Screen Jerusalem Day 2

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FRIDAY, JULY 14 – SATURDAY, JULY 15 2017

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FRIDAY, JULY 14 – SATURDAY, JULY 15 2017

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TODAY

Wind River

FEATURE Project market Industry fired up for sixth annual Sam Spiegel Lab » Page 6

Women directors on rise in Israel

REVIEW Wind River Taylor Sheridan’s directorial debut is more than just another action film » Page 12

BY TOM GRATER

The Israeli film industry recorded a strong year for female filmmakers in 2016. At JFF last year, Screen reported that in 2015 only 10% of the country’s feature films were directed by women, but that figure rose last year to 31%. In total, 10 of the 32 narrative feature films produced in Israel in 2016 were directed by female filmmakers, according to statistics compiled by Lior Elefant, who heads up lobbying organisation Women in Film and Television Israel Forum.

Speaking to Screen International at last year’s JFF, Elefant predicted the situation would improve as the major Israeli film funds sought to place more emphasis on boosting women directors. Katriel Schory, executive director of the Israel Film Fund, notes: “The percentage of women directors reached 37% in the last couple of years. But this is based on the simple fact that the stories are strong.”

Veronica Kedar, director of Family which premieres here in competition, insists it is “hard for everyone in Israel to make films, not just women... but things are better than they used to be”.

SCREENINGS

» Page 16-18 Arsinée Khanjian

Todd Solondz

Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Anna Muylaert

Solondz, Makhmalbaf prepare for Quarters

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

US director Todd Solondz, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, actress-screenwriter Arsinée Khanjian and Brazilian director Anna Muylaert have arrived in Jerusalem to begin pre-production on a portmanteau feature set against the backdrop of the Old City. Entitled The Quarters, the film will capture the four different districts of the Old City — Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian — through the eyes of an outsider with ethnic or religious ties to the neighbourhood.

Set against the backdrop of the Jewish Quarter, Solondz’s contribution will revolve around a 13-yearold American Jewish boy who reluctantly comes to Israel for the

first time to perform his bar mitzvah. Makhmalbaf will tackle the Muslim Quarter with a tale of four friends who decide to run away together because they fear the religious divisions around them will eventually drive them apart.

Muylaert ’s story revolves around a hairdresser from Rio de Janeiro who makes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with her 17-year-old daughter to get over her cheating ex-husband. Khanjian follows a young Parisian girl of Armenian origin who visits the city to help her grandfather pack up the family photography business.

The four filmmakers have come to the city during the festival to location scout and work on their

screenplays, which are still worksin-progress, under the guidance of Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis in the role of artistic director. The project has been developed by Gal Greenspan and Maya Fisher at Green Productions. “The Old City is a busy and fascinating space, a maze of identities and conflicts, which has so many interesting stories to tell,” says Greenspan.

Also on board the project are Scott Berry of Impulse Pictures in collaboration with Canada’s Six Island Productions, Brazil’s Migdal Films and Israeli distributor and exhibitor United King Films. JFF will host a panel with the directors and producers on Sunday (July 16) to officially launch the project.

Kinoclan kicks off female focus with Poetess

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

Female film collective Kinoclan makes its feature debut at Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF) with Dana Goldberg and Efrat Mishori’s Death Of A Poetess, which premieres tonight (July 14) in the Israeli Feature Competition section. The black-and-white, microbudget film — made for less than $28,500 (ILS100,000) — is the first feature-length production made under the Kinoclan banner since its creation 18 months ago.

In the film, 50-year-old Israeli researcher Lenny Sade (Evgenia Dodina), who is facing the last day of her life, and Yasmin (Samira

Saraya), a nurse hailing from the Arab community in Jaffa, meet for a critical moment.

Directorial duo Goldberg and Mishori set up Kinoclan in 2016 with the aim of creating works of art across all media which represents the female experience through women’s eyes. “It was founded out of a team of filmmakers who’ve been working together for more than a decade,” says Goldberg, who has made numerous shorts as well as 2012 feature Alice.

“We’re interested in feminist filmmaking and the representation of women but our members are not only women,” she adds.

Death Of A Poetess

Goldberg reveals she decided to shoot Death Of A Poetess on a micro-budget, using a small inheritance she received from her late father to kickstart the project, after failing to get other projects financed through more traditional

channels. On the back of an original idea from Mishori, the pair shot the film over four days, with the actresses improvising the scenes. “We had a treatment but no script,” says Goldberg.

After submitting a rough cut to the film funds, the project secured post-production support from the Israel Film Fund and the Gesher Fund. With plenty of buzz building around the film as it premieres at JFF, Goldberg hopes it acts as a calling card for two other features she has in development, including Mother Of All Soldiers, which won a development prize at the 2015 Haifa Film Festival.

The ‘dark side’ of Godard

BY TOM GRATER

Speaking at JFF, Michel Hazanavicius, director of Jean-Luc Godard biopic Redoubtable, said he was mindful of accusations of anti-Semitism faced by the New Wave director. “It’s one of his dark sides,” said Hazanavicius, who is of LithuanianJewish heritage. “I had to face that problem, as a writer and as a Jew.” To address the topic, Hazanavicius pointed out he had inserted a sequence that was not present in the novel on which the screenplay is based. “I think he has an obsession with Israel and the Jews. I don’t know if he’s anti-Semitic, but if he is, it’s his problem.”

Promises producer boards Israeli debut Robert Lantos, the producer of David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, is on board to produce the feature directing debut of emerging Israeli actressfilmmaker Dana Lerer.

