Screen Jerusalem Day 1

IS SU E

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THURSDAY, JULY 10 2014

AT JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL www.ScreenDaily.com

Spike Jonze

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Riklis’s Dancing Arabs premiere pushed back

BY WENDY MITCHELL

Jonze, Park, Seidl to hit Jerusalem Directors Spike Jonze, Park Chan Wook, Ulrich Seidl and Chantal Akerman and actress Martina Gedeck are among the highprofile international guests due to attend the festival this year. As of press time, no guests had cancelled their visits as tensions rise in Israel.

Jonze, who won an Academy Award for best original screenplay for his sci-fi romance Her, will give a masterclass following a screening of his Oscar-nominated fantasy comedy Being John Malkovich. It is the first time Jonze, whose father was descended from a German Jewish family, has visited Israel.

Korea’s Park will also give a masterclass and participate in a panel on his country’s cinema.

His thriller Oldboy and the recent English-language serial-killer tale Stoker will screen here.

Austrian film-maker Seidl will take to the stage with his longtime collaborator, actress Maria Hofstatter, who has appeared in a number of works. Dog Days and Import/Export will screen in his presence.

US director and writer David Mamet is attending with his daughter for a joint reading from his recent novel The Handle And The Hold, revolving around two Jewish men smuggling weapons into Palestine on the eve of the 1948 war.

The festival said in a statement: “Despite the security situation, more than 100 distinguished international guests are on their way to Jerusalem… The festival’s international guests have expressed their support of the non-cancellation of the festival.”

Melanie Goodfellow

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The festival has postponed the opening night world premiere of Eran Riklis’s Dancing Arabs by a week.

The film had been scheduled to screen in the open-air Sultan’s Pool venue tonight but this screening has now been postponed by a week to July 17 (same time, same venue).

Festival organisers confirmed the decision yesterday, as tensions escalated across Israel.

Festival director Noa Regev said: “Due to instructions from the Jerusalem Municipality, Jerusalem Film Festival’s opening event at Sultan’s Pool, including the screening of Dancing Arabs, has been postponed.”

The film was due to open theatrically today in Israel but the dis-

Dancing Arabs

tributor, United King, and film-maker Riklis decided last week to push back the release until July 24 due to the current unrest.

“We decided to hold back a bit with the release — just to be sensitive about and respectful of the recent sad events,” Riklis told Screen. The film is about an Arab teenage boy from Tira who is sent to a Jewish boarding school in Jerusalem.

Riklis says the recent turmoil shows “the ongoing story and reality of the conflict here”.

“It is always present, always intense and tense, always complicated and complex, violent and targets many innocent people — and yet I insist on remaining optimistic about the future of the region and its people. And that is why I made a film which I feel is honest, loving and respectful to all the people it deals with and tries to communicate hope to the audience while not avoiding the reality of the situation.”

Sayed Kashua adapted the script from his own bestselling novel of the same name.

United King Films also served as co-producer. » Interview with Riklis on page 4.

New team kicks off festival despite rising tensions

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

The 31st Jerusalem Film Festival gets underway with a new management team determined to present a world-class event despite the escalating troubles in Israel. Aside from postponing the openingnight open-air premiere of Dancing Arabs (see story above), the team is hoping for business as usual as much as possible.

Festival management confirmed yesterday the Sultan’s Pool event postponement is the only change planned.

Festival director Noa Regev said: “The escalation in the security situation over the past few days saddens us all, and we hope for days of calm. The festival will proceed as planned, in accordance with the instructions of Homeland Command and the police. The staff of the Cinematheque hopes to see the venues full with the thousands of film lovers who attend every year.”

More than 200 films from around 50 countries will screen at the enlarged event, which will host industry heavyweights including Spike Jonze, Park Chan Wook, Ulrich Seidl and David Mamet as

Noa Regev

well as showcasing a host of fresh and established local talent.

New CEO Regev and artistic director Elad Samorzik are at the helm for the first year and are driving changes; Regev takes over from former Sundance executive Alesia Weston who departed the post after one year. “We’ve added some sections in a bid to bring younger audiences to the festival,” explained Regev, the former head of Tel Aviv Student Film Festival who also serves as director of Jerusalem Cinematheque.

Former Haifa programmer Samorzik added: “We have a Midnight Screenings section with horror, zombie, action films and

comedies; Cinemania is a new section for cinephiles about film-makers; we have a new competition strand for children; the debut section has become competitive; we have new outdoor screening venues in the Old City with Arabic subtitles; and we have introduced new competitive section Fringidaire for Israeli independent cinema.”

Despite the spirit of renewal, Regev is also keen to stress continuity with the festival’s history as a forum for intelligent debate and a platform for classic film-making.

“We’re not making a revolution here. It helps that we have some young staff with a lot of passion, energy and new perspectives on cinema and how a festival should play out, but we also have a team that has great appreciation for the history and heritage of cinema and of this festival.”

Continuity is also ensured in the shape of revered festival founder Lia van Leer who continues to be a strong influence. “Lia is very much involved,” explains Regev. “She visits the Cinematheque every day and cares deeply about every decision made.”

TODAY

Nadav Lapid

NEWS Lapid heads to France Israeli film-maker Nadav Lapid and French production house Les Films des Tournelles team on Micro Robert » Page 3

INTERVIEW Eran Riklis The renowned film-maker on his latest film, Dancing Arabs » Page 4

REVIEW How I Live Now Kevin Macdonald’s winning tale of family, war and love » Page 10

SCREENINGS

» Page 14

Titles set for Cinema City, Old City

BY WENDY MITCHELL

This year’s edition of the festival is adding a new venue, Cinema City, which will expand the festival’s footprint in the city.

“We’re trying to spread it around the city, there had been criticism that it’s too much at the Cinematheque,” said festival producer Eran Polishuk. “It’s quite cool that more communities can benefit.

And the screens are great quality.”

There will be shuttles running to Cinema City (10 Yitzhak Rabin Blvd) from the Cinematheque.

The 19-screen complex opened at the end of February at a cost of $71m. The complex also includes restaurants, shops, Bible City and a museum of Jewish cinema.

In addition, the festival is hosting free outdoor screenings in the Old City, with films shown in English and subtitled in both Arabic and Hebrew, running Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Polishuk added: “That’s like a mini three-day festival.”

Those screenings, at Mauristan Square and Habonim Garden, will feature blockbusters such as Inception, Man Of Steel, Ratatouille, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, The Matrix and Pacific Rim. Plus, on the walls near the Jaffa Gate, the Israeli Film Archive will present scenes of historical Jerusalem and other archive treasures from 8pm-11pm.

NEWS

Nadav Lapid to Micro manage in France

By Melanie Goodfellow and Andreas Wiseman

Israeli film-maker Nadav Lapid is joining forces with Paris-based production house Les Films des Tournelles to develop a feature about a young Israeli man getting to grips with life in the French capital, provisionally entitled Micro Robert.

“I’m still writing the script but it’s at a relatively advanced stage,” Lapid told Screen. “I’m very excited about the challenge of filming in Paris and putting my own look to a city that has been shot thousands of times before… it could shoot next year.”

“It’s an existentialist comedy about a young Israeli man living in Paris,” added Les Films des Tournelles founding chief AnneDominique Toussaint.

The French-language feature is provisionally named after the pocket version of one of France’s best-known dictionary brands.

“We won’t set a budget or start trying to finance until we’ve signed off on the script, which Nadav is writing,” she added. “I am expecting a first draft this autumn.”

Nadav Lapid

Nadav Lapid’s festival title The Kindergarten Teacher

Toussaint’s recent productions include Riad Sattouf ’s Jacky In The Kingdom Of Women, set in a country controlled by women where men have to wear burqas, which plays in Jerusalem Film Festival’s Into the Night section on Saturday.

Lapid, whose latest film The Kindergarten Teacher screens in Jerusalem’s feature competition on Tuesday, has had strong links with France since he developed

his debut feature Policeman at Cannes’ Cinefondation Residence and also presented it at the festival’s L’Atelier co-production market in 2008.

The Kindergarten Teacher, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes in May, was an IsraelFrance co-production by Talia Kleinhendler and Osnat Handelsman-Keren of Tel Aviv-based Pie Films and Carole Scotta of Haut et Court. Le Pacte handles interna-

Anne-Dominique Toussaint

tional sales and the film is due for an autumn release in France.

Toussaint explained she first contacted Lapid, via George Goldenstein of Cannes’ Cinefondation, after seeing Policeman.

“I saw it in the cinema in Paris and it made a big impression on me. I wrote to him saying I would like to work with him and whether it was possible to meet up,” said Toussaint.

