Discoveries from Israel World Cinema

In this documentary the viewer meets eighteen-year-old Chamoetal Zeidler, who starts her two years of mandatory military service in the Spokesperson’s Unit of the Israeli Army (IDF). With an Israeli father and a Dutch mother, growing up in Israel and in the Netherlands, going to the army wasn’t the obvious choice for Chamoetal. In the course of the film we learn how Chamoetal experiences her time in the army and how she transforms from a teenager into a grown-up soldier, who must justify all IDF actions.

Ilit, a girl from a good family, falls under the spell of her rebellious classmate, Ronit. Ronit leads her into trouble with the law and into relationships with three different men—until one morning, Ilit realizes that she is completely alone in the world.

Mali Azulai (38), a bus inspector in Ashkelon, is on the verge of losing her job after a violent altercation with a teenage passenger. When she returns to an empty bus to retrieve the body camera she left behind, she finds an abandoned baby on the floor and decides to take him home. Her brother Shimon (32), a prison guard struggling through a marital crisis, joins her, and the two shut themselves away with the child. His presence stirs the siblings’ shared wound of abandonment, as long-buried secrets come to light. When the baby falls ill and a hospital visit becomes unavoidable, Mali is forced to choose, hold on or let go and face the cost.

Semyon, an immigrant from Odessa (Ukraine), has found himself on the streets of Jerusalem. Once, he came to Israel in search of a new life and a future for his daughter, but he lost everything: his home, his family, and her trust. Now, the only witness to his existence is a young cameraman making a documentary film. Against the backdrop of ancient monastery walls and a bustling city park, Semyon attempts the one thing he has feared most — to speak to his daughter again. But can a single phone call undo years of silence?

have fatally hit pedestrians and the relatives of those victims. The story follows these drivers as they take part in a support workshop intended to help them cope with guilt, remorse, and the psychological aftermath of the accidents. Through these intense and often painful meetings, the film explores themes of responsibility, grief, forgiveness, and the struggle to rebuild a meaningful life despite tragic consequences.

A documentary film that follows the development of ballroom culture in Israel, a unique culture that creates a safe, free, and vibrant space for members of the LGBTQ+ community. It is a journey into a physical art form that bridges international tradition with local interpretation, revealing how dance becomes a language of identity and empowerment.

Danny has just moved in alone and is invited to lunch by her neighbor, Pavel, an old Russian man who rarely leaves the house. What starts as a normal meal soon develops into a series of unexpected events.

Aviv is an aggressive boy from a normal family. During another family trip - in one moment of sibling violence Aviv first understands the consequences of his violence. The film was shot in the actual places the real events took place.

After surviving a long illness which nearly put an end to his life, author Yoram Kaniuk wrote his book Between Life and Death. The film follows Yoram Kaniuk for six weeks as he tries to recover from the illness.

Who hasn’t heard of Shoshana Weiss? The biggest drug dealer in North Yavne. But behind her innocent-looking laundromat lies a hidden stain

Yu-Ya, a fighter in an elite unit, wants to marry. A problem arises in the rabbinate: his father is not registered on his identity card and therefore Yu-Ya cannot marry. With the help of his army commander, he sets out on a search for his parents' roots and identity.

A young girl from a good home starts dating a slightly older man, and it is not long before she starts falling out of all her other connections and relationships, swallowed up by a closed world that only has two people in it and a few big dogs tied at the front door. Without her partner ever showing violence towards her, she fears that if she leaves him, something terrible will happen. Out at Six tells the story of Livi, the filmmaker, through a timeline divided into eight stages based on research taken from hundreds of cases in which women were murdered by their partners. The film is compiled from interviews with people closest to her, reflecting how the surrounding environment witnesses the reality of such relationships.

Sophie is attacked at a party but is miraculously saved by two kind strangers.

Since the events of October 7th, the identity crisis of the Bedouins in the Negev has intensified. Torn between a Palestinian identity, childhood memories, and family in Gaza, and their Israeli identity and citizenship, the film portrays the complexity and internal conflicts they experience. Through the stories of five characters, each dealing with the crisis in their own unique way, deep layers of identity, belonging, and coping with a changing reality are revealed.

the story of a jewish kid living in the gush katif

Hannah, a young actress, is forced to compete for the role of Lady Macbeth against her friend, whom she secretly loves.

A film about four women who survived Auschwitz as teenagers. Despite their traumas and haunting memories, they have lived to nearly one hundred and are now among the few remaining to bear witness to the Holocaust. They live in Stockholm, have been friends for decades, and share a deep passion for playing bridge. Life proceeds as usual, but suddenly everything changes with Hamas' terror attack and the relentless war in Gaza that follows. A unique film about the Holocaust and the art of survival.

Trying to escape her grown-up life, Ayala moves in with her grandma to help her after eye surgery – but it’s the same week she moves in with her partner. After lying to both, she realizes she is hurting everyone and decides to open her eyes.

