Discoveries from Israel World Cinema

A man collects mutant animals to feed a bird hiding under his bed. Until he gets himself involved in the process. Film Director Uri Peleg´s thesis/graduation film.

This film provides a retrospective of 24 hours at the Nova festival in Re'im through the lens of young individuals who endured the horror.

"Moving" tells the story of Peacey and Nadav, two movers who struggle to make a living under their oppressive boss in the moving company. The two make a rash decision to steal the company's truck with all it's content and sell it, but when their boss discovers the plot conspired under his very nose, a brutal clash between them becomes inevitable.

The closing minutes of an anti-Semitic encounter between two women. One is about fifty years old and the other is in her early twenties. What appears to be a promise of perfect harmony brings the connection to its destruction.

Angelina-Duah Fares, a Druze woman, attempts to enter the Israeli fashion world, but traditions clash with her efforts to choose her way in life.

Kobi, a 16-year-old, is forced under his mother’s instructions to solely take care of his grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. Rather, they live in a southern Israeli town, bordering the Gaza strip, which is constantly being bombarded. The tension, anxiety and the heavy responsibility, that have suddenly been imposed on him change, throughout the day, his demeaning and harsh attitude towards his mother, who works in as a cleaning lady, to earn their living.

Interviews with band members, music from the band and clips detailing their lives in Tel Aviv and their ultimate move away from Israel to London, where they hoped to make a name for themselves. The band split up while in London.

The Campaign dives into how this is not just a war of rockets and gunfire, but one of narratives: a global effort to shape public perception around Gaza, Israel, the West, and the Jewish people. It’s a war fought through propaganda, disinformation, and emotional manipulation, amplified by both mainstream and social media.

David is a lonely 12-year-old boy whose drunken father fails to see him heading down the path of juvenile delinquency in this teen drama. David’s only friends are a disabled girl from his class and his faithful dog. He is pressured by teens who want him to be a lookout while they “raid” a local drugstore.

Mordechai walks around the prison yard, carefully examining pieces of paper. Contrasting the harsh environment and prisoner Chahmi, Mordechai's perceptive behavior changes Chahmi and may ultimately teach him what freedom truly means.

Ema and Gregori come from Ukraine. They were very excited about immigrating to Israel. New country, new opportunities. They cross paths with a wealthy ageing middle-class Israeli couple whose relationship is in crisis.

Liron (29) and Liel (27) are inseparable. When Liel's mental health lapses, Liron starts documenting her sister's struggle. A drunk night out and hospitalization in psychiatric wards put their relationship to the test and uncovers the depth of the pain they carry. In an intimate and intrusive documentation, we are allowed a glimpse into an invisible person dealing with trauma.

Ema and Gregori come from Ukraine. They were very excited about immigrating to Israel. New country, new opportunities. They cross paths with a wealthy ageing middle-class Israeli couple whose relationship is in crisis.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a language war raged in Palestine. The contenders: Yiddish, Russian, French, German, English, and Hebrew, a language barely spoken for 2000 years. This feature film tells the dramatic life story of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda who championed the cause of modern Hebrew.

The life of some homeless teenagers in Tel-Aviv, many of them homosexuals. Seventeen-year-old Maggie decides to leave her father and rural life behind and make her way to Tel Aviv. She ends up in a commune, living with Yuval, Ellie, and Daniel – three young queer men from the furthest fringes of Tel Aviv’s nightlife scene. The tensions between the three may be palpable but that does not stop the flatshare from being a home to all its residents – whether permanent or transient.

A Friday Family Dinner with Tammy's new Boyfriend that goes very wrong.

Pierre Dulaine, an internationally renowned ballroom dancer, is starting to fulfill his life long dream - to take his program Dancing Classrooms to Jaffa, where he was born. He is teaching 10-year-old Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Jewish children to dance together. Pierre recognizes that the future is built by children. By breaking the syndrome of hatred, he will change their lives, and hopefully, the community around them.

