Films
ALBUM 61
Directors: Halil Efrat
(70 mins, 2013)
Genre: Documentry
The World Chess Championship is a juicy battle, rife with passion, power and money. Boris Gelfand has spent his entire life getting ready for this moment; he was raised to become a champion since the age of six. His father devoted all his life to cultivating Boris' talent while obsessively documenting the process. The photo albums tell the father's story as much as that of the son, revealing a simple truth about a man living his own dreams through his son under the Soviet regime. Can any child, given fine Soviet education, become a genius? And is becoming a genius worth the price?
Boris Gelfand played against Viswanathan Anand, an Indian chess Grandmaster and former World Chess Champion, in the World Chess Championship 2012.
Saturday, July 05, 2014 | 6:30 PM
THE BAND'S VISIT
Directors: Eran Kolirin
(87 mins, 2007)
Genre: Drama
The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, consisting of eight men, arrives in Israel from Egypt. They have been booked by an Arab cultural center in Petah Tiqva, but through a miscommunication (Arabic has no "p" sound, and regularly replaces it with "b"); the band takes a bus to Bet Hatikva, a fictional town in the middle of the Negev Desert. There is no transportation out of the city that day, and there are no hotels for them to spend the night in. The band members dine at a small restaurant where the owner, Dina the restaurant's owner invites them to stay the night at her apartment, at her friends' apartment, and in the restaurant. That night challenges all of the characters.
Sunday, July 06, 2014 | 6:30 PM
BY SUMMERS END
Directors: Noa Haroni
(95 mins, 2011)
Genre: Drama
It is the summer of 1978, a month to go until the Camp David peace accords, but Michal is not worried by world affairs. Her 7 year old daughter Maya has yet to learn how to read and write and her teacher wants to hold her back a year. Michal rises to the occasion and vows that by the end of the summer Maya will read write and move on to the next grade. But this summer is set to be full of surprises for the family. Michal's father, Haim, who has been missing for twenty years, suddenly returns, and brings with him the family's dark past and hidden secrets. By summer's end Michal and her sister Naomi will have to deal with the past they have tried so hard to bury and the painful, yet liberating process will eventually lead them onto a new path.
Directors: Leonid Prudovsky
(90 mins, 2009)
Genre: Drama​
Only 5 flight hours from Paris, in a working-class suburb of Tel Aviv, two people meet. He is a bred-and-born Israeli and she is a Russian immigrant. He is a taxi driver and she is a music teacher. He has no aspirations. She gave up hers long ago. He is afraid of flying and she is about to fly away. What are the odds of them ending up together? It premiered as an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival on 12 September 2009. A French cinema chain caused controversy when they cancelled its release following the Gaza flotilla raid and instead screened a French documentary about Rachel Corrie, an American protestor killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2004.
FIVE HOURS FROM PARIS
Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi
Directors: Shemi Zarhin
(94 mins, 2003)
Genre: Drama
Shlomi is a 17-year-old boy who has unwittingly become the most important member of his household -- with his mildly-paranoid father divorced from his mother, busy supporting the family as a nurse. Shlomi cheerfully looks after his aging grandfather, cooks the meals, keeps tabs on his brother, Doron, and tries to keep the house clean. With so much going on, Shlomi doesn't have much time for (or interest in) his schoolwork, and he's more preoccupied with his girlfriend Tehila and his efforts to move their relationship to the next level; however, Shlomi's math teacher discovers that Shlomi has a rare gift for working with numbers and is eager to transfer him to another school where he can hone this talent. But Shlomi's family resists the idea, partly because they're not sure if he can do the work and partly because they don't want to see the family's anchor go away.
Sunday, July 13, 2014 | 6:30 PM
Friday, July 04, 2014 | 6:30 PM
Friday, July 11, 2014 | 6:30 PM
Directors: Avi Nesher
(110 mins, 2004)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Group of families, who emigrate from India to Israel in the late sixties, seeking a better life in what they believe to be the first outpost of the West in Asia. Instead, they are sent to a new settlement, in the middle of the desert, populated mostly by Moroccan Jews. An inevitable cultural clash takes place between the two communities--the Indians who consider themselves British and the Moroccan who see themselves as French. The family's eldest, beautiful daughter discovers friendship and romance with the lovely French girl. The film explores the hardships and surprises that come with the integration of multiple families from different ethnic backgrounds (from the diaspora) and their struggle with immigration and prejudice.
Friday, July 25, 2014 | 6:30 PM
TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD
JELLY FISH
Saturday, July 26, 2014 | 6:30 PM
Directors: Shira Geffen, Etgar Keret
(78 mins, 2007)
Genre: Drama
Meduzot (the Hebrew word for Jellyfish) tells the story of three very different Israeli women living in Tel Aviv whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a young child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a young bride who breaks her leg in trying to escape from a locked toilet. stall, which ruins her chance at a romantic honeymoon in the Caribbean. One of the guests is Joy, a Philippine caregiver attending the event with her employer, and who doesn't speak any Hebrew, and who is guilt-ridden after having left her young son behind in the Philippines.
Sunday, July 27, 2014 | 6:30 PM
FOOTNOTE
Directors: Joseph Cedar
(105 mins, 2011)
Genre: Drama
Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik are both eccentric professors, who have dedicated their lives to their work in "Talmud" Studies. The father, Eliezer, is a stubborn purist who fears the establishment and has never been recognized for his work. While his son, Uriel, is an up-and-coming star in the field, which appears to feed on accolades, endlessly seeking recognition. Then one day, the tables turn. When Eliezer learns that he is to be awarded the Israel Prize, the most valuable honor for scholarship in the country, his vanity and desperate need for validation are exposed. His son Uriel, meanwhile, is thrilled to see his father's achievements finally recognized but, in a darkly funny twist, is forced to choose between the advancement of his own career and his father's
