Tomer Shushan’s 19-minute film, White Eye, has been short listed for this year’s Academy Award in the short live action category. Screened at movie festivals in Israel and abroad, it has won a succession of awards. Unfolding in real time at night in Tel Aviv’s dingy meat packing district, it ostensibly deals with a bicycle […]
Itay Tal’s gripping Hebrew-language movie, God of the Piano, which is now available on DVD and digital outlets like iTunes and Amazon, fleshes out themes such as ambition, disappointment, deception and obsession. His central character, a pregnant pianist named Anat (Naama Preis), embodies these qualities. Sitting at home in front of her piano, she pours out […]
David Osit’s absorbing 89-minute documentary, Mayor, is a nuanced portrait of Musa Hadid, the Christian Palestinian mayor of Ramallah — the seat of the Palestinian Authority and the epicenter of commerce and culture in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six Day War. Osit, whose film is currently available […]
Tradition bumps up against modernity in Isaac Cherem’s empathetic drama, Leona, which is playing virtually in movie theatres across the United States. Cherem’s film unfolds in contemporary Mexico City against the backdrop of a love affair between two young people, Ariela (Naian Gonzalez Norvind) and Ivan (Christian Vasquez), who seem made for each other. They’re […]
Two old friends and lovers, Sam and Tusker, are on a road trip in Britain’s scenic and idyllic Lake District. They’re on perhaps the last holiday they’ll ever spend together. Sam (Colin Firth) and Tusker (Stanley Tucci) are the central characters in Harry Macqueen’s poignant movie, Supernova, which opens on VOD platforms on February 16. […]
Russia’s Academy Award submission this year in the category of best foreign film, Dear Comrades!, is a taut political drama that delves into the overlapping themes of faith, corruption and disillusionment. Opening in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on February 5, Andrei Konchalovsky’s gritty black-and-white movie unfolds in Novocherkaask, a small provincial town in […]
Nina and Madeleine live in separate apartments across the hall from each other, but they’re more than merely neighbors. They’re lovers who’ve managed to keep their lesbian relationship secret all these years. Nina (Barbara Sukowa) and Madeleine (Martine Chevallier) are the central fugues in Filippo Meneghetti’s poignant romantic French-language drama, which will be available on […]
Wilfrid Israel, a wealthy businessman, saved thousands of Jews in Nazi Germany and was instrumental in the founding of Kibbutz Hazorea. But for many years, he was an unsung hero, and to the consternation of Israeli filmmaker Yonatan Nir, not a single street in Israel has been named after this heroic figure. Nir, who was […]
Lili Horvat’s Hungarian-language feature film, Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time, is weighed down by a clunky title, but is blessed with a magnetic story line. An absorbing psychological drama teetering between reality and delusion, it opens digitally at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto on January 22 and in the rest […]
Molly Stuart’s 75-minute documentary, Objector, kicks off the ninth annual Human Rights Film Festival in Toronto, which runs online from December 3-10. Atalya Ben-Abba, a 19-year-old Israeli conscientious objector from Jerusalem, is at the center of this film, which begins six months before she’s due to be inducted into the army. Atalya grew up thinking […]