Other productions in develop-

ment at Les Films des Tournelles include the next film by Sattouf as well as the directorial debut of actor Louis Garrel and the second film from Rachid Djaidani, whose micro-budget Rengaine did well on the festival circuit and picked up the Fipresci Prize in Cannes in 2012 when it screened in Directors’ Fortnight.

Titled Les Deux Amis, Garrel’s film revolves around two friends who fall for the same woman.

Garrel, best known internationally for his performances in A Castle In Italy and The Dreamers, will direct and co-star opposite Vincent Macaigne and Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani. It is due to shoot this October.

Toussaint says she cannot reveal too much about Djaidani’s new film bar the fact it is provisionally entitled Tour De France, will star Vincent Lindon and is set against the backdrop of provincial France.

“I hope we can shoot it next year. He is close to finalising the script and Vincent Lindon has signed up,” says Toussaint. “I can’t say more than that because Rachid wants to keep it under wraps.”

Jerusalem Film Festival gets down to business

By Melanie Goodfellow

Jerusalem Film Festival is laying on a packed programme of film industry events this year, headlined by the Jerusalem Pitch Point meeting.

The meeting revolves around a central pitching event on July 14, open to both industry professionals, film students and the public, aimed at connecting Israeli filmmakers with international partners on their upcoming projects.

Participants this year include celebrated experimental director Nina Menkes, established filmmakers Nir Bergman and Dina Zvi-Riklis and up-and-coming director Eitan Gafny, whose Lebanon-set zombie picture debut Cannon Fodder has sold well internationally.

For the first time, the event will also screen a selection of Israeli works-in-progress to selected industry professionals, including

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Nina Menkes

Madame Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club, the feature debut of Guilhad Emilio Schenker, whose 2010 prize-winning short Lavan screened at more than 70 festivals.

The projects will compete for a trio of prizes meted out by France’s National Cinema Centre, Franco-German broadcaster ARTE and the Van Leer Foundation. This year’s jury features

Eitan Gafny

ARTE France Cinema’s deputy chief Rémi Burah; Belgian producer Diana Elbaum of Entre Chien et Loup, which co-produced Israeli features The Congress and B ethlehem , and Marie-Pierre Valle, head of acquisitions at Paris-based Wild Bunch.

Other festival workshops and industry events include a session on how to make the perfect trailer,

by film-maker Jonathan Gurfinkel and film critic Yair Raveh; and a talk on film-festival strategy by Claudia Landsberger, head of Eye Film Institute Netherlands’ promotional wing EYE International.

There will also be a discussion on the future of arthouse cinema featuring Screen International editor Wendy Mitchell, The Kindergarten Teacher producer Osnat Handelsman-Keren and Jerusalem Film & Television Fund CEO Yoram Honig.

Sales and marketing expert Bec Smith, who is an agent for both UTA Independent Film Group and the Motion Picture Literary Department in the US, will give a talk entitled ‘Global Vision: Making Movies for the World Stage’.

The festival will also host a day of pitching by the participants of Jerusalem Film Lab, who have been developing their scripts,

both remotely and in situ in Jerusalem, for the past seven months.

Film-makers due to unveil their projects include India’s Ritesh Batra and Israel’s Talya Lavie and Nora Martirosyan. This year’s jury is presided over by Michele Halberstadt of French distribution and production company ARP and also features Cannes Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson, Berlinale Co-production Market director Sonja Heinen and Berlin-based South AfricanSwedish director Pia Marais.

Other industry professionals set to come to Jerusalem include Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre of Paris-based MACT Productions, Titus Kreyenberg of German production company Unafilm, Caroline Benjo and Carole Scotta of France’s Haut et Court, and Riina Sporring Zachariassen of Denmark’s Windelov/Lassen.

July 10, 2014 Screen International at Jerusalem 3

Interview Eran Riklis

The rhythm king Eran Riklis — one of Israel’s foremost film-makers — talks to Screen’s Wendy Mitchell about his latest film Dancing Arabs, and his ambitions to connect with a global audience

F

or director Eran Riklis, Dancing Arabs has that magical mix of emotional, character-driven storytelling set against a politically relevant backdrop. “It has this blend between an issue film — on every level… social, emotional, political… and yet it’s an accessible story,” the director says. “I want to reach a wide audience locally and globally.”

The story, adapted from Sayed Kashua’s 2002 bestselling novel, follows Eyad, an Arab boy from the town of Tira whose parents send him to a prestigious Jewish boarding school in Jerusalem. He struggles to maintain his identity while also trying to fit in — and strikes up a controversial romance with a Jewish girl.

“The whole complexity of the Middle East is embodied, and on the other hand he’s just a young guy trying to survive in the world and make decisions about who is he going to be,” Riklis says.

Though the film is specific to Israel, he does see how the situation is more universal.

“It could be a British Indian kid who is deciding how does he blend in, or how does he keep his Indian values? That’s what the story is about, he lives in this country but he’s an outsider. The big question is, how do you maintain identity while opening up to an ever-changing world?”

And, refreshingly, Riklis says it is very much “a feelgood film”.

“For me personally and as the film-maker, at the end of the day, it’s not about upsetting anyone it’s about getting people to think and rethink their points in life. I want them to say, ‘I enjoyed what I just saw.’”

‘It’s a crazy journey. It was interesting for me to test the limits of how far you can go with changing moods within 100 minutes’ Eran Riklis, director

The title itself might raise some eyebrows, as it refers to slang about Arabs dancing during the 1991 Gulf War. “Twentysomething years later it sounds naïve and not a good choice,” the director acknowledges. “But in the film it’s almost funny and in fact it’s about the dance of life, waltzing through life.”

Notably, and unusually, the theatrical poster has both Hebrew and Arabic writing on it, an important distinction for Riklis.

Continuing themes The project had been kicking around in development for several years, at various points with foreign directors attached, before producers brought it to Riklis.

“I thought, ‘This is my kind of material,’” Riklis remembers, saying the story reminded him of his own Lemon Tree or The Syrian Bride. “I fell in love with the characters and the story.”

He sees the film’s approach and themes as fitting in with his body of work, which also includes internationally acclaimed features such as The Human Resources Manager and Zaytoun. “I always try to focus on the individual at a point of crisis or interaction with social issues.”

Riklis then spent a year working with Kashua on the script: “He is a novelist and he writes for television. He knew what films are about but he’d never written for a theatrical film, so I brought my experience dealing with the big screen.”

“For Sayed it was a triple challenge, parts of it are autobiographical, based on his own books and he is the writer of the script,” Riklis says, paying tribute to the writer.

“Finding the funny” was crucial for the pair. “People are curious how you blend comedy with drama. On that level, I’m a student of Italian films in a way. You go to a funeral in morning and a wedding in the evening and it works. Here it was even more of a challenge — it starts out as almost pure comedy. Then there are five minutes when you smile, then you cry. It’s a crazy journey.

It was interesting for me to test the limits of how far you can go with changing moods within 100 minutes.”

Dancing Arabs (Isr-Fr-Ger) Director Eran Riklis Screenwriter Sayed Kashua (based

on his book) Producers Chilik Michaeli, Michael Eckelt, Antoine de ClermontTonnerre, Avraham Pirchi, Tami Leon, Bettina Brokemper Associate producers Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, Simon Ofenloch Cast Tawfeek Barhom, Yael Abecassis, Michael Moshonov, Ali Suliman, Danielle Kitzis, Marlene Bajali, Laëtitia Eïdo, Razi

Gabareen, Norman Issa Supporters Israel Film Fund, Filmförderung Hamburg SchleswigHolstein, alongside The Jerusalem Film and Television Fund, Israel Lottery Council for Culture and Arts, ZDF-ARTE, Eurimages, CNC, Canal Plus, CINE+ and New Lineo Cinema Israeli distribution United King www.unitedking.co.il World sales The Match Factory www.the-match-factory.com

4 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10, 2014

Dancing Arabs

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Riklis could count on some of the region’s acting royalty, including Yael Abecassis, Michael Moshonov, Ali Suliman, Danielle Kitzis, Marlene Bajali, Laëtitia Eïdo and Norman Issa. Yet the film would hinge on the casting of the twentysomething Tawfeek Barhom.

Remarkably, Barhom had been a 12-year-old boy when Riklis shot The Syrian Bride in his village of Ein Rafa, and he had walked around the set and fallen in love with cinema.

The role is not autobiographical but could almost be — Barhom is an Arab boy who was sent to a Jewish boarding school, so he could draw on his own experiences. “It’s almost Ken Loach territory — it’s authentic casting, it’s the real thing, the real kid from the real environment.” And what guidance did the director offer? “I said, ‘Be yourself, you’re very close to this character.’ It could more or less be about him with similar experiences with friendships, feeling racism or mistreatment, having young love affairs.”

The production journey Financing Dancing Arabs was “a journey”, as always for Riklis and the producing team.

