Discoveries from Israel World Cinema

On a hot summer day, a woman weighed down by bags struggles to make her way home up a steep Jerusalem staircase.

Four young women spend a long weekend in Tel Aviv. Dorit is an outgoing swinger; Tamara is a depressed divorcée; Lior is the experimenting type; and Gili, just released from the army, is the innocent one. They move from a party to a pub and end up swimming naked in the Mediterranean.

Director Yigal Bursztyn’s made-for-TV road movie takes viewers on a contemporary journey in which he traces the gospel and teachings of Jewish philosopher, Maimonides (aka the Rambam). Burszstyn goes from the Spanish city of Cordoba to Fes in Morocco, then onwards to Egypt and finally, Israel. In the course of this physical, geographical journey, Bursztyn also does a deep dive into Maimonides’s 12th century canonical work, The Guide for the Perplexed, which he uses as a tool to interpret present-day events and the conflicts between faith and rationale, and between religion, culture, and gender.

On completing his training in a secret elite army unit, Eitan is taken out by mates from the unit to celebrate. During a night of drinking in Tel Aviv he learns things about the unit and about himself that shake his world. An encounter with Shahar, who lives the way Eitan never dared, gives him a chance for a new beginning. But when he tries to go with the change, he discovers the ultimate price of his previous choices.

At the peak of the Second Lebanon War, a young and promising Golani officer is tasked with leading three worn out soldiers back to Israel's borders with the body of a dead Hezbollah fighter. In their first war as soldiers, four young Israelis find themselves entangled in a surreal, incomprehensible and increasingly complex mission.

Dizengoff Center, the first shopping center in Israel, has become a phenomenon, an icon, a city within a city. “The Center” is more than a shrine for consumption or a shopping place, for many people it’s a place they call “a home”. The Center will discover the story and the history of Dizengoff Center, layer by layer, from the ground it was built on, to the top floor and the secrets this place withholds. The film will travel from the past to the present in order to try and find out what makes this place so special.

The Palestinian terror group Black September had hijacked the craft and separated passengers into groups of Jews and non-Jews. They declared that they would blow up the plane if Israel did not release hundreds of Palestinians serving prison terms for charges of terrorism.

Assi, a failing actor, returns from army reserve duty to his hometown in Southern Israel. While he dreams of becoming a successful theater actor in Tel Aviv, he teaches high-school drama acting classes by day, and acts in a small cabaret show in the local community center by night. An unexpected event makes him famous - as the public enemy number one. His new reality would force him to decide if he should lay low and conform, or use his theatrical skills to speak up about the corruption of society - as he juggles through the grand circus that is his life.

A hip-hop musical tells of the possible friendship between those domain owners who do not usually want to mix with each other but only compete with each other.

Psychological thriller of a young woman fleeing a murderer. This movie supposedly took five years to complete, was yanked from theaters after less than a week and, to some, is considered the worst Israeli movie ever made. It also became the focal point of Avida Livny's 2011 documentary Looking for Moshe Guez.

A successful author, Liz, searches for her daughter, Rachel, in the Sinai Desert. There she meets a Bedouin storyteller who relays the unusual love story of a Western tourist and the son of a Bedouin Sheik named Najim. Their relationship is torn apart when the American is exposed to a tribal ritual.

Modern machines and marble sculptures – documentation of the works in the port of Caesarea alongside the antiquities of Caesarea. Rehearsals of the orchestra of the United Kibbutz and the National Kibbutz, towards a concert for kibbutz workers. With locally made playgrounds, the kibbutzniks celebrate the 24th anniversary of Kibbutz Naan. About 3,000 people came to dine and participate in the 17th conference of the United Kibbutz in Givat Brenner, which opened with a musical performance, created by Benjamin Pintos. Besides discussions about the future of the kibbutz, in which Yitzhak Tabenkin, Zeev Tzur, and Israel Bar Yehuda participated, an exhibition of the United Kibbutz’s artists was being held. Hakibbutz Hameuchad – Sifriat Poalim Publishing Group Bookstore opened in Tel Aviv.