Set during the immigration waves of 1950s Israel, we follow Sa'adia, an immigrant child from Yemen, and Ruti, a young Gadna instructor who helps Sa'adia integrate into society.

The short documentary tells the story of LGBT+ couple. Tosya and Masya have decided to challenge stereotypes and fight for their happiness despite the threats and prohibitions inherent in Russia.

Based on a novel by Yehoshua Kenaz.

I am Dusya.

Following the death of his parents in a terrorist attack, Ido deals with his trauma in a highly unusual manner.

The untold story about the rise and fall of Israel's most famous magic duo - Chico and Diko, who were huge stars in Israel in the 80's.

A coming out story shot during the gay pride parade in Tel-Aviv, June 2010.

A bizarre choreographic ballet describes different aspects about the individual identity in the modern and permissive world and societythrough radical and humorist situations.

Bella is a young transgender woman living in Bangkok. She is bright and beautiful and has a positive attitude towards life, no matter the hardships she’s been through. She mourns the death of her closest friend, a trans woman too, who could not cope with rejection and bullying and took her own life, but Bella does not let this tragedy change her optimism.

Director Ron Ninio’s film, whose script was penned by playwright Hillel Mittelpunkt, focuses on a group of young people working towards realising their biggest dream: becoming professional stage actors.

Elisha travels to visit Hillel, who has established a unique community in the heart of the desert. It soon becomes clear that the two share a common past from which they cannot escape

Rachel is loosing her sight to the point she can't even call her daughter who is in labor on the other side of the world. Seeking for help, she opens her door to passersby. Strangers, striving for one moment of connection.

A couple want to find out the dirt about each other. She decided to do a project about her best friend, trying to find true love for him. Until his soul mate hits him in the middle of the street.

22 years after being adopted, Noa embarks on a journey to Ukraine, retracing the path her adoptive mother took to receive her. She will also approach her biological mother and try to achieve closure with the two mothers in her life.

The disengagement of Israel from Gaza in 2005 is the background for this poignant story of one women's determination in the face of hardship. Ronit Balaban runs the family hothouse which exports plants to Europe. She is capable, strong and determined. While her country is in the midst of disengaging from the region she calls home - her husband had already disengaged from life many years before. Yaakov was the victim of a terror attack which left him disfigured. His inability to cope with his deformity has made him withdrawn and remote. This inspired documentary is the story of one strong woman who struggles to keep her family, her marriage and above all - her hothouse working and flourishing.

Hoiami Nguyen never imagined that he will end up so far from his home village of Bong Son in central Vietnam. Political circumstances and the roulette of life have washed him to the shores of Israel. The penniless Vietnamese refugee became a father of 5 Hebrew speaking Israeli daughters. His daughter - Vaan, describes her parents' ordeal using a razor sharp language in her blog. She feels trapped in circles of identity which will never meet. Caught between her wild and stormy Israeli spirit and the expectations to be modest and obedient Vietnamese at home, there is unbridgeable abyss. When her father returns to his family in Vietnam, Van finds herself absorbed into his tragic story - a cruel tale of loss and survival. Hoimai's dream of return sends Vaan to look for a brighter future in the new-old country. She joins him in trying to reclaim the lands of the family, in the remote village at the heart of the Vietnamese jungle.

A pink swan floats across a turquoise pool, against the desert. It’s Dana’s bachelorette party. A chance encounter with Hamis, an African asylum seeker, will bring the girls face to face with an uncomfortable truth.

In His Image focuses on reproduction after death in Israel, where posthumously harvesting sperm is legal. The film follows the bereaved parents of three sons who died during military service. Using semen collected just before, or shortly after, their sons' death, they hope to have them live on in a posthumous grandchild. But can new life cure their grief?

Two friends go on a hike to the desert. In the desolate wilderness something hidden comes out in their friendship. From then on, the only way they manage to communicate is sexually and violently. While one of them wants more than the other is able to give, he expresses his frustration by making sure they get lost and have no water - anything to escape from awaiting reality.

In a middle of a war, three women fight for a normal life, but can never seem to agree on the actual meaning of normal. "The other war" tells the tale of Tel-Aviv during the second Lebanon war. It's a film about Israel, Militarism and denial, but mainly about love.

Suzan, an Arab-Israeli woman, must reshape her identity when she discovers at 35 that she was born intersexual.

The Disappeared follows the story of an action-feature film produced by the Israeli Army in 2000 and then censored just a few weeks before its release. Titled Hane’elam (The Disappeared) in Hebrew, the original film was intended to address a contentious subject in Israeli society and one of the military’s absolute taboos – the rising number of soldier suicides. The ambitious production was of a scope rarely seen in the local film industry at the time and included hundreds of soldier-extras, an entire armored brigade, military helicopters, and special operations personnel. With a lavish budget and a cast of leading Israeli actors, shooting commenced in multiple locations around the country, among them also a top-secret missile base. Soon after editing began and preparations for its commercial, nation-wide distribution were underway, The Disappeared disappeared.

