Ben Shani’s contemplative documentary, A Lullaby for the Valley, is a sympathetic portrait of one of Israel’s foremost painters, Elie Shamir. Filmed over a decade, it is one of 11 Israeli movies that will be showcased by the ChaiFlicks streaming service during its Israel Independence Day Film Festival from May 4-9. During the period under […]
David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, looks back at his life and reflects on Israel’s situation in Yariv Mozer’s informative documentary, Ben-Gurion, Epilogue, which will be presented online by the ChaiFlicks streaming service during its Israel Independence Day Film Festival from May 4-9. A pivotal figure in the Labor Zionist movement and a […]
Erez Laufer’s revelatory biopic, Rabin In His Own Words, paints an expansive portrait of Yitzhak Rabin, one of Israel’s most distinguished public figures. Assassinated by a right-wing fanatic in 1995, he was twice prime minister, minister of defence, ambassador to the United States, and chief of staff of the armed forces. He served his country […]
Stefanie Zweig and her assimilated secular Jewish family were hounded out of Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. For the next decade, they lived in remote areas of Kenya, a British colony. With the defeat of the Nazis, she and her parents returned to Germany, where she became a journalist and best-selling author. One of […]
Syrian refugees by the tens of thousands have poured into Canada in the past few years as the civil war in Syria has continued to rage. Peace By Chocolate, a Canadian feature film by Jonathan Keijser, empathetically explores this wave of immigration through the eyes of a Muslim family from Damascus. Based on a true story, it […]
Twenty two years have elapsed since Israel’s withdrawal from its self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon. Joseph Cedar’s feature-length movie, Beaufort, is set in an embattled Israeli outpost during this period and recreates the denouement of Israel’s misadventure in that country. Currently available on the ChaiFlicks streaming network, it was shot on location on the […]
Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Joint List, a coalition of three Arab political parties with six seats in Israel’s parliament, ignited outrage recently when he posted a video on his Facebook page urging Israeli Arabs in the security forces not to serve in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Standing near the Damascus […]
Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a free trade agreement earlier this month, Israel’s first with an Arab nation. The landmark accord, signed in Jerusalem on April 1, was hailed as a “significant and historic milestone” by the co-signer, Israeli Economy Minister Orna Barbivai. It emerged after five months of negotiations and nearly two […]
Michael McGowan’s drama, All My Puny Sorrows, is shot through with fragments of melancholy, despair and dread. Scheduled to open in theatres in Canada on April 15, it is based on a book by the Canadian novelist Miriam Toews, and focuses on two accomplished sisters, Yoli (Alison Pill) and Elf (Sarah Gadon), whose lives offer […]
Who betrayed the celebrated Dutch Jewish diarist Anne Frank? That’s the burning question Canadian historian Rosemary Sullivan addresses in her deeply-researched, probing book, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation (HarperCollins). Anne and her family, along with four other Jews fleeing Nazi genocidal tyranny, lived in a claustrophobic attic in Amsterdam’s Jordaan district during […]