Leave your troubles outside! Life is difficult? Forget it! There are no troubles here! Here life is beautiful! 1930s Berlin. The days are gloomy but the nights are glamorous. A touching romantic connection is formed between Cliff, a young American author coming to the Berlin looking for inspiration for his novel, and Sally, a singer in the "Kit Kat Klub", all while the Nazis rise to power

Flora was born in the field, that's what she keeps telling everyone, that is. She is a waitress in a coffee shop that requires complex acrobatic skills. Flora cannot take it anymore. But she still hasn't lost her dramatic talent...

Muki, a reserve soldier serving in Lebanon just before the IDF's retreat,is trying to document his soon-to-come death.

An unprecedented, groundbreaking and voyeuristic look into military reserve life in Israel, this film was shot over a 5 year period in director and reserve soldier Yaniv Berman's life. A soldier in the Israeli army reserves, Alpha Company, Berman had unparalleled access and filmed the soldiers as they went about their military service day and night. Crossing over to the Palestinian border the camera captured remarkably every movement of the soldiers from the frenetic night-time house arrests to the quiet moments of self-reflection and despair.

Abba Ganuv is the heart warming story of single father "chiko" Ben David - a struggling sailor and his only son Ben.

A nature documentary shot entirely in Israel, Land of Genesis follows three mammals in their respective geographic habitats, as the seasons change. The wolves of the Golan Heights, the swamp cats of the Sea Of Galilee, and the ibexes of the desert are shown in the most beautiful way.

In the Holocaust, a gifted Jewish physicist named Rudolph is forced to build a teleporter for the Nazis. Rudolph keeps telling his Nazi supervisor Heinz that the machine doesn't work yet, but Heinz suspects Rudolph is hiding something. As Heinz is determined to squeeze the truth out by any means necessary, Rudolph soon has to face the dilemma of his life.

Quasimodo is still a baby when is taken in by Archdeacon Frollo and is turned into the bell-ringer.

Inspired by the unfortunate event of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin we are proud to bring you the dramatic feature of Haim Bouzaglo, Blank Bullet. Amos Snir, the head of the Shin Bet, has just 60 hours during which time he must prevent the next political assassination. The year is 2004 and the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has recently announced his intention for Israel to disengage from the Gaza Strip. In the wake of the announcement Sharon has received numerous death threats and Snir has been trying to cancel all Sharon's public appearances. However, Sharon is determined to appear at the Yad VaShem Museum for the Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony where he is to be the key speaker. The ceremony is due to take place in three days.

Salah, an Israeli-Arab enterpriser, strives to bring happiness for the children of the Arab sector in Israel by opening a new chain of candy stores. 'The Firm', an Israeli corporation headed by Klausner , that controls Israeli candy market, resent Salah on his former business move - taking control over the Israeli market of Turkish coffee. Klausner sees the new business initiative of Salah as a real threat, not only a business one but also a cultural and a political one, even a real challenge against Zionism itself. In a disguise of a Business struggle the story reveals moral dilemmas and a cultural struggle: the Arab businessman trying to integrate in Modern Israel against the dominant Zionist culture.

The unbelievable story of 22 year old Or, who secretly finances his sex change operation in Thailand by lying to his conservative parents and then returns home as a woman to face her new life, her family and the cost of living her dream

In 1950 Tel Aviv, a mother and her son receive a telegram with an invitation for a phone call from America. The prospects of the call spark hope for a better life in the mother's heart while her son is busy in his own fantasy world inspired from his life in Israel.

A young artist, Sofia - a photographer, wanders the streets at night with her camera. She's led by a mysterious graffiti artist through his written poetry on street walls and embarks upon a spiritual quest.

Ten year-old Noam is a latchkey child whose parents have temporarily separated. While waiting for his parents to reunite, Noam fulfills a parental role to his sisters, even as he tests his own boundaries in a dangerous children's game. The family’s suspended routine will be shaken once more, when Noam’s mother announces she has important news.