He is no stranger to co-productions, especially with Germany and France (his last film Zaytoun was the first Israel-UK co-pro-

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‘It’s almost Ken Loach territory — it’s authentic casting, it’s the real thing, the real kid from the real environment’ Eran Riklis, director

Zaytoun

duction). The project reunites the producers of The Syrian Bride and The Lemon Tree: Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre of France’s MACT, Michael Eckelt of Germany’s Riva, and Bettina Brokemper of Heimatfilm along with Chilik Michaeli, Avraham Pirchi and Tami Leon of production company United Channels Movies (UCM), Israel.

“We have really mastered the complexity of how you maintain integrity storywise and yet match all the points for funding,” says Riklis.

Even with a back catalogue of acclaimed films, he is still pitching each one afresh. “It’s about surprising investors with something that’s really new. Also I feel I have a longterm relationship with certain backers in Europe.”

Shooting in Jerusalem is natural for Riklis, who was born there but now lives in Tel Aviv.

“It’s the capital of Israel but it’s also a mixed city with a huge Arab population. Coming to Jerusalem it’s built into the story that it’s part of the crazy mixture of cultural elements,” he says. “I sit home at the west side of the city but I still hear the morning prayers of the east side. It brings you the whole complexity of the situation.”

He says mayor Nir Barkat’s support means the city is now very film friendly. Also, “Jerusalem Film Fund is a major change in the landscape — not just financially but also it’s a local fund that has the city in mind and they help you do everything to shoot in the city — it’s beyond financial help.”

For the scenes set in Tira, the production shot in Kafr Qasim, also the site of a 1956 massacre of 49 villagers. That is something Riklis says he could feel on the ground, while also feeling a welcome from the villagers.

“The massacre is still very present, there are monuments all over town. On the other hand you feel they are excited for me coming to shoot a film there. It’s those moments I get very optimistic on the region. On a one-toone level, on an eye level, it’s about respecting and being respected. And it’s about honouring tradition and being open minded.”

“I often take chances on subjects that are not easy,” he adds. After studying in the US and at the UK’s National Film and Television School, he notes, “My training as a filmmaker was to be smart, be challenging and yet there is an audience out there.

“I always remind myself there is an audience in a local market but also globally. If the film works, people know deep down you don’t need to understand all the nuances.

This could be a story set almost anywhere.

The key for me is to really not only win a festival or two, it’s about reaching as wide an audis ence as possible.” n

The Human Resources Manager

July 10, 2014 Screen International at Jerusalem 5

Stills by Eitan Riklis

Director Eran Riklis

FEATURE JERUSALEM FILM FUND

Pride of place Jerusalem Film Fund is an additional source of funding for local and international projects — as long as film-makers shoot Jerusalem for Jerusalem. Edna Fainaru reports

F

or the first 60 years of the State of Israel, Jerusalem figured in only 30 of the 700 films produced in the country. The 2008 launch of Jerusalem Film Fund — spearheaded by Renen Schorr, head of the city’s prestigious Sam Spiegel Film & Television School, with the Authority for the Development of Jerusalem — has now transformed film production in Israel.

Managed by Yoram Honig, one of the first graduates of the Sam Spiegel school, the fund has clearly defined ambitions.

“Beyond developing film-making in the city, the action has to take place in Jerusalem to qualify for our fund. Jerusalem cannot stand in for another location,” says Honig.

“We expect the script to offer a fresh look at the city and its inhabitants.”

With an annual budget of $2.6m (ILS9m) the fund matches 83% of the production budget of every qualifying Israeli feature by investing $0.30 (ILS1) for each $0.35 (ILS1.2) invested by the production up to $290,000 (ILS1m) per project. For local features, at least half of the production must be shot and set in Jerusalem.

As Jerusalem Film Fund is not backed by the national Film Council, local film-makers can combine Jerusalem financing with funding from either the Israel Film Fund or the Cinema Project.

The fund has invested in some 40 Israeli features including Josef Cedar’s Footnote, Yuval Adler’s Bethlehem, Shira Geffen’s Self Made and Eran Riklis’s Dancing Arabs, the opening film here at the festival. The fund also supports TV projects, short films and international productions, including nonofficial co-productions. For international projects, at least 20% of the action must take place in Jerusalem, with the fund’s contribution increasing proportionally as the percentage rises, up to $470,000 (ILS1.6m) per project.

“We have backed six international productions,” says Honig. “They include Margarethe von Trotta’s Hannah Arendt and Natalie Portman’s Hebrewlanguage directorial debut A Tale Of Love And Darkness.”

Further upcoming international projects backed by Jerusalem Film Fund (Right) Hannah Arendt

6 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10, 2014

Bethlehem

Footnote

include Past Tense, Avi Nesher’s follow-up to The Wonders, produced by the US’s Anthony Bregman.

Separately, this year, the municipality of Jerusalem and the Israeli government invested $9.6m (ILS33m) in a financial incentive to attract international film and TV productions to shoot in Jerusalem. To qualify, a production must spend at least $7.3m (ILS25m) in Israel, of which $1.2m (ILS4m) must be spent in Jerusalem, and the plot must be set in the

Self Made

‘We expect the script to offer a fresh look at the city and its inhabitants’ Yoram Honig, Jerusalem Film Fund

city. The highest level of investment will be 25% of a production’s budget.

Along with Portman’s A Tale Of Love And Darkness, the first projects to benefit from the initiative include USA Networks’ six-part thriller Dig, about religious and political conflicts between the various communities in Jerusalem, written by Homeland’s Gideon Raff; and crime series Jerusalem, about the Christian community in the town’s Old City.

It is being made by local producer Moshe Danon, whose credits include Ajami, and is a collaboration between France’s Haut et Court and Germany’s Network.

“They are coming here now because there is a significant incentive to draw them in,” says Honig, of the rise in international s production in the city. ■

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‫ בבתי הקולנוע‬17/7‫החל מ־‬ :‫סרטי נחשון מציגים‬

10 ‫זוכה‬ ‫פרסי האקדמיה בארגנטינה‬

‫פסטיבל קאן‬

‫הרופא‬ ‫הגרמני‬ ‫אלכס ברנדמיל | נטליה אוריירו | דיאגו פרטי | אלנה רוחר‬

‫הם נשבו בקסמו‬ ‫של אחד הפושעים הגדולים בהסטוריה‬

”‫”סרט מלא עוצמה‬ eye for film

‫”יצירת מופת‬ ”‫מאתגרת ומרתקת‬ sydney ' s buzz

WAKOLDA LE MÉDECIN DE FAMILLE ‫פואנזו‬

‫סרטה של לוסיה‬

avec la participation exceptionnelle de ELENA ROGER GUILLERMO PFENING et pour la première fois à l’écran FLORENCIA BADO HISTORIAS CINEMATOGRÁFICAS EN COPRODUCTION AVEC PYRAMIDE PRODUCTIONS, WANDA VISIÓN, HUMMELFILM, STAN JAKUBOWICZ, MOVIECITY, TELEFE, DISTRIBUTION COMPANY EN ASSOCIATION AVEC ENDEMOL ARGENTINA, CINE.AR AVEC LA PARTICIPATION DE AIDE AUX CINÉMAS DU MONDE, CENTRE NATIONAL DU CINÉMA ET DE L’IMAGE ANIMÉE, MINISTÈRE DES AFFAIRES ÉTRANGÈRES, INSTITUT FRANÇAIS PRÉSENTENT UN FILM DE LUCÍA PUENZO

:‫עיצוב‬

AVEC ALEX BRENDEMÜLH, NATALIA OREIRO, DIEGO PERETTI, ELENA ROGER, GUILLERMO PFENING, ALAN DAICZ ET POUR LA PREMIÈRE FOIS À L’ÉCRAN FLORENCIA BADO CASTING MARÍA LAURA BERCH COSTUMES BEATRIZ DI BENEDETTO MAQUILLAGE ET COIFFURE ALBERTO MOCCIA DÉCORS MARCELO CHAVES DESSINS DE MENGELE ANDY RIVA PHOTOGRAPHIES DE PLATEAU SEBASTIÁN PUENZO EFFETS SPÉCIAUX 3DNETWORK MUSIQUE DANIEL TARRAB, ANDRÉS GOLDSTEIN, WARREN ELLIS, DIRTY THREE SON FERNANDO SOLDEVILA MONTAGE HUGO PRIMERO IMAGE NICOLÁS PUENZO PRODUCTION EXÉCUTIF NICOLÁS BATLLE COPRODUIT PAR AXEL KUSCHEVATZKY COPRODUIT PAR FABIENNE VONIER PRODUCTEUR ASSOCIÉ STÉPHANE PARTHENAY PRODUCTEUR GÉNÉRAL DE HISTORIAS CINEMATOGRÁFICAS LUIS PUENZO PRODUIT PAR LUCÍA PUENZO ÉCRIT ET RÉALISÉ PAR LUCÍA PUENZO

‫סרטי נחשון — חוויה של סרטים טובים‬

Feature short films

Paris On The Water

Making the short list This year’s festival hosts a bumper crop of shorts from across Israel’s film schools and industry. Andreas Wiseman reports

T

he 31st Jerusalem Film Festival is playing host to more short films than ever before, after a record number of submissions.