Lerer, a Tel Aviv University graduate, has directed five shorts to date, including The Fine Line, which played at Jerusalem Film Festival in 2015, winning a special mention from the short film competition jury.

With a working title of Seven Nights, Lerer’s feature debut is being made with two Canadian partners: Lantos’ Serendipity Point Films and Julia Rosenberg, whose credits include István Szabó’s Sunshine. Tom Grater

NEWS

F LO IRS OK T

Avi Nesher’s Pilgrim on location in east Jerusalem

Pilgrim’s progress Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher is currently shooting his new feature Pilgrim in Jerusalem. The film revolves around a once brilliant but now disillusioned and penniless psychologist, Jonathan Kedem (Yuval Segal), who is called back to Israel from the US by his ex-wife (Maya Dagan) to dissuade their daughter Anat (Joy Rieger) from marrying into the ultra-Orthodox community. With Anat’s rejection of secular values driving a potential wedge between her and her family, Jonathan’s journey plunges him into Jerusalem’s “cauldron of competing faiths and passions”.

Pilgrim’s shoot has taken Nesher all over Jerusalem, from the religious neighbourhood of Givat Mordechai to an east Jerusalem neighbourhood running alongside the separation wall. Describing the latter location as “one of the most dangerous places in today’s east Jerusalem”, the writer-directorproducer tells Screen: “As our film deals with extremism and its many variations, we took quite a chance by deciding to film there, but we felt that the subject matter of the film warranted that risk.”

Pilgrim is the second instalment in Nesher’s so-called “Past” trilogy, after his 2016 Holocaust legacy drama Past Life, about two Israeli sisters who discover a dark secret about their father’s past. Rieger, who played one of the sisters in Past Life and is regarded as one of Israel’s most exciting new acting talents, reunites with Nesher on Pilgrim. Israeli pop singer Nathan Goshen makes his big-screen debut as Anat’s pious fiancé Hasid.

The production, which began shooting on June 18 and is due to wrap July 30, is produced by Nesher alongside his partners on Past Life, David Silber, David Milch, Moshe Edery and Leon Edery.

Melanie Goodfellow

Archive treasures its restorations

BY TOM GRATER

For the past three years, Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF) has hosted screenings of digitally restored Israeli classics commissioned by the Cinematheque’s Israel Film Archive. This year’s selection is drama Siege (Matzor), Gilberto Tofano’s 1969 feature about a woman who tries to move on after losing her husband in the 1967 Six-Day War. It screens here on Wednesday (July 19).

The archive is “a national treasu r e ”, s a y s f e s t i v a l a n d Cinematheque executive director Noa Regev. “It’s the core element of all of the Cinematheque’s activities,” she adds. “When I entered this position, it was clear to me that the most important project was to establish the digitisation and preservation efforts.”

Restoring Siege was originally proposed three years ago, reveals Meir Russo, the festival’s archive manager. The project was postponed for budgetary reasons (it costs at least $25,000 to restore each feature) but the team kept Siege in mind because, notes

Siege

Russo, “it’s a unique film”. Regev agrees: “Siege should receive much more attention in Israeli culture. It was one of the first films to deal with war and mourning from a female perspective.”

The restoration process didn’t begin until late February 2017, when the master negative was sent to Cinelab Romania in Bucharest to be scanned into digital 4K. It then came back to Israel for restoration at post-production house Opus Productions’ digital lab. The project was supported by United King Films, which owns

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the rights to the film, and the Rabinovich Foundation. The process was in part overseen by David Gurfinkel, the original film’s cinematographer, who will attend the festival screening.

Russo praises Regev for the backing she has given the archive, which has seen it produce two high-profile Israeli feature restorations in the last two years: Three Days And A Child, which played in Jerusalem in 2015, and Avanti Popolo, which played here last year and at the 2017 Berlinale in its Classics programme. The digital

restoration of Siege premiered at this year’s Cannes in the Classics strand, and has already been programmed for festivals in Australia and the US; the original film premiered in Competition at the 22nd Cannes Film Festival in 1969.

This year, the Cinematheque is redoubling its efforts to digitise the archive, with the plan bolstered by the establishment’s recent purchase of its own digitisation technology, which makes it the first Israeli lab to be able to complete the process. There are around 30,000 films housed in the archive, a figure that Regev estimates represents “95% of all Israeli fiction and documentary films”.

They are aiming to digitise the entire archive within the next five to seven years, including features, shorts such as the Lumiere Brothers’ 1896 film Leaving Jerusalem By Railway and historical newsreels.

After the festival, they are planning to set up a committee of directors, producers, journalists and archivists to advise on which titles should be restored next.

Morning reawakens for Kolirin

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

Israeli director Eran Kolirin is gearing up to shoot his adaptation of Palestinian writer Sayed Kashua’s 2006 novel Let It Be Morning, about an Arab village under Israeli blockade, early next year. “We’ve started casting and the aim is to shoot in February 2018,” says Keren Michael, creative producer at the feature film arm of Israeli media and entertainment company Dori Media Paran, who is overseeing the production.

Kolirin had put development of the film on hold for a few months to focus on promoting his last feature Beyond The Mountains And Hills, which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2016 and went on to play in several territories and festivals worldwide.

“We’ve just got a new draft and have kickstarted the project again this month,” says Michael.

The producer also reveals that Kolirin’s long-time sales agent The Match Factory recently signed to handle the film internationally.