Four young kids who live in a village of military officers families, form a small gang. An old abandoned army base, located in the surrounding fields, turns into their camp. A war begins and most men are drafted. When the kids return to their camp they discover two soldiers who deserted their units, using their camp as a hideout...

Noam, 18, tries to survive the first day of his senior year under the unbearable attention he receives because of his diagnoses and the absence of his best friend, who is in a mental health institution.

Seven years after completing an Israeli Defense Course for female combat soldiers, director Hen Lasker returns to take a deeper look at the place where she first fell in love with a woman. Over the course of 66 days and nights, Lasker shoots a fly-on-the-wall documentary that allows unprecedented intimacy into the lives of the trainees and commanders of the Israeli army. The dichotomy of the innocence of these baby-faced trainees with the heavy burden of military service is a central theme of the film, illustrated in a scene where they discuss losing their virginity while waiting their turn to fire a machine gun. But it is the director’s relationship with Smadar, a breathtaking commander struggling to mask her gentle soul with a strict military persona, which makes the film truly enchanting. The intersection of love, duty, and personal growth thrive through to the film’s surprisingly moving finish.

A short story of two strangers meeting in a train journey, not knowing that something stranger is coming their way.

After receiving the devastating news of his father’s death in reserve duty, Alon is mysteriously transported to a surreal room where he is given a device that allows him to travel back in time. Driven by grief and regret, Alon tries repeatedly to change the past and prevent his father from leaving, only to discover that some things cannot be changed-but they can be faced differently. A moving story about sacrifice, memory, and the power of a final goodbye.

Over the span of fifty years, the Israeli military censorship secretly copied soldiers' personal letters, extracting their views on the most contentious issues facing Israeli society. The findings were presented to leaders in a top-secret report identified as "The Soldier's Opinion."

(Pilot for unaired series) Three strangers from the ends of Israeli society - two men and a woman - meet due to an extremist attack during a pride parade, and they have a revolutionary night of new sexual openness. The three become heroes of the hour, fall in love and riot over their right to marry as three.

“Death does not have enough time to kill everyone, so he chose the doctors as his messengers” (R. Nachman). The Breslov branch of Hasidic Judaism, to which the young couple Nati and Dana belong, identifies with this saying. However, when their daughter Tehila suffers from kidney failure, Dana is forced to embark on a journey to find a cure for her daughter, choosing between relying solely on her faith or betraying everything she believes in to listen to the voices of science, technology, and medicine, which are completely foreign to her world.

At the edge of a silent religious town, Avigail tiptoes between duty and desire. Days before her arranged marriage, she spends her nights in the echoing synagogue halls, sweeping dust beside Hodaya, a girl whose gaze lingers too long. In the glow of candlelight and quiet prayers, a forbidden intimacy blooms.

Returning to his native city just months before the new millennium, filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad captures the daily, idiosyncratic beats of Nazareth - a city both Christians and Muslims consider one of the most sacred in the world. Set against the background of the riots surrounding a square that both the municipality and the Muslim community lay claim to, Abu-Assad allows his story to unfold through the eyes of two cynical, funny and wise gas station attendants who have been working at the service station for decades. Their comments on the political and social conditions of their city paint both a tragic and subtle image of its inhabitants.

Thousands of PTSD victims live in Israel, which in recent years has been promoting an innovative treatment, namely psycho-active substances, known as psychedelic drugs. The film documents PTSD victims undergoing MDMA treatment at Beer Yaacov psychiatric hospital over several years. We return with them to the site of the trauma, to the life before and the long and complex road to leaving the bleeding wounds behind and returning to life.

In the dead of night, a strange woman arrives in a forgotten village in northern Georgia. Marina, an Israeli lawyer who has spent her life in denial about her past and identity, returns to Georgia to bring back to Israel an 11-year-old boy who was abandoned by his mother Nino as a baby. She meets Dato (Nino's brother) who has cared for the boy his entire life. Despite the hostility she arouses in him, he agrees to help her. The journey of Dato and Marina, two strangers, melts the walls of alienation and anger and changes their perspective on the world and themselves.