For more than twenty years, the Israeli Kneller family's "Town Lyne" motel in the US hosted various, guests. Over time, the family's lives came to resemble the chaotic, colorful world that existed in its rooms.

The film follows Oded from Israel, Munqeth from Jordan, and Yusuf from Palestine with each of them living very different lives. Together they come up with a high-profile event to capture people’s attention to the environmental catastrophe happening in their own backyards. They will put together a group of international swimmers to do something that has never been done: to swim across the Dead Sea, from Jordan to Israel. The film follows this extraordinary and dangerous action, hoping to achieve media exposure to drive the region’s countries to act. However, the friendship between the trio is tricky, and the political realities and personal baggage that each one must deal with are explored. The only chance for saving the Sea lies in connecting people, bridging their divisions for the greater good. The trio are willing to take the risks because they understand their steps of trust are the only way to create change. One swim at a time.

An apartment building in a small village, live human characters and funny puppets. The building moves a new family with their daughter Billie who love to discover the magical corners common building and especially the guava tree. However, there are those who are less like the guava tree, whose fruits fall directly in the territory and is rich mayor who decides to uproot the tree.

A stand up special by Yonatan barak

With the aid of four actors in a rehearsal room, filmmaker Nur Fibak lays open the police investigation and court proceedings against the man who had molested her, revisiting the case as it unfolded from the moment she decided to seek justice. The film opens a unique window into the workings of the Israeli criminal justice system in sexual offense cases. Behind closed doors, during the cross-examination, everything is permitted, including asking invasive questions, doubting the woman on the witness stand, and forcing her—that same traumatized child, now grown up—to experience a second kind of abuse.

Family Affairs is an Israeli documentary film directed by Gil Golan, which was released in 2013. The film tells the story of Gil, a treacherous man who came from a family where infidelity has always been an integral part of the relationship. Gil embarks on a documentary journey into the depths of family history on the question of whether it is possible to break the pattern that is passed down from generation to generation.

Through stories, Memorial Day ceremonies and his letters, Ami was always a present absence for his nephew Shaked, the film's director. Following his grandmother's declining health, Shaked applies to the Defence Ministry for nursing care. His claim is rejected. Their refusal leaves him confused. Fifty years after Ami's death, a shocking truth is unveiled.

Between the mountains of Edom and the Red Sea, the younger and older workers of the United Kibbutz Brigade positioned themselves in order to build and settle the city of Eilat. Under the leadership of Beni Marshak, the organization’s secretaries are exploring the possibility of establishing permanent structures while supervising British activities in the area. Meanwhile, in the brigade camp, meals are being prepared and clothes are being thoroughly washed by the dedicated female brigade members. The brigade members take on tasks for the preparation of the settlement, in carpentry, fishing, planting gardens and orchards, and in the construction work of a Solel Boneh. The 12th grade students from the Kibbutzim come to be impressed by the pioneering work in the city.

After a decade of estrangement, Marcelo receives a surprising message from his sister, who lives in Argentina: she is sending their blind father and their sister with special needs to Israel to stay for an indefinite period. The unexpected family reunion disrupts his daily routine and brings back memories, emotions, and old wounds. In the midst of this new and unplanned reality, Marcelo is forced to confront an unresolved past and responsibilities he did not choose, and embarks on a journey centered on family, belonging, and the ability to love even when everything is complicated.

Chani "from the TV" has to travel across the galaxy and pick up personality traits that will help her save the "Year 2000" girl from the evil hands of Professor Samael and the Y2K Bug, who plot to prevent the arrival of the new millennium.

Filmed & Directed by Rami Katzav. Shot on 16mm Kodak film& Bolex camera.

In 1999, after a 23-year absence, gifted musician Ahuva Ozeri is planning a comeback. She's recording a new album - The Bells are Ringing. Ahuva, considered the queen of the Middle Eastern music, sits at home and makes a living as a cook at a meat restaurant. She hopes to break out again with the new album. But at the end of the recording, she is diagnosed with throat cancer and undergoes surgery where her vocal cords are cut. She loses her voice forever, but the album is very successful. It managed to cross audiences and becomes a consensus. This film is based on rare never before-seen materials, sketching her life's course.