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SPOTLIGHT SAM SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL FILM LAB

Reaping

the fruits Previous Sam Spiegel International Film Lab projects include Oscar winner Son Of Saul, so it’s no surprise that sales agents and financiers are in town for this year’s edition, reports Melanie Goodfellow

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resenting the latest round of projects from its seven-month development programme, Sam Spiegel International Film Lab is holding its sixth pitching event on the fringes of Jerusalem Film Festival, beginning on Friday (July 14). Some 40 international buyers, sellers and producers will join an international jury presided over by Hengameh Panahi, founder and CEO of Celluloid Dreams, for two days of pitches and one-on-one mentoring sessions. Prizes worth $70,000, sponsored by the Beracha Foundation, will be handed out on the final day.

What the lab’s namesake, legendary producer Sam Spiegel, would have thought of the initiative, we will never know. Chances are the producer of classics such as The African Queen and Lawrence Of Arabia — who passed away in 1985 — would have been struck by the variety of the selection, in terms of subject matter, genre and origin. “They’re all very different and more than half of them are directed by women this year,” comments Renen Schorr, director of Jerusalem’s Sam Spiegel Film & Television School, who spearheaded the creation of the event in 2011 and now oversees it with associate director Ifat Tubi.

“We’re looking for character-driven stories rather than special-effects or castdriven works, whether they’re autobiographical, inspired by social issues or trying to make a political statement — we’re open to everything,” he explains.

“It’s important to stress we’re also not just about arthouse projects, and strive for a mix. We love comedies. We try to include at least one in each selection.”

International projects This year’s joker in the pack is Norwegian director Gunhild Enger’s dark comedy Bulevardi Bill Clinton, about a group of

‘We achieved more in the first five years than we ever imagined’

Fig Tree

Renen Schorr, Sam Spiegel Film & Television School

seemingly liberal Norwegian friends whose hidden prejudices and rivalries are laid bare on a tour of Kosovo and Albania.

Philippine-based Malaysian filmmaker Bradley Liew will present his morality drama Motel Acacia, about a young man who inherits a brothel with a government-backed mandate to lure and then exterminate illegal immigrants.

Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili will present her debut feature Naked Sky, a personal redemption about a disillusioned writer who returns to his village to reconcile with his dying father.

Kulumbegashvili also developed the project at the Cannes Cinéfondation Résidence in Paris, having premiered her debut short Invisible Spaces at the festival in 2014. Her second short, Lethe, premiered in Directors’ Fortnight in 2016.

Other international projects include Dutch director Ricky Rijneke’s The Hunter’s Son, which revolves around an isolated teenager living in a remote borderland area with his violent father. It is Rijneke’s second feature, after her welltravelled debut Silent Ones. France’s Myriam Gharbi will present her energetic drama Pirates, about a young woman who falls in with a group of anarchic squatters on being released from prison.

6 Screen International at Jerusalem July 14-15, 2017

Sam Spiegel 2017 Lab participants

Sam Spiegel International Film Lab 2017 participants

Israeli projects The selection is traditionally split roughly 50/50 between international and local Israeli projects. This year’s Israeli participants include Maya Dreifuss’ thriller Highway 65, about a small-town female police officer investigating the disappearance of a local woman. Pini Tavger will unveil culture-clash drama Pinhas, about a young Russian immigrant growing up in a poor neighbourhood inhabited by both religious and secular families.

Other Israeli projects include Hadar Morag’s Talitha Kumi, an intense study of guilt and revenge revolving around the sadomasochistic relationship between an elderly man and his female carer.

Noam Kaplan will present The Woman Who Assassinated The Minister Of Space And Tourism, which hinges on the interrogation by a female Israeli intelligence agent of the first Palestinian woman to assassinate an Israeli minister.

Ongoing legacy Since its launch in 2011, the lab has welcomed more than 60 projects, many of which have gone on to do well on the festival circuit. “We achieved more in the first five years than we ever imagined,” says Schorr. “More than 75% of the lab’s films have been completed. We’ve had six films in Cannes, one Oscar, and the films are everywhere.”

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‘[The lab prize] was an important sign that people understood what I was trying to achieve’ Alamork Marsha, director

Early participants included Philippe Lacote’s Run and Nadav Lapid’s The Kindergarten Teacher, which both debuted in Cannes in 2014. It was Laszlo Nemes’ 2012 participant Son Of Saul, however, that truly put the lab on the map when it scooped the foreign-language Oscar in 2016. Also in 2016, Boo Junfeng’s Apprentice and Asaph Polonsky’s One Week And A Day premiered respectively in Cannes Un Certain Regard and Critics’ Week.

The lab’s festival presence in 2017 has been assured by Mexican director Ernesto Contreras’ I Dream In Another Language, which premiered at Sundance. Another dozen participant projects are at the post-production stage and expected to hit the festival circuit in the coming months (see box, right).

Recent participant Alamork Marsha, who won the $50,000 top prize at the pitching event in 2014 with her upcoming Ethiopia-set feature Fig Tree, says she never felt under pressure to rush her screenplay to completion during the lab.

Her mentor, respected script editor and producer Koby Gal-Raday (The Band’s Visit), instead advised her to spend time developing the characters.

“From the very first meeting, Koby kept telling me I didn’t have to leave the lab with a finished screenplay. The important thing, he said, was to leave with an understanding of my characters to the depths of the depths,” she recalls.

“After I completed the first round, my

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script went in so many different directions that even my producers Naomi [Levari] and Saar [Yogev] were frightened that I had quite literally lost the plot,” she says. “But it was a very important process, opening up the worlds of my characters and getting to know them in depth, which helped me to write them and later on direct them.”