This year, 27 films have made the cut for the shorts competition, which will also hand out twice as many awards as last year. Among the highlights are Guy Nattiv and Erez Tadmor’s Dear God, starring Lior Ashkenazi, Student Oscar-winner Paris On The Water and Berlin Golden Bear nominee Smile, And The World Will Smile Back.

This year’s line-up is not only reflective of contemporary Israel but touches on themes prominent in previous editions of the festival.

“If someone was to watch all 27 films in the shorts competition, they would get a good sense of Israel today,” says shorts programmer Erez Barenholtz.

“Most of the directors are young and offer fresh voices on a lot of personal

8 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10, 2014

A Trip To The Other Planet

experiences. They are edgy. The selection reflects an ongoing trend in the shorts competition in recent years, namely a study of the human body as a source of pleasure and pain,” he continues.

“In previous years, this theme was manifested through young leading characters and could be interpreted as a question posed by young Israelis over their ability to live a satisfying life in Israel, while struggling on the front lines of gender, nationality and family conflicts.

“This year’s selection deals with the same question, while widening the prism and looking into the — decaying — life of older characters.”

The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School and Tel Aviv University’s film and television department remain the preeminent channels for young Israeli film talent, but other schools and independent productions are also well represented in the line-up.

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“Despite our small size, we have 15 films schools in Israel and in this year’s shorts competition we have films from all over the country,” adds Barenholtz.

A Trip To The Other Planet, for example, is from Sapir, a school on the border of the Gaza Strip where the students were learning and making their film in very difficult circumstances. The Visit, meanwhile, is from the more ‘alternative’ Minshar for Art school. “Artistic quality remains the key requirement but I also wanted to showcase diversity.”

That is also evident in the high proportion of women film-makers on show.

“This year we had a big wave of women directors,” says Barenholtz.

“Most of the films in the feature competition are by women. In the shorts, it’s around 50/50.”

Another trend this year is the growing length of films. “Many of the shorts this year are closer to 30 minutes. There’s a reason for that. The directors want to make films that are a stepping stone to features.

“Despite this being the age of YouTube, they don’t want to make films solely for the internet. They want to make cinema. And winning in Jerusalem can really act as that boost for those directors s moving onto their first feature.” n

shorts highlights Dear God Dirs Guy Nattiv, Erez Tadmor.

13mins. Independent From regular collaborators Nattiv and Tadmor, directors on features Strangers and Magic Men, Dear God stars Lior Ashkenazi and Reymond Amsalem in a poetic vision of Jerusalem told through the eyes of a guard at the Wailing Wall.

Dear God

Paris On The Water Dir Hadas Ayalon. 30mins.

Tel Aviv University, film and television department Miriam Zohar and Ilan Dar star in Ayalon’s Student Oscar winner about a frustrated former movie star who finally has a chance to return to the big screen.

Smile, And The World Will Smile Back Dirs Al-Haddad family, Ehab Tarabieh, Yoav Gross. 20mins.

B’Tselem

Vow

This Berlin Golden Bear nominated documentary is about a young boy in a Palestinian Hebron neighbourhood who films Israeli soldiers searching his home.

Vow Dir Netalie Braun. 30mins.

Independent Vow follows an obese 11-year-old girl dealing with sexual abuse, in a moving story from documentary-maker Braun.

Has Anyone Seen Eyal Nurich?

Dir Shira Porat. 15mins. Tel Aviv University, film and television department Fill The Void star Hadas Yaron plays a young female counsellor in this comingof-age story set in a timeless forest.

A Trip To The Other Planet Dir Tom Kless. 15mins.

Sapir Academic College An animated portrait of Jewish writer and Auschwitz survivor Yehiel De-Nur.

The Visit Dir Inbar Horesh. 27mins. Minshar for Art

Smile, And The World Will Smile Back

www.screendaily.com

Cannes Cinefondation entry The Visit follows a daughter’s visit to her father’s nursing home.

July 10, 2014 Screen International at Jerusalem 9

REVIEWS

» How I Live Now p10 » When Jews Were Funny p10

» Anatomy Of A Paper Clip p13 » The Dance Of Reality p13

Reviews edited by Mark Adams mark.adams@screendaily.com

When Jews Were Funny Reviewed by Anthony Kaufman

How I Live Now Reviewed by Mark Adams A delicate and striking Third World War tale about how love can conquer all, the lyrical and gently haunting How I Live Now may be too mild-mannered to stand up against the recent spate of post-apocalyptic movies, but its relish for love in the face of adversity ultimately sets it apart and makes it something of a tenderly charming film.

Based on Meg Rosoff ’s award-winning near-future novel, How I Live Now is set in rural Britain during the initial stages of the Third World War. But Kevin Macdonald’s film is not a futuristic tale that relies on special effects or grandstanding action moments; it is very much about people rather than action (in fact when it does attempt some action scenes they jar rather than aid the story) and about first love rather than explosions.

The film is propelled by an engagingly feisty and gritty performance by Saoirse Ronan as American teenager Daisy who is sent to live with her extended family.

With her bleach-blonde hair, piercings and punky eye make-up, urban Daisy is initially bemused and at odds with the remote rural idyll in which she finds herself, where her young cousins essentially run wild and are very much left to their own devices.

It takes her time to feel part of this freewheeling family — her young cousins Isaac (Holland) and Piper (Bird) want to include her in their games and adventures, while she is also drawn to older cousin Edmond (the impressive George MacKay, very much a rising star) who is the strong and silent type.

She is just beginning to embrace this rural life when war breaks out, a nuclear explosion rocks the countryside and white ash falls from the skies. Soldiers arrive and split up the boys and girls, with Daisy and Piper taken away to work in a camp.

This complex and vulnerable young woman — despite her facade of bluster and cynicism — must struggle against the elements and threats from those out to harm them, eventually proving herself a strong and determined character who will let nothing stand in her way.

n 10 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10, 2014

Gala

UK. 2013. 101mins Director Kevin Macdonald Production companies Film4, Cowboy Films, Passion Pictures International sales Protagonist Pictures, www.protagonistpictures. com Producers Charles Steel, Alasdair Flind, Andrew Ruhemann, John Battsek Executive producers Tessa Ross, Robert Walak, Piers Wenger, Nigel Williams Screenplay Jeremy Brock, Penelope Skinner, Tony Grisoni Cinematography Franz Lustig Editor Jinx Godfrey Production designer Jacqueline Abrahams Music Jon Hopkins Main cast Saoirse Ronan, George MacKay, Tom Holland, Harley Bird, Anna Chancellor

Alan Zweig’s latest documentary, When Jews Were Funny, does not exactly break new ground on the Jewish question — that is, why are so many comedians Jewish?

But it is still an entertaining and humorous examination of comedy, identity and what it means to be Jewish today, decades after assimilation.

Made up mostly of talking-head interviews with Jewish comedians — interspersed with a few select comedy routine excerpts from the 1950s and ’60s with the likes of Jackie Mason and Henny Youngman — When Jews Were Funny is refreshingly casual and formless, and devoid of clichéd archival material.

The interviews touch on several themes that may be familiar to students of comedy: that humour comes from oppression, and that with assimilation, comfort and success, people tend not to be as funny. After all, complaining — or kvetching, in Yiddish — is at the heart of much Jewish humour, the film suggests.

Highlights include a conversation with stuntmancomedian Super Dave Osborne (né Einstein), who berates Zweig for his ambiguous questions; a hilarious interview with Judy Gold, who tells one crackling ‘Jewish mother’ joke after another; and an array of elderly comedians, who take great pains to deny any identification as ‘Jewish comedians’, throwing a wrench in Zweig’s thesis.

As much as When Jews Were Funny is a documentary about Jewish comedy, there is another layer to the film.

Though we never see the director, except for an end credit sequence, it is also a personal documentary about his own family life.

We find out that Zweig is in his 60s, newly married to a woman who is not Jewish, and has recently become the father of his first child. Fraught with questions about how Jewish his daughter will be, and whether the legacy of Jewish humour is doomed to die out, Zweig skilfully manages to make a film that is a more intimate and heartfelt investigation than a historical one.

