Past Festivals - 2018 Films

The Cousin
2017 | 93 minutes | Narrative
Director: Tzahi Grad

In this comedy, a well-intentioned Arab handyman upends daily life in an Israeli village. After a woman is assaulted and the community quickly turns accusatory, his Israeli employer is the only local who believes him. Loyalties are tested as more secrets are uncovered.

Co-presented by IATF

Death of a Poetess
2017 | 80 minutes | Narrative
NY Premiere
Director: Dana Goldberg + Efrat Mishori

Yasmin, a nurse who lives in Jaffa, is interrogated by the police. Lenny Sadeh, a world-renowned researcher, is passing through the last day of her life. The two women find their worlds meeting at a critical moment, and they are inseparably bound together.

Co-presented by IATF

Foreign Land
2017 | 74 minutes | Documentary
Director: Shlomi Eldar

As Israeli society slips into extremism, an Arab actor and a Jewish journalist search for a place where they can belong. Ghassan Abbas was a TV star. Director Shlomi Eldar was a leading Arab Affairs’ correspondent who moved to the U.S.. Now they are each facing a professional crisis, and searching for a new path. Ophir Award Winner for Best Documentary.

Co-presented by IATF, Mosaic Theater Company of DC and Partners for Progressive Israel

In Her Footsteps
2017 | 75 minutes | Documentary
NYC Premiere
Director: Rana Abu Fraiha

In the dead of night, director Rana Abu Fraiha’s parents fled their Bedouin village to Omer, a nearby Jewish town. Omer was home for 20 years, until Rana’s mother expressed a wish to be buried as a Muslim in Omer’s Jewish cemetery, forcing the family to discover the true meaning of belonging.

Co-presented by IATF

Looking for Zion
2018 | 95 minutes
Director: Tamara Erde

Director Tamara Erde embarks on a journey through the photographs of her grandfather, a Zionist photographer from the 1930s. Her exploration reveals new insights about his choices in image-making, leading her to critically examine the history of Israeli society and the Zionist dream, past and present.

Co-presented by New York Women in Film & Television

The Optimists
2018 | 54 minutes | Documentary
World Premiere
Director: Eliezer Yaari

Narrated by Mandy Patinkin. A Palestinian chemist decides to move from his Arab village to a Jewish kibbutz in southern Israel. The American founders, vowing to “fix the world” and the State of Israel, welcome him. Will the small kibbutz in the desert generate a new chance for Israeli society as a whole?

Co-presented by the Arava InstituteHashomer HatzairIATF, NIF,  and Young Judaea

Megiddo
2017 | 90 minutes | Documentary
NY Premiere
Director: Itzik Lerner

Megiddo, a high-security prison, is a microcosm representing the painful experience of two nations. This film, made with unprecedented access, documents a tense reality. It shows the complex relationships between incarcerated Fatah and Hamas leaders and the commanders of the prison.  

Copresented by OneVoice

Please join OneVoice for a reception following the screening at the 7th floor Conference Center of the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan to learn about their international grassroots efforts.  Screening: 5:30pm. Reception: 7:30pm.

Unsettling
2018 | 70 minutes | Documentary
U.S. Premiere
Director: Iris Zaki

An award-winning filmmaker enters Tekoa, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, to talk with the locals. Their honest, surprising, and sometimes funny conversations offer a new take on Israeli reality on both sides of the Green Line.

Copresented by Friends of Roots

Closing Night presented by Encounter

Working Woman
2018 | 93 minutes | Narrative
Director: Michal Aviad

Orna starts her new job with hopes for professional growth. She excels and is promoted to work closely with her enthusiastic boss. Her husband’s business struggles and she must become her family’s breadwinner. When her boss makes inappropriate advances, Orna is left to make tough decisions and fight for her self-worth.

Co-presented by New York Women in Film & Television

Shorts Session I
83 minutes

A compilation of thought-provoking short films:

In His Place
Dir. Ofir Feldman | 2018 | 24 min | Narrative
Omar visits his parents’ house with the baby daughter of his departed Jewish lover, causing tension.

Freedom Train
Dir. Tawfik Abu Wael | 2017 | 26 min | Narrative
An Arab woman rides the train to Tel Aviv and shares an encounter with an Israeli soldier, out of time and place.

Be/longing
Dir. Amit Breuer | 2018 | 33 min | Documentary
Amal is a Palestinian citizen of Israel. The complexities of Amal’s life offer an intimate look at carrying a mixed identity.

Co-presented by IATF

Shorts Session II
52 minutes

A compilation of thought-provoking short films:

Tzeva Adom: Color Red
Dir. Michael Horwitz | 2017 | 20 min | Narrative
An Israeli soldier finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time, and forms an unlikely connection with a Palestinian boy over social media.

I Signed the Petition
Dir. Mahdi Fleifel | 2018 | 10 min | Documentary
Immediately after a Palestinian man signs an online petition, he falls into a panic-inducing spiral of self-doubt.

Stranger of the Dunes
Dir. Tamar Baruch  | 2017 | 22 min | Narrative
An Eritrean refugee emerges from the desert and wanders into a small rural community in southern Israel, seeing visions of his past along the way.
Copresented by HIAS