Despite this open approach, participants are expected to keep to strict deadlines in terms of delivering rewrites with discussions during the lab. “At one point, they kicked me out because I was not keeping up with the schedule,” says Marsha.” I was really angry with myself and it marked a turning point for the script after I pulled my finger out and insisted on returning.”

For Marsha, who hails from Israel’s minority Ethiopian community, the prize in 2014 delivered a tremendous boost to her confidence as a director. “It was an important sign that people understood what I was trying to achieve, because most of my life I have felt misunderstood,” she explains.

Cash crunch In spite of praise and kudos both at home and internationally, the lab’s future remains uncertain, says Schorr. The programme will lose the support of the Israel National Lottery Fund after this edition, under rules stipulating that the body cannot back any one initiative for more than five years, which will leave a hole in the budget.

“Everyone loves what we do but it’s a constant struggle to find partners,” says Schorr. “The departure of the lottery will be a headache for us but I am an optimistic guy. We will keep on with the lab next year, somehow, and continue o u r s e a rc h for new and internaI Dream In tional partAnother s Language ners.” ■

FILM LAB’S NEXT BATCH

Coming attractions Melanie Goodfellow spotlights the latest selection of lab projects Spiegel International Film Lab’s star looks poised to continue shining brightly at home and on the international festival circuit in the coming months as eight former participant projects come to fruition.

Veronica Kedar’s Family — which took the top prize in the second edition of the lab’s pitching event in 2013 — will premiere in JFF’s Israeli Feature Competition this year. Kedar directs and stars as the female protagonist who murders members of her dysfunctional family one by one and then heads off to her therapist to discuss what she has done.

A second project from the same 2012 intake, which was pitched in July 2013, Yehonatan Indursky’s Before Memory is also hotly tipped for an early autumn festival splash. The personal redemption tale, set and shot against the backdrop of the ultra-orthodox city of Brak Bnei, stars Moshe Folkenflick as a man who makes a living by taking a cut from the collections of beggars whom he drives to wealthy homes in search of deep-pocketed donors. When he is suddenly left in sole charge of his nine-year-old daughter, the two embark on a journey of self-discovery together. The feature, which is sold internationally by Beta Cinema, is the latest collaboration between Talia Kleinhendler and Osnat Handelsman-Keren for Pie Films and Moshe Edery and Leon Edery of United King, following their local box-office hit The Women’s Balcony.

International projects in post-production include Icelandic filmmaker Asa Hjorleifsdottir’s coming-of-age drama The Swan, about a wayward girl who is sent to a remote farm for the summer where she finds herself caught up in a complex situation. According to producer Birgitta Björnsdóttir at Vintage Pictures, the film is about to complete its final sound mix. “We have had interest from festivals and are weighing our options,” she notes.

Other international projects in the final stages of post-production include Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor’s Too Late To Die Young, which is about three children living in an alternative community caught up in a devastating forest fire, and Romanian filmmaker Paul Negoescu’s drama Never Let Go, about a maths teacher who tries to get his colourful love life under control when his girlfriend falls pregnant.

From Israel film-maker Keren Ben Rafael’s Virgins — set against the backdrop of a down-at-heel beach town shaken-up by a fisherman’s sighting of a mermaid — is in post-production and should be ready for an early 2017 festival splash. Paris-based Pyramide International is handling world sales.

Other recent Israeli participants Red Heifer, Echoes and Fig Tree will be previewing rough cuts in the Jerusalem Pitch Point event, which takes place as part of the festival’s industry’s programme on Monday (July 17). The films are also expected to hit the festival circuit in the coming months.

Veronica Kedar’s Family

Family

July 14-15, 2017 Screen International at Jerusalem 7

Avi Nesher’s new film Pilgrim

Expanding realities As it approaches its 10th anniversary, the Jerusalem Film & Television Fund is pushing into the hi-tech worlds of virtual reality, visual effects and gaming. Melanie Goodfellow reports

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hen it launched in 2008, the Jerusalem Film & Television Fund pretty much did what it said on the tin: focused on encouraging local and international features and TV series to shoot in the city. But over time its remit has steadily expanded. Some four years ago, the fund began spearheading the creation of an animation sector in the city and now, as its 10th anniversary approaches, it is plotting an ambitious drive into the hi-tech worlds of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), visual effects and gaming.

“We want to be one of the leading cities in the world in this new digital arena,” says fund director Yoram Honig. “We’re looking into the possibilities around AR and VR. They’re still at the experimental stage but we believe [the industry] will grow and want to be a part of it.”

Hi-tech drive Much of Israel’s thriving hi-tech sector is to be found in the country’s so-called ‘Silicon Wadi’ in Tel Aviv and other smaller coastal plain hubs such as Ra’anana and Petah Tikva, but Honig believes the fund can entice new start-

‘We want to be one of the leading cities in the world in this new digital arena’ Yoram Honig, Jerusalem Film & Television Fund

Being Solomon

ups to Jerusalem too. The city has already started attracting other sectors in the hi-tech industry.

“In the space of some three, four years, we’ve seen the number of tech companies grow from 250 to 650,” says Udi Ben Dror, deputy general director of the fund’s parent body the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA).

The agency has made film, TV and

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other related industries a key plank of its strategy to support business and grow jobs in the city.

Honig is confident Jerusalem can build a digital creation scene in the same way it launched an animation sector.

“Three or four years ago, when we said we’re going to build an animation industry in the city, everyone laughed,” says Honig. “But we’ve succeeded.”