The Jewish Experience Can. 2013. 90mins Director/screenplay Alan Zweig Production company Sudden Storm Entertainment International sales Film Sales Company Producers Jesse Ikeman, Jeff Glickman Executive producers Perry Rosemond, Ted Fass Cinematography Naomi Wise Editor Randy Zimmer Music Michael Zweig Featuring Howie Mandel, Shelley Berman, Norm Crosby, Shecky Greene, Jack Carter, David Steinberg, Andy Kindler, Elon Gold, Gilbert Gottfried, David Brenner, Bob Einstein, Judy Gold, Marc Maron

THE ISRAEL FILM FUND AT THE JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL SPECIAL SCREENING

DANCING ARABS

OFFICIAL COMPETITION

RED LEAVES

BEN ZAKEN

SELF MADE

GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM

FRINGIDAIRE

MARZIPAN FLOWERS

10% MY CHILD

ISRAEL FILM FUND LEADING THE ISRAELI CINEMA IN ISRAEL AND WORLDWIDE www.filmfund.org.il info@filmfund.org.il

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REVIEWS

The Dance Of Reality Reviewed by Allan Hunter

Anatomy Of A Paper Clip Reviewed by Mark Adams A wonderfully whimsical, oddball delight, the amusingly titled Anatomy Of A Paper Clip might actually prove too slight and resolutely strange to prosper much beyond the film festival circuit, but its warm-hearted taste for the unusual and the quirky is to be applauded as it leaves its audience with a quizzical smile.

While playing knowingly on accepted Japanese traditions of politeness, hierarchy and respect, this engagingly shot film leaps off into the obscure with its fairytale-like story of a mild-mannered paperclip bender whose encounter with a butterfly in his minimalistic flat sees his world change.

Writer-director-producer-editor Akira Ikeda has a strong sense of his material, and manages to create a Japanese world that feels vaguely familiar, but at the same time is like nothing close to reality.

Neck-brace wearing Kogure (the engagingly stonefaced Sakae Tomomatsu) is one of an unhappy foursome who bends paperclips at a ramshackle factory. He allows himself to be cursed at by his boss, and after dinner at the same restaurant every night he returns to his empty apartment.

One day he finds a butterfly in his home and lets it fly away. The next day he finds a woman there — the surreal leap being that she is the butterfly transformed — who speaks nothing but gibberish. He lets her stay, but after a while she curls up in his flat and later becomes covered in a cocoon. Add to the mix a dour-faced love affair between a couple at the paperclip factory; the financial problems of Kogure’s favourite restaurant; the odd woman who sells tofu rolls in the park; and the antics of two bumbling thieves, and you have a surreal film that never shirks from its oddball nature.

Clearly much takes place in Kogure’s imagination — especially the giant person-sized cocoon in his flat — but then the whole film is defiantly strange. The mannered movements of the actors, the clothing and the static camera placements combine to deliver something rather tender and odd. It has moments of almost cartoonish comedy but at its tender core is a sense of gentle romance and rebirth.

Carte Blanche Jap. 2013. 99mins Director/screenplay/ producer/editor Akira Ikeda Production company/ contact PIA Film Festival, http://pff.jp/english Cinematography Mizuki Osada Production designer Mamoru Yamauchi Music Koji Numata Main cast Sakae Tomomatsu, Kazutoshi Kato, Yukari Hara, Toshiyuki Takahashi, Akiko An

Everything you wanted to know about Alejandro Jodorowsky but never imagined asking, can be found in The Dance Of Reality (La Danza De La Realidad), a joyously idiosyncratic exercise in imagined autobiography that revisits defining moments from his childhood in 1930s Chile. The first feature in almost a quarter of a century from the veteran director of El Topo and Santa Sangre is a surprisingly witty, accessible magical-mystery tour through his past that has cult potential in every baroque, eye-popping frame.

It acts as both a summation of many things that have fascinated him (religion, mysticism, poetry, philosophy) and as a means of explaining their personal roots. Jodorowsky has invented a therapy called psychomagic involving acts to “heal family-related childhood psychological problems”.

The Jodorowsky childhood in Tocopilla appears to have been manufactured by a combination of Fellini and Monty Python. A dwarf appears in a succession of lurid costumes trying to drum up business outside his father’s store, limbless drunkards lie around the city centre looking for a fight and circus performers are everywhere. You almost want the Spanish Inquisition to appear but maybe nobody expects them.

The Python connection is even more apparent given that Brontis Jodorowsky bears a striking similarity to the young Terry Gilliam as Jaime, a Stalin-loving Communist who measures his son’s masculinity by the amount of pain he can withstand. His mother Sara (Flores) is a large-breasted lady who sings every line of dialogue with the passion of a great opera diva. In life, she dreamed of being a singer but never managed it. In the film, she never stops singing and that is where Jodorowsky has put his imagination into play as he moulds and shapes true events into a more favourable light.

The film shifts in the second hour to focus more on the father’s spiritual and political journey towards enlightenment. A kaleidoscopic, sometimes chaotic torrent of striking images, comic exuberance and philosophical musing, The Dance Of Reality is never dull and could attract new converts to Jodorowsky’s world as well as the old faithfuls.

Masters

Fr. 2013. 130mins Director/screenplay Alejandro Jodorowsky Production company Camera One International sales Pathé International, sales@ patheinternational.com Producer Michel Seydoux, Moises Cosio, Alejandro Jodorowsky Cinematography Jean-Marie Dreujou Editor Maryline Montieux Production designer Anne Falgueres Music Adan Jodorowsky, Jonathan Handelsman Main cast Brontis Jodorowsky, Pamela Flores, Jeremias Herskovits

July 10, 2014 Screen International at Jerusalem 13 n

SCREENINGS

» Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press

Edited by Paul Lindsell paullindsell@gmail.com

of Koriko on the seacoast.

She opens a delivery service for a small bakery and becomes friendly with the locals, one of whom, a young man named Tombo, is enthusiastic about her flying talents.

Kiki will soon learn that independence involves responsibilities and hard work, and that only through these can she learn self-confidence and become a certified witch.

THURSDAY JULY 10 18:30 ANATOMY OF A PAPER CLIP

(Japanese) Pia Film Festival, Tokyo. 99mins.

Dir: Ikeda Akira. Key cast: Sakae Tomomatsu, Kazutoshi Kato, Yukari Hara, Toshiyuki Takahashi, Akiko An. Kogura is a lonesome bachelor who works as a paperclip bender in a small paperclip factory. In his dreary day-to-day job he has to contend with a cruel boss and with a pair of bullies (one tall and one short) who stalk him on the street and steal his clothing.

One day a butterfly appears in his small apartment. He sets it free and the next day it reappears, this time in the form of a woman who speaks an unintelligible language and consumes undistinguishable food.

Sounds crazy? Well this is only the beginning…

Carte Blanche Cinematheque4

19:00 THE DANCE OF REALITY

(France, Chile) The Festival Agency, Paris.

130mins. Dir: Alejandro Jodorowsky. Key cast: Brontis Jodorowsky, Pamela Flores, Jeremias Herskowits, Alejandro Jodorowsky.

The great Jodorowsky returns with an autobiographical work shot in the Chilean coastal city where he grew up, and presents us with a collection of characters from his family and childhood who contributed to the development of his surrealistic awareness.

He combines his personal history with elements of theatre, opera, mythology, and poetry, creating a film that reflects his ultimate motto: objective reality is a construct; reality is no more than a dance created by our imaginations.

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19:30 REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

(US) Park Circus, London. 111mins. Dir:

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10:00 SACRO GRA

THURSDAY JULY 10 22:00 OCTOBER NOVEMBER

(Austria) Match Factory, Cologne.

116mins. Dir: Gotz Spielmann. Key cast: Nora von Waldstatten, Ursula Strauss, Peter Simonischek, Sebastian Koch, Johannes Zeiler.

Sonja lives in a large city.

She is a famous, highly acclaimed actress but is stuck playing superficial roles and living a hedonistic existence.

Her life is in marked contrast to that of her older sister, Verena, who lives with husband and son in the family home

where the two sisters grew up in the heart of the Austrian Alps, caring for their infirm father. If there is something that the two sisters share, it is denial. While Sonja denies the identity crisis she is experiencing, Verena’s idyllic family life conceals the affair she is having with the local docto. When the father’s condition deteriorates and Sonja arrives for an extended visit, it is only a matter of time before secrets from the past begin to emerge.

Big Bang and to search for the elusive Higgs boson particle, which just might explain how the universe was created — or at least confirm or invalidate various scientific theories.

The film follows several scientists involved in the experiment and in the formulation of theories around it, proffering a layman’s explanation of the unique importance of the colossal experiment that many have claimed is a waste of money and some have predicted will spell the destruction of the world.

Panorama

Int. Documentaries

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21:45

Nicholas Ray. Key cast: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Dennis Hopper.