With the help of a prominent Israeli journalist, Precious Life chronicles the struggle of an Israeli pediatrician and a Palestinian mother to get treatment for her baby, who suffers from an incurable genetic disease. Each must face their most profound biases as they inch towards a possible friendship in an impossible reality.

At age 67, after reaching the top of the illustration world in Israel and beyond, Michel Kichka was forced to give up his place at the Bezalel Academy in favor of the younger generation. As a cartoonist, he documented the Zionist dream and its upending: a new and enthusiastic Zionist who came from Belgium to help in the Yom Kippur War turned prophet of doom. The evolution of his cartoons reflects a general deterioration of values ​​across Israeli society, politics, and the memory of the Holocaust. With his talent, he turned into a “rough Jerusalemite” with a Belgian accent who is not afraid to tell us the truth to our faces. To heal himself from the burden of the second generation, Kichka created a graphic novel revealing everything about his family and his father’s silence that led to a family tragedy. This work about the second generation was turned into an animated French feature film that tries to remind the younger generation of the Holocaust.

Martha is a foreign worker employed as a caretaker of sick old woman who refuses to die. Martha's only moments of freedom come when she delves into her imaginary world.

A chance encounter between Anna Yam, a photographer, to Eileen Nir, a homeless woman nicknamed 'Peraẖ', enlightens a mutual curiosity, and leads them both to go on an unconventional journey in the dark backyard of Tel Aviv.

On a cold night, a man entered the pen he owned and shot himself. During the commotion, three goats escaped the pen. That morning, Sabina Stein leaves the government office to the field, and together with Alik, an office clerk, they are required to find the three goats that went rogue.

A drama about a few young men who are setting up the band to win respect not just for themselves but also for their country.

It is Thursday and another war is hitting the northern part of Israel hard. Three brothers reunite in their childhood kibbutz to bury their father. Two days later the youngest has to go to war, and while he seeks guidance from his older siblings who have both experienced the battlefield, the homecoming soon spins out of control.

Assi, a screenwriter and poet, is stuck in his personal life. He is full of doubt, disturbing thoughts, and existential restlessness. He is sentenced to community service due to a drunken-driving motorcycle accident in which he was involved. For his community service, he is sent to work with juvenile delinquents in Beersheba - the desert city in southern Israel - who are under house arrest and must attend sessions with Assi in the neighborhood shelter as a condition for their parole. Their extreme personalities, their riotous energy, and their charm awaken in him curiosity and attraction; together, they break through the boundaries of the rehabilitative framework.

In a port far from Iran, a young worker is in love with a girl.

This Documentary directed by Naftaly Gliksberg follows the former Prime Minister and President of Israel, focusing in his politics and private life.

In this Israeli comedy, the baker has half a winning lottery ticket, and his deceased partner has the other. In order to benefit from winning, somebody needs to put the two together. The baker searches stealthily for the missing half, so do the dead partner's son-in-law and a group of thieves who hear of this potential windfall. There is some slapstick as this group chases one or another of its member through the streets and shops of Tel-Aviv

The film follows the less-known aspects of the lives of four “web stars” – Israeli YouTubers: Moti Taka, one of the busiest singers in Israel today, who visits Ethiopia for the first time with his mother Dalia. Suzi Boum, aka Lior Israelov, a successful, well-known drag queen, who was born and raised in a religious family in southern Tel Aviv. Chen Halfon, a 25-year old mother of three, who is one of the few orthodox YouTubers in Israel. Hannah Ziad, an Arab YouTuber with about half a million followers, who reveals a complex family story about her father’s death.

Claudio and Hilla yearn for their first grandchild. Nitai, their son, begins a surrogacy process with his husband in Canada. The family has to bridge intergenerational gaps.