Under that push, the fund introduced a 35% cash rebate for animation productions that are 80% produced in the city, and also encouraged companies such as VFX and 3D animation specialist Snowball Studios — which has offices in Tel Aviv, Toronto and London — to open a branch in Jerusalem. Local animators have since worked on Snowball commissions such as Star Darlings (Disney Channel Junior) and Barbie Dreamtopia (Mattel). The company recently began two training programmes, one aimed specifically at religious women, as part of a plan to scale up its operations in the city.

Other upcoming animations supported by the drive include Old Testa-

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Iris Nesher

SPOTLIGHT JERUSALEM FILM & TELEVISION FUND

Film focus As well as pursuing new avenues and new technologies, the fund remains committed to film and TV, enticing local and international productions to Jerusalem through a combination of incentives, grants for Israeli films and logistical support. “We’re the only place in Israel offering an incentive to international productions,” says Dror.

The efforts of the past nine years are also increasingly bearing fruit on the local front. Dror says there are signs that students studying at the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School and Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design are increasingly staying in the city once their courses are completed rather than heading to Tel Aviv.

‘We’re the only place in Israel offering an incentive to international productions’

INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION

Coming to Jerusalem UK filmmaker John Deery tells Melanie Goodfellow why he is determined to shoot his next film, drama The Rock Pile, in the holy city

Udi Ben Dror, Jerusalem Development Authority

Also, when the fund was launched, only 30 of the 700 Israeli films made during the country’s 60-year history had been shot in Jerusalem. Since the fund’s creation, it has brought 60 local productions to the city. “Tel Aviv traditionally dominated the big screen but this is changing,” asserts Honig.

According to statistics released by the fund at the beginning of 2017, Israeli films set and shot in Jerusalem accounted for a record-breaking 700,000 of the two million cinema admissions racked up by local titles in 2016, led by Emil Ben-Shimon’s The Women’s Balcony and Avi Nesher’s Past Life. Nesher is back in the city this summer shooting Pilgrim. The second film in his so-called ‘Past Trilogy’, it stars Yuval Segal as a failed academic who returns to Jerusalem from the US to try to dissuade his estranged daughter — played by Joy Rieger — from marrying into the ultra-Orthodox community. The film is due to be completed in the first half of 2018. In the meantime, other Jerusalem-set titles due to hit the big screen include Amichai Greenberg’s Holocaust legacy thriller The Testament and Ofir Raul Graizer’s bereavement drama The Cakemaker. The latter is screening at this year’s JFF. Attracting international productions has proven more difficult although Joseph Cedar’s recent Hebrew and English-language feature Norman did see Richard Gere touching down in the city for the shoot, which saw an old station depot in the city posing as New York’s Fifth Avenue. “It’s an example of what we can do here,” says Dror.

The fund may also welcome a rare international production next year in the shape of John Deery’s The Rock Pile, starring Hugh Bonneville as a jaded war correspondent on assignment in the city (see box, right). Honig acknowledges it can be complicated enticing international productions to Jerusalem against the backdrop of Middle East tensions. “It’s one of the factors behind our push into animation, CGI and digital content,” he says. “It’s a way of working with international companies without them having to physically send their talent s over here.” ■

Alamy

ment-inspired features Being Solomon and Legend Of Destruction and the fund will hold a second edition of its Hop, Skip & A Jump meeting, which is designed to foster the city’s animation scene, during Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF). This year’s event will feature animator Eric ‘Bibo’ Bergeron (Shark Tale, A Monster In Paris) among the guests.

Six new animation projects will be presented at the event including Eldad Sery and Michael Kagan’s animal world fantasy Going Viral, about a group of savannah animals who take to social media. The project was pitched at a pitching event organised by the Annecy International Animated Film Festival’s Mifa market.

The fund will take a similar approach for its hi-tech drive. “As with animation, we’ll be taking a two-pronged approach, supporting companies to build studios in Jerusalem and also encouraging Israeli and international companies to carry out their projects here,” says Honig.

The fund has secured an extra $5.6m (ILS20m) in state funding to help kickstart the drive. In addition, it also recently struck a deal with the Canada Media Fund (CMF) for a joint co-development and co-production incentive, aimed at TV projects as well as digital media projects in VR, AR, videogames, documentary and animation. Under the scheme, the two bodies will combine resources to make a maximum joint contribution of $75,000 for development and $150,000 for production.

Producers based in both partner territories have until October 19 to submit their projects.

Other initiatives include a recent factfinding mission to Finland — home to a multibillion-dollar gaming industry led by companies such as Angry Birds creators Rovio Entertainment — to help gain an inside view of how the country built its digital content industry.

erusalem has captured the imagination of filmmakers since the early days of cinema, even featuring in an 1896 film commissioned by the Lumière brothers. But political and security concerns linked to the Middle East conflict mean few international productions have physically touched down in Jerusalem over the years. However, one non-local filmmaker determined to shoot in the city is UK producer-director John Deery. He is currently in the final stages of financing his long-gestating drama The Rock Pile, about three Jerusalemite boys of different faiths drawn together by football.

Deery hopes the production will roll in 2018, having already attached Hugh Bonneville, Hope Davis and Alan Ritchson for the cast. “It’s quite an emotional piece but even though the film is set in the conflict-ridden Middle East, it’s not without humour,” explains Deery. “The heart of the film is the boys and them coming together.”

Bonneville is set to play jaded Time magazine correspondent Bob Hastings, who befriends the three boys when he is sent John Deery, director on assignment to Jerusalem.

Davis has signed to play his tough-talking editor back in New York. “It’s a different role for Hugh from the upper-class guys we’re used to seeing him play,” says Deery, who first directed Bonneville in his 2003 feature Conspiracy Of Silence.