On the first day at a new high school, rebellious teenager Jim Stark gets into trouble with a bunch of popular kids. The series of confrontations leads him face to face with the question that troubles him most, in particular in light of his meek father: how to be a man. Nearly 60 years have passed since this masterpiece was released, defining the American high

■ 14 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10, 2014

World War Three breaks out. While white dust fills the sky and the army is evacuating the cities, Daisy will have to try to survive the catastrophe and to find comfort with people whom she hardly knows.

Gala Cinematheque1

22:00 OCTOBER NOVEMBER See box, left

FRIDAY JULY 11 09:30 HOW I LIVE NOW

(UK) Lev Films, Tel Aviv.

101mins.

Gala Cinematheque1

school drama as we know it.

HOW I LIVE NOW

KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE

Classics

(UK) Lev Films, Tel Aviv.

101mins. Dir: Kevin Macdonald. Key cast: Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland, George MacKay, Anna Chancellor, Corey Johnson.

Daisy is a young New Yorker who is sent from the big city to visit relatives in rural England. Armed with sunglasses and earphones, she of course feels like a fish out of water, but this turns out to be the least of her troubles. Soon enough (the film takes place in the not-distant future)

(Japan) Orlando Films, Tel Aviv. 103mins.

Dir: Hayao Miyazaki.

Key cast: Voices: Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma, Kappei Yamaguchi, Keiko Toda.

Kiki, a young optimistic witch, has just turned 13.

According to tradition, this is precisely the time to leave her home in the little village and seek out a new place where she can practise her skills as a witch. Together with a talking cat called Jiji, Kiki heads for the nearby city

Cinematheque2

20:30 PARTICLE FEVER

(US) roco Films, California. 100mins. Dir: Mark Levinson.

Humankind’s quest to understanding the universe has gone through some major upheavals in recent years. In Switzerland, scientists from all over the world have been running the Large Hadron Collider, trying to reconstruct the

(Italy) Doc&Film, Paris.

93mins. Dir: Gianfranco Rosi.

After documenting life and death on the Ganges River, an assortment of characters in the California desert, and a hired assassin working for the Mexican drug cartels, documentary film-maker Gianfranco Rosi decided to return home, to Italy. Over the course of two years he drove up and down the Gra, the giant ring road that encircles Rome, and documented encounters with people from all walks of life who live or work near the highway — from an impoverished aristocrat who rents out his family estate as a filming location, through exotic dancers, to a father and daughter who share an apartment, a botanist trying to save palm trees, an eel fisherman and a paramedic who frequently drives the “holy” highway.

Int. Documentaries Cinematheque3

TRUE FRIENDS

(France) Eden Cinema, Tel Aviv. 104mins. Dir: Stephan Archinard, Francois Prevot-Leygonie.

Key cast: Jean-Hughes Anglade, Gerard Lanvin, Wladimir Yordanoff.

Paul, Walter and Jacques are childhood friends in their 50s, each with very different personalities.

Paul is a writer lacking inspiration, Walter owns a renowned restaurant and Jacques, who is gay, is an intellectual bookseller in Paris. Walter, who is overly

FURTHER JFF COVERAGE, SEE SCREENDAILY.COM

closer to one another through their shared grief.

Panorama

HIMMO

Lev Smadar

(Canada) Film Sales, New York. 89mins. Dir: Alan Zweig.

“We’re the same people.

We complain, we eat, and we’re funny. That’s what being Jewish is all about” (Judy Gold). We all know Jewish jokes, but what is it about Jewish humour that makes it so unique?

Is it the mamalochen?

Is it the rhythm? The kvetching? The selfobsession? After all, as comedian Modi Rosenfeld reminds us, what goy is running around talking about being Christian?

Acclaimed documentary film-maker Alan Zweig sets out on a journey into the heart of Jewish humour, offering 80-plus minutes of interviews with some of the greatest Jewish comedians today.

(Israel) Ehud Bleiberg, Tel Aviv. 87mins. Dir: Amos Guttman. Key cast: Icho Avital, Yossi Graber, Shai Kapon.

It is 1948. Jerusalem is under siege. Hamutal, a beautiful young nurse whose boyfriend was killed in battle arrives at an abandoned monastery serving as a temporary hospital for wounded soldiers. She is sent to work in the bell tower, populated by cynical casualties. Himmo arrives, very severely wounded, despondent because of his condition, and wishing for death. Himmo and Hamutal develop a perverse yet passionate relationship that tests the boundaries between attraction and rejection, mercy and pain, the strength of life and longing for death — a conflict expressed in dialogues replete with macabre humour.

The Jewish Experience Cinematheque4

JFF Special Cinematheque2

12:15 WHEN JEWS WERE FUNNY

FRIDAY JULY 11 11:30 CANOPY

(Australia, Singapore) Odin’s Eye Entertainment, Brighton Le Sands. 84mins. Dir: Aaron Wilson.

Singapore, February 9, 1942. The height of the Second World War. A downed Australian fighter pilot wakes up

protective of Clemence (his 20-year-old daughter whom he raised alone following his divorce), believes that in friendship and love everything has to be in the open, and he does not tolerate lies.

When Clemence falls in love with Paul, despite their 30-year difference, they worry about Walter’s reaction. While many in their circle learn of the affair and come to accept it, they decide not to tell Walter right away, and so the lying begins.

Gala Lev Smadar

10:15 OSCARS SHORTS Cinematheque4

11:30 CANOPY See box, above

to find himself dangling between heaven and earth, his parachute caught in the treetops.

As night eats away at the daylight he must make his way through the thick jungle, trying to escape the Japanese forces and find shelter.

Debuts Competition Cinematheque1

Angeles. 95mins. Dir: Cao Guimaraes, Marcelo Gomes. Key cast: Paulo Andre, Silvia Lourenco, Jean-Claude Bernardet.

Juvenal is a train driver in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. He lives in a modest apartment and his social life consists of wandering through the city as one of the crowd.

Gradually a relationship develops between him and a station controller named Margo. Margo’s social life is comprised primarily of her relationship with her computer and the people she meets through it, including her fiance. When Margo asks Juvenal to be a witness at her wedding, he finds himself compelled to open up a little more.

Carte Blanche Cinematheque2

12:00

THE MAN OF THE CROWD

ALIZA

(Brazil) Figa Films, Los

(Israel) Heymann

Brothers Films. 58mins.

Dir: Tomer Heymann.

In 1995, mythological actress Aliza Rosen met Tomer Heymann, a young film director, just as he was starting his career.

After close to 20 years of film-making and 15 documentary films, Tomer returns to the materials and edits them, creating an intimate portrait — filled with sadness and humour — of a woman whose diverse career on the stage, television, and film did not prepare her for the most difficult role of all: exposing her private persona and life story to the camera.

Cambodian who barely speaks English, scarcely hides her dislike for Richard. To communicate with her, he hires a young translator. The mismatched pair attempt to carry on a dialogue and bridge cultural and linguistic gaps through memories of the man who was so dear to them both.

A drama about two strangers who are unable to communicate but draw

13:45

13:30

14:00

TIMBUKTU

CALVARY

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(UK, Ireland) Lev Films,

The Van Leer Awards for Israeli Cinema — Documentary Film Cinematheque3

LILTING

(UK) Protagonist Pictures, London.

91mins. Dir: Hong Khaou. Key cast: Ben Whishaw, Pei-pei Cheng, Andrew Leung.

The sudden death of Kai, a young Londoner, comes as a blow to his mother Joan and immerses her in grief. It also shatters Richard, Kai’s partner, who feels responsible for the bereaved mother.

He arrives at the house where she is staying and attempts to comfort her, but the mother, a Chinese-

FRIDAY JULY 11 13:30 TIMBUKTU

(France, Mauritania) Le Pacte, Paris.

100mins. Dir: Abderrahmane Sissako.

Key cast: Ibrahim Ahmed, Toulou Kiki, Abel Jafri, Fatoumata Diawara, Hichem Yacoubi.

The death of a cow in a bloody conflict between a shepherd and a fisherman encompasses the grim story of Mali, a West African country torn between

religious factions. The cow, nicknamed GPS, serves as a metaphor for a country held hostage by armed religious bulliess.

Under the theocratic regime it is forbidden to listen to Western music, wear immodest clothing, or even play football. A disturbing and fascinating portrait of a nation robbed of its cultural property.

In the Spirit of Freedom in Memory of Wim van Leer Cinematheque1

»

July 10, 2014 Screen International at Jerusalem 15 ■

SCREENINGS

artist remains imprisoned.

After years of captivity, he hires three short-statured criminals and gives them a week to steal “The Distance” — a mysterious object that is well-guarded inside the station by an odd security guard. While he awaits the results of the burglary, the artist scribbles a complex mathematical equation on the wall.

Contrary to the strange occurrences described herein (and they go on), the film very quickly finds its internal logic.

