19th Israel Film Festival4 min read
Reading Time: 3 minutesIt’s that time of the year again. Seven selections. Seven genres. Seven award-winning films. It’s no secret that Israel is a powerhouse of creativity and its cinema industry is no exception. Whether you are a fan of whimsical dramas, black comedies, suspense thrillers or even crime dramas, the Israel Film Festival is bringing you some of the nation’s finest movies, to suit every cinematic palate imaginable at this year’s highly anticipated 19th Israel Film Festival.
One of the longest running national film festivals in Singapore, the Israel Film Festival is acelebration of Israeli culture, providing a diverse reflection of Israel while telling stories of a vibrant, conflicted, modern society grappling with issues that audiences throughout the world can relate to.
Click here to view the selection of films and to purchase tickets.
1. The Flood (Opening Film)
Guy Nattiv | Drama | 2010 | 98 minutes | Hebrew (with English subtitles) | NC16
Everything is complicated in Yoni’s life. He’s almost 13, real gifted, but physically undeveloped and struggles daily to grow up before his threatening up-coming Bar Mitzvah.
He sells homework in order to secretly buy a body building wonder powder, which so far does nothing, he stretches every night with heavy weights tied to his legs and screams with full force in front of the wind to thicken his girlish, unstable voice, that gave him the ridiculous nick name — Helium. His new classmates, a year older and two heads taller, bully him at every chance they get and his parents barely say a word to each other and communicate through him, if at all.
2. Ajami
Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani | Crime | 2010 | 121 minutes | Arabic/Hebrew (with English subtitles) | NC16
Ajami is a brave, apolitical look at Jews and Arabs in Jaffas multi-ethnic Ajami neighborhood – a searing debut by Israeli and Palestinian co-directors, whose balanced perspective and use of non-professional local actors lend a palpable authenticity to a complex, cross-cultural drama.
3. The Human Resources Manager
Eran Riklis | Drama | 2010 | 106 minutes | English/Hebrew/Romanian (with English subtitles) | PG13
A tragic-comedy about a human resources manager whose mission takes him to the boondocks of Eastern Europe to meet the bereaved relatives of a murdered employee. In Hebrew, English and Romanian with English subtitles.
4. The Matchmaker
Avi Nesher | Drama | 2010 | 113 minutes | Hebrew (with English subtitles) | NC16
Arik, a teenage boy growing up in Haifa in 1968, gets a job working for Yankele Bride, a matchmaker. Yankele, a mysterious Holocaust survivor, has an office in back of a movie theater that shows only love stories, run by a family of seven Romanian dwarves in the seedy area by the port. Yankele introduces Arik to a new world, built on the ruins of an old one. As Arik begins to learn the mysteries of the human heart through his work with Yankele, he falls in love with Tamara, his friend Beni’s cousin.
5. Lost Islands
Reshef Levy | Comedy/Drama | 2008 | 102 minutes | Hebrew (with English subtitles) | R21
Faced with fulfilling your dreams or familial loyalty, what would you choose? When might a single choice define the rest of your life? This paradox is the subject of the Israeli box office hit, Lost Islands. The Levis, a large fun loving family, are laughing away the early 1980s.
But, when twin sons Erez and Ofer both fall for the new girl at school, Erez struggles to maintain his loyalty to his brother. The familys simple existence becomes further complicated when Erez discovers his fathers secret and unwittingly triggers a family tragedy. When Erez then joins an elite commando unit of the IDF as Israel enters the first Lebanon war, he is stealing Ophers dream.
6. Walk on Water
Eytan Fox | Drama/Mystery | 2004 | 99 minutes | English/German/Hebrew (with English subtitles) | M18
He was trained to hate until he met the enemy
7. Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi
Shemi Zarhin | Drama/Comedy | 2003 | 94 minutes | Hebrew (with English subtitles) | NC16
Shlomi takes care of everyone. He feeds his grandfather, bathes him and listens to his fictitious stories from World War II. He reminds his older brother to take his medication on time and intently listens to his pornographic thoughts.
He calms his quick-tempered mother and mediates between her and his hypochondriac father who was thrown out of the house after cheating on her. He looks after his older sisters twins and makes sure she keeps going back to her husband who cant tell between the identical babies. And most of all, Shlomi makes sure to make everyone happy by cooking their favorite dishes. Shlomi knows theyll eat and calm down. Because his home is a battlefield and Shlomi runs around between everyone, making peace.