For their sixth anniversary, Dekel sweeps Neri into a journey through their memories with the help of a new drug which makes you re-experience memories. This trip reaches a breaking point when they go back to a joint sexual encounter which floods Neri with feelings he tried to suppress.

Young Benny is very lonely and has only one dream - to meet his hero Oded Katash, the basketball player.

For the first time, the world largest Ultra-Orthodox seminary opens its doors to a camera crew.The Ponevezh Yeshiva, founded in 1943, was the first Yeshiva to be established in Israel. Among the constant prayer and scholarly study of 1,200 students, stand fragile confused young men. The filmmaker, former student of the Yeshiva, captures daily authentic moments of hopes as well as sadness and loneliness in a place where an individual can be swept away by the massive crowd.

A story of love, loss and redemption set on a train in 1943.

After unexpectedly losing her husband, Yehudit has no choice but to start over. In the process, she finds that abrupt and painful detours can lead to bright roads.

A film produced by the Hasbarah Center in collaboration with Mekorot, Israel’s national water company. Two million work days, of engineers, contractors and of course laborers, allowed the completion of the first part of Israel’s National Water Carrier, an ambitious aquaduct carrying water from the sea of Galilee to population centers and arid regions. The film outlines challenges that faces the builders of the aqueduct: the paving of canals, the creation of a dramatic siphon, allowing the water to cross the Canyon of Nahal Ammoud, the creation of a reservoir at Nahal Tzalmon, etc.

Commission by Lev Brodinsky is a touching portrayal of the life of a Jewish family (mother, father, son, and a WWII veteran grandfather) who immigrated from Russia in the early 90s. Settled in Israel, the Gutman family lives in a trailer park specially built by the state for migrants. However, the park is about to be demolished, with several trailers already evacuated, and the family needs new housing. To pass the repatriation interview, they need to present themselves in the best light before the relevant commission. In just four minutes, the director manages to create expressive characters and convey their fears and hopes for a new life with humor and a deep love for his characters.

After two intifadas and the construction of the Israeli wall, the only Palestinian zoo is still there and is now seeking for international recognition and to replace their lost giraffes.

Ruth, a housewife in a suburb of Jerusalem, divided into two parts, appears as pliable as Play-Doh. While she should be taking care of her ten-year-old daughter and the household, her routine is falling apart and she is falling further into depression. Israel is just before the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967. The historical events echo in the lives of the characters only from a great distance. The female characters within the family wage a more important battle for their own identity. The director intentionally chose the parallel stories of three female protagonists: ten-year-old Michal who is just starting to acknowledge her sexuality, a single university student and Ruth, a trapped housewife.

Daniel Gad steps for the first time into the role of director and creator, carrying a big question and a song in his heart, as he embarks on a personal journey alongside his father, a former player and club icon. Two adjacent neighborhoods in the city of Rehovot: Sha'arayim, founded in 1911 by immigrants from the Hidan region in Yemen, and Marmorek, established by immigrants from the Sharab region. Each has its own football team, founded in the late 1940s, with rich traditions and a long-standing rivalry so deep that even in the cemetery, a wall separates the communities. Maccabi Sha'arayim and Hapoel Marmorek – the Rehovot derby. Now, a new stadium is being built in the city. Will this dream unite them, or tear them apart forever?

"I believe that every artist needs to be reborn", declares Marcel Janco, one of the co-founders of the Dada movement. Janco, 82 during filming, tells in this film about his various periods as an artist: from the first sketches on a school notebook, to the foundation of the Dada in Zurich, ending with foundation of the artists' village Ein Hod in Israel

"Soap Opera of a Frozen Filmmaker" project is a series of seven episodes of cinematic diaries. It is the unique point of view of an anonymous artist whose entire essence of existence is to make films, but he is rejected on every front time after time. During the process he ponders his life as an artist, the nature of material society and life in general, in which his owm life eventually become a tragedy.