Carte Blanche Cinematheque4

I Believe in Unicorns See box, below

16:15

Friday July 11 14:00 Miss Violence

(Greece) Elle Driver, Paris. 98mins. Dir: Alexandros Avranas.

Key cast: Themis Panou, Eleni Roussinou, Reni Pittaki, Chloe Bolota, Sissy Toumasi, Kalliopi Zontanou, Konstantinos Athanasiades.

Members of a nuclear family dance to Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me To The End Of Love”, celebrating the 11th birthday of the beautiful Angeliki. On the surface everything looks more or less normal, but underneath this Tel Aviv. 100mins. Dir: John Michael McDonagh.

Key cast: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O’Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Dylan Moran.

Father James, a goodhearted Irish country priest, receives a death threat through the grille of the confessional. The crucifixion is set for the following Sunday. With a week to get his affairs in order, the priest reexamines different parts of his life and his relationship with his flock. He confronts questions of faith and sin, pondering his mission, the value of sacrifice and forgiveness versu revenge.

His preparation for death is further complicated by the visit of his daughter following a suicide attempt.

As the week progresses, the

celebration rumbles a disturbing, artificial atmosphere. When Angeliki climbs up onto the window sill and jumps to her death, it begins to become clear that something awful is happening in this family. Even stranger yet is that after the suicide, the family members go on with their day as if nothing happened.

Outside, the authorities begin to wonder what’s going on within the walls of this house…

In the Spirit of Freedom in Memory of Wim van Leer Cinematheque3

forces of darkness seem to close in on the things the priest holds dearest.

Panorama Lev Smadar

The Great Museum

(Austria) Wide House, Paris. 94mins.

Dir: Johannes Holzhausen.

A unique behind-thescenes look at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, which holds one of the largest art collections in the world, alongside noless-impressive antiques and coins collections. The film’s director, Johannes Holzhausen, documented the museum over the course of more than a year, observing the workers in the various branches of the museum

n 16 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10, 2014

— from the cleaners to the management — in their daily work of renovation, restoration, marketing, auctions, a presidential visit and exhibition openings. With no narration or voiceover, the director creates a fascinating portrait of a place that plays an important role in the preservation of European heritage and culture.

friendship becomes a sinister obsession with scientific purity and perfection. Unbeknown to the family, they are living with one of the greatest Nazi war criminals of all times.

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16:00 The Distance

(Spain) AM Films,

Barcelona. 80mins.

Dir: Sergio Caballero.

Key cast: Michal Lagosz, Alberto Martinez, Jinson Anazco.

The owner of a Siberian power station with a fetish for alien research, “purchases” an Austrian performance artist and locks him up in an abandoned barn next to the station. Even after the death of the oligarch, the

Swim Little Fish Swim

(US, France) Jour2Fete, Paris. 95mins. Dir: Ruben Amar, Lola Bessis. Key cast: Dustin Guy Deffa, Lola Bessis, Brooke Bloom.

Twenty-something Leeward is married, has a daughter, and lives in New York. He is also Jewish and has a set of overbearing parents… at least his grandmother is kind and understanding.

Carte Blanche Cinematheque4

Miss Violence See box, left

15:45 Wakolda

(France, Argentina, Spain, Norway) Nachshon Films, Ramat Gan. 93mins. Dir: Lucia Puenzo. Key cast: Natalia Oreiro, Alex Brandemuhl, Diego Peretti, Florencia Bado, Elena Roger.

Patagonia, 1960. A German doctor meets an Argentine family and follows them on a desert road to Bariloche, where he becomes the first guest at their refurbished lakeside inn. The family accept the doctor as one of their own, taking an interest in his medical advice, cultured way, and money. In the meantime, the doctor becomes fascinated by Lilith, the family’s daughter, who is undersized for her age and in need of mentorship. What begins as a seemingly innocent

Friday July 11 16:00 I Believe in Unicorns

(US) ICM Partners, Los Angeles.

80mins. Dir: Leah Meyerhoff. Key cast: Natalia Dyer, Peter Vack, Julia Garner.

Beautiful, fantasy-prone teenager Davina spends most of her free time taking care of her wheelchair-bound mother. Not finding her Prince Charming, she falls under the charms of the broodingly attractive Sterling, who plays games yet causes her

to fall madly in love with him. Davina is drawn into a whirlwind of romance and adventure, and proposes to Sterling that they go together on a road trip that will take them far from their small town. As they head on their way everything goes fine, more or less, but the enchantment of her new relationship quickly fades when Sterling’s volatile side begins to emerge.

Debuts Competition Cinematheque2

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discovers family life for the first time. While Martha’s health continues to decline, Claudia’s bond with the members of the household grows stronger and she becomes an integral part of the small and colourful tribe.

Difret

Debuts Competition Lev Smadar

together and surviving in the thick jungles of southwestern France.

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18:00 Black Coal, Thin Ice

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19:30

18:30

The Art Rush

The Amazing Catfish

Friday July 11 18:00 Black Coal, Thin Ice

(Hong Kong, China) Fortissimo, Amsterdam.

Dir: Diao Yinan. Key cast: Liao Fan, Gwei Lun Mei, Ni Jingyang, Wang Xuebing, Wang Jingchun, Yu Ailei.

A small town in northern China, 1999. A coal miner is brutally murdered and his body parts are discovered hundreds of kilometers apart throughout the region.

The police investigation reveals a potential suspect, but the attempt to capture him takes a heavy toll: two police officers dead

He wants to make music but is unemployed and his wife, who works as a hospital nurse, is pushing him to finally do something productive with his life.

Into the problematic relationship steps Lilas, a beautiful French artist who needs a place to stay. Lilas, who grew up overshadowed by a successful artist for a mother, has doubts about her own life and understands Leeward’s desire to realise himself and the artist within.

Gala Lev Smadar:30

and one badly injured.

Zhang Zili, the injured officer, is suspended from duty and has to take a job as a security guard at a factory. Five years later, when a series of mysterious murders once again plagues the region, Zhang decides to investigate the murders on his own. After discovering that all of the victims were connected to a beautiful young woman who works at a small dry cleaner, he decides to pose as a client in order to follow her.

Panorama Cinematheque2

and work of Abraham Halfi, the unsung hero of Hebrew culture whose greatest yearning was to shrink “into an unknown point,” as remarked in one of his poems. He was revealed to the public only in his final years, by the popular singer Arik Einstein, who recorded Halfi’s poem “Atur Mitzchech” (Your Forehead is Decorated) — the most beloved Israeli song of all time.

The Van Leer Awards for Israeli Cinema — Documentary Film Cinematheque3

Life of Poetry — The Story of Avraham Halfi

(Israel) Kastina Communications.

53mins. Dir: Uri Misgav.

A journey through the life

17:45 Beyond Clueless

(UK) The Film Sales Company, New York.

91mins. Dir: Charlie Lyne.

Back in the mid-1990s a new era of teen movies was born. It was a time when Cher Horowitz was the ultimate fashion icon, Freddie Prinze, Jr was the ultimate dreamboat, and cafeteria seating orders were mapped out carefully by clique. In the decade that followed, the phenomenon consolidated into a bona fide genre. Young film critic Charlie Lyne decided that the time has come to give proper due to the hitherto ignored post-John Hughesian teen-movie phenomenon. He compiled and edited excerpts from more than 200 films, made brilliant observations on each of them and on the genre as a whole, invited actress Fairuza Balk to narrate, and indie-pop band Summer Camp to compose the soundtrack.

The result is a wild and refreshing odyssey into the head, body and soul of a decade of teen movies, revealing new sides of one of the most fascinating genres in contemporary mainstream American cinema.

Cinemania Cinematheque4

during a martial-arts practice session. From the onset of the film, it is clear that one character is much stronger than the other: Arnaud is a quiet guy, pleasant and refined; Madeleine is an active sportswoman and a fighter. She’s also beautiful. When she registers for a military training camp, he joins her, almost by chance — and the love story develops from there: working

(France, Mexico) Pyramide, Paris. 89mins.

Dir: Claudia Sainte-Luce.

Key cast: Ximena Ayala, Lisa Owen, Sonia Franco.

Twenty-two-year-old Claudia lives alone and works as a product demonstrator at a supermarket. One day, after feeling sharp stomach pains, she winds up in the hospital with an acute case of appendicitis. She wakes up after her operation to meet her roommate, Martha, a warmhearted single mother of four. The two women are released from the hospital at the same time and the fast friendship brings Claudia for a visit at Martha’s house, where Claudia

Friday July 11 18:00 Difret

Love at First Fight

(France) BAC Films, Paris. Dir: Thomas Cailley. Key cast: Adele Haenel, Kevin Azais, Antoine Laurent, Brigitte Rouan, William Lebghil.

