Israel

A young girl and her mother both carry the scars of their experiences during the holocaust in this drama from Israel. In 1951, Aviya (Kaipo Cohen) is a ten-year-old girl being raised by her single mother, Henya (Gila Almagor), in a small village in Israel. Henya is a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, and has come out of the experience considerably worse for wear; she’s haunted by the memories of her past, and has become emotionally unstable.
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The Summer of Aviya was based on a novel by Gila Almagor, who also plays Henya. A sequel, Under the Domim Tree, was released in 1995. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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Sgt. Jinji is very interested in Yaeli, Mr. Hasson’s youngest daughter. After getting into a dispute with a fuming Mr. Hasson who falsely believed Jinji wanted to marry his eldest daughter, Jinji is kicked out of Mr. Hasson’s house. Having witnessed the scene, and unbeknownst to Mr. Hasson nor Jinji, Yaeli escapes too and hides in the back of Jinji’s jeep, intent to join him despite her father’s wishes.

On the way to his army base, Jinji picks up Konstanza, a shady businessman, who has been evading reporting to reserve duty for a while. Konstanza also happens to owe money to Mr. Hasson (due to a very dubious business deal gone awry), and Mr. Hasson decides to look for Konstanza to get his money back. All our characters end up in the middle of the desert at a small, somewhat improvised military base.
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As costs for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia spiraled to in excess of $50 billion dollars, Putin’s Games goes behind the scenes to investigate why the first Winter Games to be held in a sub-tropical resort have become the most expensive Olympics ever. With extraordinary access to top government officials and wealthy Russian businessmen, the documentary follows the preparations from the early stages, exposing alleged corruption, the sky-rocketing budget and the big winners and losers. Read More »

Plot:
As a documentarian cleans out the flat that belonged to his grandparents – both immigrants from Nazi Germany – he uncovers clues pointing to a complicated and shocking story.Read More »

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Zaza is a 31-year old Israeli bachelor, handsome and intelligent, and his family wants to see him married. But tradition dictates that Zaza has to choose a young virgin. She must be beautiful and from a good family, preferably rich. Zaza’s parents, Yasha and Lily drag Zaza to meet potential brides and their families. Zaza has no choice. He plays along with his family, advocates of the suffocating traditions of their Georgian Jewish heritage. But Zaza always manages to somehow get out of being engaged. What his parents don’t know is that Zaza is already in love. Judith is sensuous, strong and intriguing. She’s also a divorcée with a 6-year-old daughter. So Zaza has kept Judith a secret from his family. He will have to choose between respect of the strict confines of family and tradition, or the love of his life.Read More »

On the 15th of August 2005, Israel began the Disengagement of the Gaza Strip. In a unilateral move decided on by the Israeli government, the Jewish settlers were removed from their homes and villages.
After years of confrontation with the Palestinians, the Israeli army has earned a reputation for firmness. For the first time, it is being forced to turn its iron fist against a Jewish population. This film tracks the key events of the Disengagement over the course of five days.

This human mosaic will tell the story of the Disengagement from very different perspectives; they provide the narrative of an Israeli society in all its complexity, confronting a unique historical moment.Read More »

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The issue of War widow representation in Israeli cinema is one of the most complex for the local industry for it seems to be unique and with a very local and specific iconography.
The war Widow is a difficult character to digest. Because this is an especially painful topic in Israel, its mode of representation is almost always problematic.
Gila Almagor in Tofano’s “siege” is one of the first characters of the “modern” war widows to appear on Israeli cinema screens.
The human and social complexity of the status of widows was not represented adequately and personally until her complex and fine appearance in this film.
It was mostly Preceded by cliches of heroic women who have sacrificed for the nation with characters to which it was very difficult to get attached, nor to their personal grief.Read More »

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I can’t stress enough how wonderful, anarchic and unique is this early Israeli film. It blends lots of genres and pokes
fun at many sacred cows while dealing with connections between cinema, reality and its ideological representations.
There simply isn’t any other film like that, and it’s the first time it’s on the net, with subs.
Not much information in English, so I edited an article I’ve found, but it dosen’t do the movie justice:
A comic and episodic satire, the film uses improvization to ilustrate the clash between fantasy and reality in real life. Although conceived in the style of Mekas’ “Hallelujah the hills” (1962), it’s an authentically Israeli satire, an openly rebellious and individualistic expression that poked fun at the sacred myths of earlier zionist films. The technique of film within the film is used to portray film as reflection of the imagination, a miracle based on dreams and fantasies that take on concrete characteristics- parallel to the miracle of Israel, the dream that has become reality (?). Although not a commercial success, there’s no equal to it in all of the Israeli films made since then.Read More »

June 11th 1967, the Six-Day War is over and the cease fire has just begun. We follow the journey of Gassan and Haled, two Egyptian soldiers whose only wish is to make their way through the Sinai desert and safely reach the Suez Canal. Thus begins a comical, almost surrealistic saga during which they meet various groups of people across the desert, including Israeli soldiers on patrol and a pushy news reporter.Read More »