Deery is producing the film through his London-based company Joejack Entertainment alongside US writer-producer David McBrayer of Atlanta-based Z Productions, who wrote the screenplay, and Israeli producer Haim Mecklberg at 2-Teams Productions. Having found a number of private backers, Deery is seeking a final tranche of finance to close the $7m budget. “It’s been a battle to get the project to the point where we can start attaching finance but I am sure we will get it away,” he says. “Once it’s greenlit, we’ll start casting the kids out of the area.”

For Deery, it is “vital” that the film shoots in Jerusalem and he has already scouted locations just outside the Old City walls. The Jerusalem Film & Television Fund has indicated it will come onboard once the project is greenlit. “My intention is to shoot on location in Jerusalem,” says Deery. “It’s an incredible place with an incredible atmosphere. I know it’s a cliché but the city will be a character and its very essence will permeate the film.”

He is also determined to gain support for the film from both the Israeli and Palestinian communities living in the city. “People on both sides have read it and liked it,” he declares. “One person from the Arab community said to me, ‘This is a story that has to be told even if it contains some s uncomfortable truths for both sides.’” ■

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‘The city will be a character and its very essence will permeate the whole film’

Hugh Bonneville

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July 14-15, 2017 Screen International at Jerusalem 9

Getty Images

US FILMMAKER FOCUS SAFDIE BROTHERS & SOFIA COPPOLA

Benny Safdie (left) and Josh Safdie (right) with actor Robert Pattinson

Brothers bloom

US indie filmmakers Benny and Josh Safdie made a breakthrough with their acclaimed Cannes competitor Good Time starring Robert Pattinson. Orlando Parfitt talks to the fast-rising duo

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enny and Josh Safdie found out that their New York-set crime caper Good Time was selected for the official Competition at Cannes when the film’s star, Robert Pattinson, texted them both a picture of a toilet.

“In Robert Pattinson’s house in LA he has an incredible, expensive toilet,” laughs Josh. “After sitting on it for 20 minutes I said to him, ‘That’s the dream.’

He says: ‘If we get into Cannes Competition, I will buy you that toilet.’ Six hours before the [Cannes] announcement…

Rob texts me a picture of the toilet. That’s how I found out!”

Since Cannes, Memento Films International (MFI) has reported “sell-out sales” on the film, which has already secured US distribution through Moonlight distributor A24, with Netflix picking up the film for an SVoD window in multiple territories.

It should ensure more mainstream exposure for the directing duo, who have been darlings of the festival and US indie circuits for many years, winning prizes at Venice (for Heaven Knows What in 2014) and the Independent Spirit

‘I have so much respect for how deep Robert went. He said, “I need to take it that far”’ Benny Safdie

Good Time

Awards (for Daddy Longlegs in 2011).

The latter also featured in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, as did Josh Safdie’s solo-credited 2008 feature The Pleasure Of Being Robbed.

Stars align The cast of their latest project will also help expand their audience. Pattinson, who co-stars in Good Time alongside

10 Screen International at Jerusalem July 14-15, 2017

Barkhad Abdi and Jennifer Jason Leigh, was desperate to work with the brothers.

While the duo were prepping another project in 2015 called Uncut Gems (now in production), the Twilight star contacted them. “[Our last film] Heaven Knows What was about to be released,” recalls Josh.

“Robert [Pattinson] saw a still for that and something spoke to him about it, the

colours, the image itself — he became obsessed with getting in touch with us.

Then he saw the trailer and said, ‘Now I need to meet with you.’ Then he saw the film and said explicitly, ‘Whatever you’re doing next, I want to be a part of it, even if it means doing the catering.’

“He didn’t sit in the [Manhattan] diamond district world very well [for Uncut Gems]. There was another world we were mulling, and we said, ‘Maybe we can write something for you in Good Time,’ and that’s what we did.”

For the lead role of Connie, a bank robber who embarks on a desperate journey to get his mentally disabled brother out of jail after a botched bank job, the directors were impressed by the actor’s commitment to the cause.

“I have so much respect for how deep

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‘Romance exists on every platform, but I find the dark room with a bunch of strangers so exhilarating and unique’

INTERVIEW SOFIA COPPOLA

Josh Safdie

he went,” says Benny. “The places he went, the people he met, just his level of commitment, 16 hours a day. It was cold, I was playing the brother in a wheelchair, and we said to him, ‘We don’t need you for this shot,’ but he would stay and push me around in the cold. He said, ‘I need that, to take it that far.’ He went above and beyond.”

“We brought Rob to a lot of active jails,” adds Josh. “He turned up in character in the hope that the inmates wouldn’t recognise him as a movie star.

Personally, for him, he wanted to disappear. When he was fully in character, in costume, in make-up, he would just take a walk around the neighbourhood, simply because normally he can’t do that.”

The response to Good Time at Cannes affirms the brothers’ contention that Pattinson’s performance is unlike anything seen from the actor, with much of the praise singling out his charismatic turn.

“The only performances that I could liken to what he did would be to Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, Tommy Lee Jones in The Executioner’s Song or Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver,” says Josh.

“I wouldn’t even call it a performance. If you were to show the film to someone who has no idea who Robert Pattinson is, they would just assume that we found this guy.”

Cinematic devices With the film securing SVoD distribution deals with Netflix, the Safdies are reluctant to pick a side in the VoD-versuscinema debate that plagued Cannes and will surely rumble on for several years.

“I’m not going to tell you how to watch a movie, militantly,” says Benny. “A lot of people said theatrical would be dead five years ago and it’s still around.”

