properly and can even die. Ravit always wanted children of her own, but life dictated otherwise. As she turns 50, she decides that she too wants to be on love's receiving end, but that may prove to be a lot harder to find.

Directed by Zeev Havatzelet.

A European immigrant (Mike Burstyn) offers violin lessons to talented but impoverished children.

Ecstasy, which started out as a psychotherapeutic drug, acquired the reputation of a happiness pill and thus became one of the most consumed recreational drugs today. Wandering through X culture exposes some surprising links between the subculture of parties, wild sex, consumerism and religion. By pointing the camera on Israel 2003 – war, religious fundamentalism, consumerism and drugs - the film depicts a world in which reality and hallucination are constantly recreating each other in an inseparable and crazy path.

A married couple - Sasson and Yona - decide to open a new page in their life by opening a little restaurant.

A modern adaptation of the biblical story of Jephthah’s daughter, whom her father, the judge Jephthah the Gileadite, sacrificed as a burnt offering. The film tells the story of an Ethiopian family in the early 1980s walking through the desert to Sudan on their way to the Promised Land. The journey is filled with hardship, and the family depends on the father to lead them. When he is attacked by robbers, his daughter is forced to perform a noble act.

A beautiful drama about love, friendship and the power of art to transform. Seeking redemption for a mysterious past and a dark secret, musician Yosef Tawila is on a quest to gather the members of his troupe, which disbanded for twenty years.