Past Festivals - 2011 Films

New Voices
2010 | 60 minutes
Director: Various Directors

YELLOW MUMS Firas khoury / 2010 / Drama / 35 min / US PREMIERE Nizar (9) is a young Palestinian introverted altar boy and a social outcast. During this years’ Easter, Nizar decides to compete with the village children in the traditional “breaking eggs” games. He is cheating his way to win, all for the sake of Jesus. It would be the first time Nizar questions his faith. View Trailer

DUSTY ROAD Rukaya Sabbah / 2010 / Drama / 25 min / US PREMIERE An unexpected meeting between 13 year old Tamer and Khalil, an old man who suffers post traumatic stress disorder, leads to a special friendship. A kid in Tamer’s class, does everything to ruin this friendship.

Transparent Black
2010 | 20 minutes
Director: Roni Geffen

African refugees attending a Hebrew class receive lessons in what it means to be Israel. View Trailer

Homecoming
2011 | 58 Minutes minutes | Themes: Documentary
Director: Orna Ben Dor & Noa Maiman

Homecoming follows three non-Jewish Israeli teens who were born in Israel to foreign workers. The film follows the teenagers as they visit their parents homes; in the Congo, Peru and the Philippines. Away from Israel and meeting their extended families for the first time, the kids are confronted with questions about the meaning of and about their own identities.This film deals with the politics of immigration and culture through a profoundly personal lens and is particularly timely as Israel has recently begun to deport illegal foreign workers and their Israeli-born children.

Stitches
2010 | 24 minutes

Nadine, an Arab young working fruit picker, is engaged to be married. While her mother sews her wedding dress, Nadine’s heart goes out to Shachar, her Jewish foreman. The two lead a forbidden love affair which forces Nadine to confront her reality.

Lost Paradise
2010 | 54 Minutes minutes | Themes: Narrative
Director: Various Directors

A man and a woman are tenderly making love in a one-star hotel room. A moment later, when they are fully dressed, the idyll that seemed authentic is now gone.

My Lovely Sister
2010 | 91 Minutes minutes | Themes: Narrative
Director: Marco Carmel

A whimsical tale of the rivalry between superstitious Rahma and her sister Mary who followed her heart and married an Arab man. Starring Moshe Ivgy, Evelin HaGoel and Reymonde Amsellem, the film is based on a Jewish Moroccan folktale.

Naomi (Hitpartzut X)
2010 | 90 Minutes minutes | Themes: Narrative
Director: Eitan Tzur

This award winning thriller takes place in the mixed city of Haifa. Ilan Ben Natan, a 58-year-old Astrophysics Professor, is obsessively in love with his young wife, Naomi. When Ilan discovers that his deepest fears have come true – Naomi has a lover – he is unable to control himself. He confronts the lover and commits a horrible act, the consequences of which will weigh heavily on his conscience.

Yellow Mums
2010 | 35 Minutes minutes
Director: Firas khoury

Nizar (9) is a young Palestinian introverted altar boy and a social outcast. During this years’ Easter, Nizar decides to compete with the village children in the traditional “breaking eggs” games. He is cheating his way to win, all for the sake of Jesus. It would be the first time Nizar questions his faith.

Dusty Road
2010 | 25 Minutes minutes
Director: Rukaya Sabbah

An unexpected meeting between 13 year old Tamer and Khalil, an old man who suffers post traumatic stress disorder, leads to a special friendship. A kid in Tamer’s class, does everything to ruin this friendship.

Shout
2010 | 75 Minutes minutes | Themes: Documentary
Director: Sabine Lubbe Bakker & Ester Gould

Young ‘Golanis’ – Druze born on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights – are given an opportunity to study in their parents’ homeland: Syria. Full of self-confidence, best friends Ezat and Bayan leave their village to discover their Arab roots. But Damascus proves to be a colorless metropolis where they often feel far from home. Shout is a film about friendship in one of the world’s forgotten conflict zones; a documentary about growing up and the search for identity and a sense of belonging.

The Human Turbine
2010 | 60 Minutes minutes | Themes: Documentary
Director: Danny Verete

The Human Turbine takes us to Susia, a Palestinian village in the Hebron Mountains. There, in a village surrounded by Jewish settlements, villagers and Jews have come together to generate resources that neither the Palestinian Authorities nor Israel provides. Together, this group has harnessed wind and solar energy to bring electricity to the caves and tents in which the villagers live. Now, they want to use renewable energy to provide running water to the residents of Susia. This film documents both the remarkable and enterprising efforts of this collaboration and the depth of the collaborators’ friendship.