“I’m an extremely romantic person and I’m always going to prefer to see a movie in a theatre,” adds Josh. “But that said, one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had in the last 10 years of my life was doing research for Heaven Knows What and I was on the street with a homeless kid and we watched an entire film on my cellphone. Romance exists on every platform, but I find the dark room with a bunch of strangers so exhilarating and unique in this day and age because people genuinely unplug to engage with s your work.” ■

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The Beguiled

A remake of a little-regarded 1971 western seems an unlikely choice of material for Sofia Coppola. The Cannes best director winner tells Orlando Parfitt about stamping her vision on The Beguiled ofia Coppola admits that Universal thought it was “a weird idea” when she asked for the remake rights to The Beguiled. The 1971 original, directed

by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood as a wounded American Civil War soldier taken in by an all-girls school, was not a hit at the time but became a cult favourite in France.

Coppola said that when she first saw the film it made a lasting impression.

“My friend Anne Ross, who is the production designer [and an executive producer] on the movie, showed me this and said, ‘I think you need to make a version of it’,” says Coppola.

“I would never plan to remake someone else’s movie but when I saw it, it just stayed in my mind. I love [the original]; it’s so weird. I thought it would be interesting to tell the story of a soldier in a girls’ school but from the women characters’ point of view. I also wanted to do something in that Southern gothic genre as well, which I’ve never done before.”

Luckily, Universal, which owned the rights to the 1971 version, was open to Coppola adapting the film. The company is distributing internationally, with Focus Features releasing in the US. Colin Farrell was cast as the Eastwood character, with Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning and Oona Laurence starring variously as resident teachers and pupils at the school.

Despite the prestigious cast and her impressive CV, Coppola admits that it wasn’t easy to get the film made. “It’s always a challenge,” she says. “Has anyone ever told you that it’s easy? Even though I’ve made so many films, it still feels difficult.

But it’s low-budget. We shot it in 26 days in New Orleans so it was definitely a hustle, but I was able to get creative freedom because it was done on a small scale. I got to make the movie I wanted to make.”

Coppola reckons that the emergence of Netflix and Amazon has made it easier to get smaller-budget films made in the US… but only to an extent. “I feel like five years ago before all Sofia Coppola

S

‘It’s always a challenge. Has anyone ever told you that it’s easy? Even though I’ve made so many films, it still feels difficult’ Sofia Coppola

the streaming companies came along, it felt like it was just over for any independent films that are unusual,” she says.

“It’s still hard to get unusual things made but with all the streaming companies now bringing money into the business, it has rejuvenated it a little bit. I still think it’s hard to get a theatrical release. [Netflix and Amazon] are giving financing and freedom to filmmakers, but I do hope that the theatrical part is still an important element.”

Coppola had a race against time on her hands to finish editing the film after it was chosen for Cannes’ main Competition. “It added some excitement to post-production,” she laughs. “We found out we were in right away and then we had to scramble to get the film finished.”

Breaking down barriers The hard work paid off with Coppola awarded the best director prize at the festival, making her only the second woman to win the award in 71 years (the other was Yuliya Solntseva in 1961 for Chronicle Of Flaming Years).

The barriers that still face female directors continue to concern Coppola, who believes there isn’t an easy answer to fixing Hollywood’s diversity problems. “It’s really a question for the people financing the films and the executives, and what points of view they’re interested in,” she says.

“But I think it helped a lot when films geared towards female audiences became more commercially viable,” she adds. “When I started out, you couldn’t have a main character who was female because it s was like, ‘Oh, guys won’t go to that.’” ■

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REVIEWS Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com

Brigsby Bear Reviewed by Tim Grierson

Wind River Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan Taylor Sheridan directs for the first time in Wind River, a film that is identifiable immediately as the work of the man who wrote Sicario (2015) and Hell Or High Water (2016). Combustible, masculine and tense, it tells the story of a game tracker in Wyoming (Jeremy Renner) who becomes entangled in a murder on a Native American reservation (the titular Wind River). It shares some themes and character types with Sheridan’s earlier work; its rugged, snowy landscapes where one man faces the frontier occupy every inch of the screen.

Headlined by Renner and Elizabeth Olsen — as an inexperienced FBI investigator in over her head, much like Emily Blunt in Sicario — Wind River is a solid thriller that feels at once like a studio release and an independent awards contender.

Sheridan sets a chilly tone for his Utah-shot film with a moonlight opening sequence in which a barefoot woman runs desperately for her life through the snow.

We then encounter Renner’s Cory Lambert, a tracker who hunts predators for the local wildlife department.

Soon, he will discover her frozen body, immediately identifying the corpse as an 18-year-old girl from the reservation called Natalie (Kelsey Asbille).

Lambert’s links with the community and its independent police force are both lifelong and strong. When newbie FBI investigator Jane Banner (Olsen) is dispatched from Las Vegas to take over the investigation, she realises she is out of her depth in more ways than one — those court shoes are not going to handle the sub-zero temperatures on snow-mobile rides that give the film a jolt of adrenaline. But she is smart enough to call on Cory for help.

As a director, Sheridan opens his camera wide to the freezing vistas. He draws a solid, ballast-like performance from Renner as a man who struggles internally but is finely attuned to his surroundings. Life on the reservation is depicted as bleak and hopeless. This is a film concerned with man’s quest to protect his family and dominate his surroundings. It is also couched in the fluent language of big-screen drama. Ultimately, what sets Wind River apart is the fact it has a heart and a conscience, two things that enrich this film and make Sheridan’s directorial debut much more than just another action thriller.