Yossi Kleinmann, a dull history professor and expert on the political leaders of totalitarian regimes, feels unappreciated both by his students and his domineering wife. One weekend, at the 90th birthday party of his wife’s grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, Yossi finds himself in a surreal situation that forces him to face up to himself and his family.

A daughter's fantasy of her mother, elusively portrayed at her own magical house and garden. The mother's image and voice are deconstructed and assembled again into an intergenerational sonnet, reflecting the everlasting experience of being a woman, in a w orld of constant feminine evolution.

The Dust Channel is a cultural exquisite corpse: an operetta with a libretto in Russian about a British home appliance, a Dyson DC07 Vacuum Cleaner, set in an Israeli reality of private perversion and socio-political phobias. While each of these layers offers its own resonances and substrata, they share communal and individual forms of xenophobia from within the private sphere of leisure and pleasure, abundance and perversions.

A documentary comedy narrated by the wife of a man who suffers from hyper-acoustic sensitivity, which makes his life in Tel Aviv, one of the noisiest urban locations on earth, a living hell. Tormented by the belief that they live in an incredibly noisy society, the award-winning couple of Israeli filmmakers resolves to investigate the issue: they install cameras in their house to capture sources of this formidable sonic mass that invades their daily lives. Noise is a reviving acknowledgement of the Griersonian tradition of dramatic treatment and social exclamation for a civil change in the actual world.

Based on the real-life death of Mike Brant, who reluctantly became a foreign singing sensation during the 1960s and '70s. Born in a displaced person's camp in Cyprus, the then-named Moshe Brand grew up in a working-class environment, occasionally making time to entertain at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and, eventually, nightclubs both at home and abroad. When Sylvie and Carlos Varton saw one of his performances, they whisked him off to Paris and saw to it that his career took off. Though he was an almost instant success, he is believed to have committed suicide at the age of 28. This film features rare interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, as well as footage from home movies, television appearances, and radio recordings.

Twelve-year-old Itamar has a deep passion for ice skating. However, he is slowly losing his hearing, which forces him away from his singular passion. Itamar refuses to accept his doctor`s orders and his parents` wish that he stay away from the ice rink. Enter Natalie, his new partner, who is a wild and disobedient girl. Together they struggle and grow within a complicated world of adolescence.

A silent documentary film depicting Jews and Jewish communities in Ottoman Palestine/Eretz Israel.

Yonathan Rave went to new york to explore the rise of AntiSemitism under mayor Mamdani

Based on true events, this story is set in the 1970s in Jerusalem. Yaakov Elbaz, recently released from prison, is recruited by the police to infiltrate the Black Panthers, a protest group consisting of Sephardi Jews (Middle Eastern Jews). Initially serving as a mole, Elbaz gradually becomes involved with the group and begins to empathize with their ideals. His growing connection to their cause leads him into a dangerous double game that threatens to ruin his life.

At 28, Elie Wiesel wrote a letter revealing his ambition to win the Nobel Prize for Literature for 'Night', written after his liberation from the camps. Decades later, he did win the Nobel Prize — for Peace. In that gap his entire life. Wiesel became the conscience of the free world — wearing his survival like a tuxedo over the prisoner's uniform with which he could never part. The filmmaker, whose father was deported on the same train to Auschwitz as Wiesel, sets out on a personal investigation believing that important figures deserve more than reverence — they deserve the truth.

Neo was three and a half years old when a devastating car accident left him with a severe brainstem injury. After five days suspended between life and death, he wakes up unable to breathe, speak, walk, or eat on his own. In the hospital, his parents, Lior and Galit, pick up a camera and never put it down. Shaped from hundreds of hours of intimate footage, 'I Am Neo' is a portrait of a child and his family slowly rebuilding their lives, revealing both the fragility of life, and the strength of the human spirit.

Or Brandes, a reserve soldier serving in Gaza as a tank driver and a psychology student, broadcasts an improvised podcast to fellow soldiers over the military radio network. From candid conversations about fear and denial, to feelings of revenge, through jokes and absurd banter, the soldiers open up with striking honesty. Using excerpts from the radio communications alongside intimate footage from combat, the film offers a rare glimpse into the inner lives of soldiers in the aftermath of October 7th.

After staging a shocking act of protest in Tel Aviv, Sasha ignites the "269Life" movement, which quickly becomes a symbol of radical activism. At the height of the struggle, he meets Maria, a fellow immigrant and outsider who carries the same sense of displacement within Israeli society. Their shared alienation fuels both a fierce global movement and an intimate love story. But as their actions spread across continents and inspire thousands, they find themselves unable to escape the heavy costs of living on the front lines of revolution.

When a new caller calls up Parker and Chester, they are disturbed by the amount of coincidences from their previous investigation