A romantic drama about Nurith - a young girl who tries to become a singer.

By the age of thirty he’d already become the most famous poet in the Jewish world. He spent very few years living in Tel Aviv, but he loved the city dearly. Some 100,000 people attended his funeral in 1934. “King of the Jews” is a portrait of the most beloved Jew of his day, Chaim Nachman Bialik. Combining special animation, a voice track by Chaim Topol, rare archival footage, long-forgotten photographs, poems by Bialik performed by Ninet and interviews with the foremost Bialik researchers and fans in Israel and around the world, this film retells the story of the little boy from the shtetl, who became King of the Jews.

Reut, a young prosecutor, takes over a sexual assault case, based on the sole testimony of Efrat - a rebellious yet fragile victim, who lives with her wild female partner. Reut is reluctant, but as the trial progresses and Efrat collapses, Reut learns the true nature of strength, love and sisterhood.

Shortly after World War II, over 1,000 paintings were found in a cellar in southern France. The paintings were created by a young Jewish woman named Charlotte Salomon. She painted her turbulent life story in a unique creation called: ‘Life? Or Theater? – A Tri-Colored Operetta.’ Death and the Maiden unravels the story behind her creation.

An anxious woman navigates the bustle of modern day Cairo to find her missing lover, a young adult strives for an authentic connection in a future society numbed by alcohol, and two Cold War-era lovers face the consequences of finding romance across political borders. A vibrant collection of short films - by turns gritty and dreamlike - exploring the changes and complexities of a Love Evolving.

This is the story of Nits, a restless bum and a hopeless cynic as he returns from his journey with an obsessive intention of bringing back his ex- girlfriend and their beloved dog. She however, throws him down the drain and so he finds himself, contrary to his anti- political and anti-everything attitude, stuck on top of a tree overlooking his beloved's apartment fearlessly leading an environmental battle against real estate sharks. For once in his life, he finds some comfort by staying put. He refuses to disembark even when the bulldozers charge in. Perhaps it's because he's had enough time on the road and finally understands there's nowhere to run to and perhaps because he can't remember what he's doing up that tree in the first place.

Matan, a soldier in the IDF, sets off for a week of patrolling in a remote base. Overwhelmed with homesickness, he becomes an easy target for the other soldiers who make it their business to make his life hell. However, it is not long before strange things begin to happen to all of them.

Joy Levine lives in an old apartment that, in complete contrast to her, is shabby and worn-out on the outside while well-kept and filled with joy on the inside. Her life changes when she auditions for a TV show called "Gotta Be Happy". To her astonishment, she is chosen, and her mission is to throw a surprise party for her parents on the upcoming show. However, there is a price to pay for all this: she has to let the viewers into her private inner world and share with them an event that has been overshadowing her family's life and hers for the past 22 years; an event that made a tight-knit bunch of friends shun her parents, Chaya and Yitzhak Levine.

A few Palestinian guerilla's break into an Israeli camp in the occupied territories. They kill a few Israeli soldiers before they are killed, apart from one who dies in the camp after being captured alive. The Israeli military dispatch an investigator to the camp to see if there was cold blooded murder (people at the camp had claimed he was shot while trying to escape). It turns out that the investigator dispatched is a friend of the camp commander - the rest of the plot is basically about the position of both of these characters as regards being honest or faithful to ones friends. There is unbearable tension, increased by the fact that they are both very strongly attracted to one of the female soldiers on the camp.

Shrouded in secrecy, Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, has been closed to the media since its founding in 1950. This must-see documentary steps behind the curtain to unveil stories from former agents who provide first-hand testimony of the personal and operational challenges they overcame working for one of the most enigmatic institutions in the world. Inside the Mossad is an intriguing and unsettling examination of Israel’s history through the eyes of those who shaped its past and continue to influence its future.

