Top 5 Israeli movies
As a graduate of Cinema Studies (and Political Science) I feel the need to dedicate this blog to Israeli cinema.
To a large extent, the Israeli cinema reflect Israeli society, and the struggles the different groups in it are having.
Here are my five recommendations for Israeli movies:
1 – Or (My Treasure)
Directed by Keren Yedaya, 2004.
A teenager named Or works a variety of odd jobs to help support herself and her mother, who just got out of hospital.
Or provides for herself and her mother by working in different kind of jobs while trying to keep her mom away from prostitution life, but eventually, she find herself in the same place.
The movie has won many awards in Israel and worldwide.
2 – Waltz with Bashir
Directed by Ari Folman, 2008.
Israeli animated war documentary film depicts Folman’s search of his lost memories of his experience as a soldier in the first Lebanon’s war at 1982.
Throughout the movie, Folman converses with friends and other soldiers who served in the war, only to discover that his lost memories about the massacre happened in the Palestinian refugee camp by the Lebanese Christian Phalange militia.
The movie have won many awards worldwide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J9uoLMhMhs
3 -Beaufort
Directed by Joseph Cedar, 2007.
The film is about an IDF unit stationed at the isolated mountaintop of Beaufort post in Southern Lebanon during the South Lebanon conflict, before the Israeli withdrawal in 2000.
The movie depicts the daily routine of a group of soldiers, their feelings and their fears, and explores their moral dilemmas in the days preceding the withdrawal.
The filming of the movie was completed in June, just a month before the second war in Lebanon broke out. In many aspects, its symbolizes the endlessness of the war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X45LBsTKG0U
4 -People That Are Not Me
Written and directed by Hadas Ben Aroya, 2016.
The movie depicts the life of a young 25 years old girl, living in Tel Aviv, who can’t let go of her ex-boyfriend, and can not find intimacy or love.
Hadas Ben Aroya, the director of the movie is also the main star. This is her first feature movie. People That Are Not Me took part in several festivals around the world and won the Gold Panda award.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CjFMqkn-eo
5 – In Between
Directed by Maysaloun Hamoud, 2016.
The movie follow the life of three young Arabic women- Layla, Nour and Salma, renting an apartment in Tel Aviv.
Each of them is having their own struggle with the traditional community they come from, but also not feeling they belong to the Israeli-Tel Avivian society.