Arnaud falls in love with Madeleine, and it happens after she knocks him down on the floor

(France) The Festival Agency, Paris. 86mins.

Dir: Marianne Lamour.

When works of art are sold for tens of millions of dollars or more, it is clear that the art world is also — if not primarily — a market. The film takes us on a journey between the established art centres of Venice, Paris, Basel, and New York, to no less important centres in the 21st-century global art economy, such as Dubai, Hong Kong, and Beijing.

From art fairs, exhibition openings, and public auctions, to encounters with art dealers, curators, artistic consultants, collectors and even a few artists, the director tries to understand just how this global market works. Gradually a set of

(US, Ethiopia) Films Boutique, Berlin.

99mins. Dir: Zeresenay Berhane Mehari. Key cast: Meron Getnet, Tizita Hagere, Rahel Teshome.

Fourteen-year-old Hirut is abducted for marriage on the way home from school in a small village in the heart of Ethiopia. After she is raped, she manages to flee, shooting her captor in self-defence and killing him. All of the people in

the area demand that she be executed and police representatives in the region make half-hearted efforts to grant her fair treatment until the awaited verdict.

Enter Meaza, a lawyer who established an organisation that provides legal assistance to women, and fights with all her might for the rights and liberty of Hirot.

In the Spirit of Freedom in Memory of Wim van Leer Cinematheque3

»

July 10, 2014 Screen International at Jerusalem 17 n

SCREENINGS

rules and norms is revealed, in which astronomical price-tags make certain artists more sought after than others.

The Jerusalem Press club, Mishkanot Sha’ananim St, Jerusalem, Israel

Carte Blanche Cinematheque4

20:00

Editor

Catch Me Daddy

Wendy Mitchell, wendy.

(UK) Altitude, London.

107mins. Dir: Daniel Wolfe. Key cast: Sameena Jabeen Ahmed, Conor McCarron.

Laila, a teenager with pink hair, has brought shame upon her Pakistani family. She flees her home and lives with her Scottish boyfriend in a trailer on the edge of a town in West Yorkshire. Her father will not forgive her and sends a group of thugs to punish the rebellious girl and her boyfriend.

mitchell@screendaily.com,

Panorama Cinematheque2

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

(Israel) Deux Beaux Garcons Films, Tel Aviv. 113mins. Dir: Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz. Key cast: Ronit Elkabetz, Simon Abkarian, Menashe Noy, Sasson Gabay, Eli Gornstein, Rami Danon, Roberto Pollak, Albert Illuz, Evelin Hagoel, Ruby Porat Shoval, Ze’ev Revach, Dalia Begger, Avraham Selektar, Shmil Ben Ari, Gabi Amrani.

Israeli law does not allow a woman to divorce her husband without the latter’s consent. Marriage in Israel is governed by religious, not civil law.

Viviane Amsalem wants a divorce. But for years, her husband, Elisha, has refused to appear in Rabbinical Court. Once he finally appears, he refuses to grant her the longawaited divorce. Without his consent, Viviane is trapped in wedlock. The Rabbinical Court and its three presiding judges need sufficient grounds to force him to comply with her wishes. And even if “good cause” is found, they cannot grant her a “gett” — a divorce — in his place. The decisionmaking power is his and his alone, and Viviane has no choice but to wait, for

+44 7889 414 856 Chief reporter Andreas Wiseman, andreas. wiseman@screendaily.com, +44 7713 086 674 Reporter Melanie Goodfellow, melanie. goodfellow@btinternet.com Production editor

Friday July 11 22:30 The Raid 2

(US, Indonesia) Sony Pictures, Los Angeles.

150mins. Dir: Gareth Evans. Key cast: Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian.

Looking for a terrific action film with amazing cinematography?

Gareth Evans returns to Indonesia with his hero, Officer Rama.

This time, Rama goes

to jail as an undercover agent to expose a brutal crime gang. Naturally, the mission proves more difficult than expected and the hardened criminals are even tougher and more vicious than those in the first film, leading Rama on an odyssey of violence like no other.

Cinematheque3 Lev Smadar

years, until he agrees to set her free.

us requires breaking the law.

The Haggiag Awards for Israeli Cinema — Full Length Films Cinematheque1

Gala

20:15 Night Moves

(US) Match Factory, Cologne. 112mins. Dir: Kelly Reichardt. Key cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard.

Three environmentalists decide to pull off the biggest protest of their life: blowing up a hydraulic dam, which symbolises for them industrial culture and its devouring of resources and killing off of every source of natural energy. Harmon is a former marine, a hopeless adrenaline-seeker; Dena is a high-society drop-out; and Josh is a middle class guy who works on an organic farm. A thriller that poses questions about the implications of political extremism, and asks, among other things, when the situation around

n 18 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10, 2014

Cinematheque3

20:30 Jimmy P

(US, France) United King, Ramat Hasharon.

117mins. Dir: Arnaud Desplechin. Key cast: Benicio Del Toro, Mathieu Amalric, Gina McKee. Jimmy Picard, an American Indian who fought in the Second World War, suffers from debilitating headaches, loss of hearing and peculiar dreams. The military hospital classifies him as schizophrenic, but his situation is extremely confusing. Enter French psychoanalyst Georges Devereux, who is researching Native American culture and is called upon by hospital staff in an effort to solve the riddle of the mysterious patient. The two develop a warm and unusual relationship, examining

Jimmy’s memories and dreams like a pair of detectives.

Masters Lev Smadar

21:30 Yozgat Blues

(Germany, Turkey) Hokus Fokus, Istanbul.

93mins. Dir: Mahmut Fazil Coskun. Key cast: Ercan Kesal, Tansu Bicer, Ayca Damgacı.

Long-time night-club singer Yavuz’s repertoire consists mostly of songs from the 1970s. With his career in serious decline, nowadays he mostly preforms at shopping centres and gives free music lessons. Frustrated by his current gigs, he looks for work in other places and hears about a club in the city of Yozgat that is looking for singers.

To be precise, they’re looking for a male-female duo. He proposes to one of his students to join him, and the two make their way to the small city. But in Yozgat, not everything goes according to plan…

Panorama Cinematheque4

22:15 Moebius

(South Korea) Finecut, Seoul. 89mins. Dir: Kim Ki-Duk. Key cast: Cho Jae-hyun, Seo Young-ju, Lee Eun-woo.

A betrayed woman threatens her husband with revenge while their teenage son is busy with web pornography and comics. When she fails in

her attempt to stab her husband, she takes out her vengeance on the son, cuts off his penis with a knife and escapes into the night. From here, the macabre plot moves into even wilder territory such that even sworn fans of South Korean master Kim Ki-Duc will find it difficult to remain indifferent: purchase of human organs via internet, gang rape, extreme forms of sexual gratification and other examples of sadism and misogyny.

Masters Cinematheque2

22:30 Obvious Child

(US) The Exchange, Los Angeles. 83mins. Dir: Gillian Robespierre. Key cast: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffmann, Gabe Liedman, Richard Kind, Polly Draper.

Donna Stern is a young, sharp-tongued comedienne. On stage, she projects total sincerity, captivating her audience by sharing the most intimate details of her life. Over a period of a few days she manages to get dumped by her boyfriend, loses her job and gets knocked up from a casual encounter. She decides to have an abortion and on the way perhaps become better acquainted with the guy who got her pregnant.

Gala Cinematheque1

The Raid 2 See box above

Mark Mowbray, mark. mowbray@screendaily.com, +44 7710 124 065 Sub editors Paul Lindsell, Adam Richmond

International sales consultant Gunter Zerbich, gunter. zerbich@screendaily.com, +44 7540 100 254 Commercial director Andrew Dixon, andrew. dixon@screendaily.com, +44 7595 646 541 Production manager Jonathon Cooke, jonathon. cooke@mb-insight.com, +44 7584 333 148

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Shekel Reframing Reality International Film Festival Challenging the Concept of Disability

‫שק”ל‬ ‫מציאות‬ ‫יוצרים‬ ‫פסטיבל בינלאומי לסרטים‬

‫המאתגרים את תפיסת המוגבלות‬

SHEKEL INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL NOVEMBER 2015

2010 The Joker (SHEKEL performer, Brian Friedland) speaks at opening night of first SHEKEL Film Festival

2011

See Film: ‘See What What I'm Saying I'm Saying’ on rock singer TL Forsberg (USA).

Forsberg also performed live

2012

2013

A film on the Staff Benda Bilili band (Congo) which also performed in Israel in partnership with SHEKEL and The Israel Festival

Homage to renowned Israeli actor and film maker, the late Assi Dayan (pictured here with Lia Van Leer, honorary president of festival, and founder of Cinematheque)

Reframing Reality CHALLENGING THE CONCEPT OF DISABILITY at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, Jerusalem, Israel

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