Morad - a teenager from an Arab village in the north of Israel disconnects himself from humans following a violent attack that he experienced. As a last resort before hospitalization in a Mental Institution, he is taken by his devoted father to be treated with Dolphins in Eilat. Morad starts speaking again after months of silence, but he erases his past and refuses to go home to his awaiting mother. This documentary about the devastating havoc that human violence can wreak upon the human soul, and about the healing powers of nature and of love, was filmed over the course of the past four years.

2020. Corona era. A journalist with an opinion column who receives hateful messages and threats on his cell phone tries in vain to reach his autistic son who lives in a hostel. His daughter went to protest in Balfour and is not answering the phone. He and his wife go to look for her at the demonstration and try to repair their relationship.

A funny comedy about a battle for a chairmanship of condo association. AKA Condo Mishmash

Gershon (Dubi Gal) is a mechanic who wants to go out with his mistress (Elana Shoshan) to a hotel in Eilat for holiday. To go on vacation is lying to his wife and says he had to come up for duty in the Golan Heights. His wife believe the deception and taking the opportunity to go out with her ​​lover to the same hotel in Eilat.

This film documentary uses the 1967 Six-Day War and its immediate aftermath as its basis. The material primarily presents Israeli sources and perspectives.

The Road to Jenin is a 2003 documentary directed by Pierre Rehov, a French-Algerian film director of Jewish descent, whose documentaries mostly deal with the Middle East conflict. The Road to Jenin was produced to counter the Palestinian narrative in relation to the Battle of Jenin, a clash between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants in April 2002 which drew Palestinian accounts of a "Jenin Massacre" (Arabic: مجزرة جنين‎‎). This film was also a response to Mohammed Bakri's film entitled Jenin, Jenin.

A few days after October 7, the players of the Kfar Aza soccer team who survived the terrible day decided they will survive only by rebuilding their team and play soccer.

Rivka tries to have a calm Friday dinner Kiddush with her daughter, Miri, who is slowly moving away from the family’s religious traditions. All goes well until Rivka snaps and has to understand how to keep Miri close to her.

When high school ends and adulthood begins, Benjamin and Joshua Israel, two identical twins of Jewish origin, start feeling burdened and without a future. Being in your twenties and having a sassy attitude is not enough if you have an intellectual disability and the world makes it hard for you to fit in. Joshua would like to have sex for the first time, while Benjamin chases the utopia of love. Although they clash repeatedly, the two brothers share an unbreakable bond. They will soon learn that growing up also means giving the other space without casting a shadow.

It's only a half hour drive from Bnei-Brak, a closed Orthodox city, to Tel Aviv's shore. But for the women going there it's light years away. "The Kosher Beach" is a gated and secluded 100 meter-long strip of beach with dedicated days for women and men to bathe separately. Only a wooden fence separates between the freedom of the gay beach and them. The "Brave Bunch," a secret female orthodox sisterhood, arrive to what is a source of quiet sanity for them, and they consider it a safe haven away from social and family problems: their own private and free heaven. Here they can be themselves, take a deep ocean breath and open their hearts to the sea, until the day the Rabbis try to close the beach. What will the girls do? Will they give in or fight?

Following the October 7th massacre and allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the kidnappings, the agency made headlines around the world. Israel enacted legislation to suspend cooperation with UNRWA, despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The film presents a historical examination of UNRWA’s role—a temporary agency, initially mandated to resolve the refugee crisis following the 1948 war, which has never ceased its operations and, after 75 years, continues to perpetuate generations of refugees

Eldad is about to go abroad, but changes his mind at the last minute. Instead of going home to Jerusalem, he disguises himself and takes a cheap hotel room in Tel Aviv. There he meets the receptionist Judy who he makes believe he'll marry so she can go to American with him and get a working visa there. In another disguise he is mistaken for a deaf-mute Arab and joins a group of them both at their Israeli construction site and back in their village.