The Office (TV Series)
2010 | 50 Minutes minutes
Director: Eitan Tzur

New episodes from the Israeli adaptation of the world famous comedy. The Office is a microcosm of Israeli society, where an orthodox woman, Arab man, Russian immigrant, and gay man work under one roof with a useless, non-pc boss.Based upon the original series produced for the BBC, and created, written and devised by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

Torn
2011 | 52 Minutes minutes | Themes: Documentary
Director: Ronit Kertsner

Only twelve years after being ordained as Catholic priest Romuald Waszkinel learned that he was born to Jewish parents. The film follows Waszkinel from his church in Poland to a religious kibbutz in Israel. Waszkinel does not reject his Catholicism in favor of Judaism – instead he struggles with two identities, unable to renounce either. But though Waszkinel embraces both Judaism and Catholicism, the religions and the State of Israel refuse him. Can Waszkinal remain a Catholic priest and be an Observant Jew at the same time?

The Promise
2011 | 81 Minutes minutes
Director: Peter Kosminsky

In this groundbreaking Channel 4 Production, we follow the period leading up to Israel’s establishment, mirrored in the ramifications in Israel today. Told through a young woman visiting Israel for the fist time, reading her grandfather’s diary detailing his life as a soldier serving in British Mandate Palestine. The Other Israel Film Festival will feature the first episode in the series. The following 3 episodes will be screened at The JCC every Wednesday – Nov. 23, Nov. 30, and Dec. 7.

Dolphin Boy
2011 | 72 Minutes minutes | Themes: Documentary
Director: Dan Menkin & Yonatan Nir

After being brutally tortured by his classmates, Morad – a teenaged boy from an Arab village in the North of Israel – is suffering from a severe post-traumatic shock, disconnecting himself from the world around him. When told by doctors that dolphin-assisted therapy is the last treatment option, Morad’s father leaves his job and family to move to Dolphin Reef on the Red Sea, vowing not to return unless the boy achieves full recovery. Surrounded by a dedicated doctor, new friends, and an Israeli Jewish girlfriend, Morad and his father embark on a remarkable four-year journey of recovery. This is the tale of a parent’s patient and tender love, and the friendship between a teenager and the group of dolphins who helped him heal.

A Place of Her Own
2011 | 67 Minutes minutes | Themes: Documentary
Director: Sigal Emanuel

This documentary was filmed over the course of four years and follows Reut, a teenager who spent most of her life moving between institutions and living on the street. The film opens when Reut is seventeen and giving birth to her first son, who is immediately taken away by welfare authorities. Reut’s battle with the State for custody of her son leads her to forge a relationship with his foster family – religious Jews who live in a settlement in the Occupied Territories. Meanwhile, Reut meets and marries a Palestinian man, moves to his village and has two more children. Reut is an introverted and intriguing character who longs for stability and a place to call home. Instead, life hands her surprising twists and turns, right up to its tragic end.

David & Kamal
2010 | 78 Minutes minutes | Themes: Narrative
Director: Kikuo Kawasaki

David & Kamal is about two nine-year old boys – Kamal, an Arab Jerusalemite and David, an American Jew. David and Kamal meet in Jerusalem’s Old City where Kamal is dodging bullies and trying to sell postcards. When Kamal sees David he assumes David is carrying a lot of money and pickpockets him. David chases after Kamal but runs into Kamal’s tormentors. Kamal turns around and saves David and the boys escape together. Rooftop chases, secret passageways, and police cars and soldiers bring action to David and Kamal’s adventure of a lifetime.

77 Steps
2010 | 56 Minutes minutes | Themes: Documentary
Director: Ibtisam Mara'ana

The personal journey of the director, Ibtisam Mara’ana, who leaves her Arab-Muslim village and moves to Tel-Aviv. In an attempt to find an apartment in the city, she encounters discrimination and refusal by most landlords because of her Arab origins. She finally finds an apartment, and meets her neighbor – Jonathan, a Jewish-Canadian man who immigrated to Israel. A love story evolves as they both search for a sense of belonging and home, on the background of social and political turbulence.