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GALA US. 2017. 111mins Director/screenplay Taylor Sheridan Production companies Thunder Road, Acacia Entertainment, Film 44 International sales Voltage Pictures, office@ voltagepictures.com Producers Peter Berg, Matthew George, Basil Iwanyk, Wayne Rogers, Elizabeth A Bell Cinematography Ben Richardson Production design Neil Spisak Editor Gary D Roach Music Nick Cave, Warren Ellis Main cast Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, Graham Greene, Julia Jones, Teo Briones, Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, Martin Sensmeier, Kelsey Asbille

The television shows and movies we absorb as kids can have powerful, even unsettling influences on our development. The wistful comedy Brigsby Bear explores that notion to the extreme, telling the story of a 25-year-old who has only recently learned he was abducted at birth — and that his favourite programme was crafted by his kidnappers specifically for him. The premise proves stronger than the execution but, guided by a fragile performance from co-writer Kyle Mooney, Brigsby Bear plumbs significant emotional depths while being warmly funny.

Picked up at Sundance by Sony Pictures Classics, it will open in the US on July 28, aiming to be arthouse counterprogramming amid the summer blockbusters.

Mooney, a Saturday Night Live cast member, is relatively unknown, so it is Brigsby Bear’s quirky plot and critical buzz that will need to coax mainstream audiences.

Mooney’s James has lived a sheltered existence with his parents (Jane Adams, Mark Hamill), obsessively watching episodes of Brigsby Bear Adventures, a cheesy live-action children’s programme. But one day James discovers a terrifying truth: these adults stole him from the hospital and his real parents (Matt Walsh, Michaela Watkins) have spent decades searching for him. Introduced to a world he does not understand, James decides to make a film version of his beloved show — unwilling to believe it was created by his abductors and that nobody has heard of it.

From Being There to Forrest Gump, cinema has produced plenty of comparable innocents, and Brigsby Bear sometimes labours to find fresh angles on a familiar construction. What helps is the specificity Mooney brings to the role. James is sweet and open, but whenever he tries acclimating to the real world he retreats to Brigsby Bear Adventures, enjoying its comforting sameness. Gradually, the movie becomes a compassionate but constructive commentary on the danger of nostalgia — how it seduces us into sticking with worn-out pleasures at the expense of new experiences and challenges.

Finding sympathetic friends who help him realise his vision, James uses his adaptation to exorcise deep emotional trauma in a language he understands, laying bare his soul for anyone to see. It is an easy but apt metaphor for the risks and rewards of the creative impulse.

GALA US. 2017. 97mins Director Dave McCary Production companies 3311 Productions, YL Pictures, Lonely Island, LM Films Worldwide distribution Sony Pictures Classics Producers Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer, William Rosenberg, Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Will Allegra, Mark Roberts, Al Di, Jason Zaro Screenplay Kevin Costello, Kyle Mooney; story by Kyle Mooney Cinematography Christian Sprenger Production design Brandon Tonner-Connolly Editor Jacob Craycroft Music David Wingo Main cast Kyle Mooney, Jane Adams, Claire Danes, Mark Hamill, Greg Kinnear, Andy Samberg, Matt Walsh, Michaela Watkins

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» Wind River p12 » Brigsby Bear p12 » The Beguiled p13

» Patti Cake$ p13 » 78/52 p15 » The Workshop p14 » City Of Ghosts p15 » Jeannette: The Childhood Of Joan Of Arc p14

Patti Cake$ Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan

The Beguiled Reviewed by Tim Grierson Ambiguity bewitches Sofia Coppola’s modest but immersive Civil War drama, which examines gender roles, desire and power dynamics with a mesmeric specificity.

Led by superb performances, the film works as both a straightforward psychosexual thriller and something more troubling — almost unspoken — underneath.

Based on Thomas Cullinan’s 1966 novel and the 1971 film starring Clint Eastwood, The Beguiled is set in Virginia, 1864. Colin Farrell plays John McBurney, an AWOL Union soldier suffering from a badly infected leg. He is taken in by the seven women who occupy the Farnsworth Seminary, run by the prim Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman).

Although leery of his presence, the women — including prickly schoolteacher Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) and her students — eventually warm to McBurney, their suspicion turning to attraction. At the same time, McBurney knows his safety is in their hands; is his charming attentiveness a con, or is he grateful to find compassion and sanctuary after witnessing war’s brutality?

Shot with luminous haziness by Philippe Le Sourd, The Beguiled exudes a timeless quality. But while its period detail is meticulous, Coppola views the story through a modern lens, sharply critiquing the repressive traditions that women obeyed in the 19th century while presenting McBurney as a prototypical alpha male whose favour they battle to win in universal, primal courtship rituals.

Coppola hints early on that this uneasy truce between the soldier and the women cannot last. But if the path is somewhat predictable, that merely allows Coppola’s dispassionate style to infuse the scenes with layered meanings. In this, she is assisted greatly by her actors, who bring poker-faced simplicity to their roles. Farrell exudes such soulful sincerity that every kindness McBurney utters to the women feels genuine. Farrell’s complicated portrayal evades easy judgment even when the stakes are raised and violence ensues.

Just as formidable is Kidman, who plays Martha as a woman who perhaps grasps that her world of genteel privilege is fading away. But she is no shrinking violet, responding to McBurney’s eventual provocation with such steely resolve that we question who truly has the upper hand in this power struggle.

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INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION US. 2017. 94mins Director Sofia Coppola Production companies Focus Features, American Zoetrope US distribution/ international sales Focus Features Producers Youree Henley, Sofia Coppola Executive producers Roman Coppola, Anne Ross, Fred Roos, Robert Ortiz Screenplay Sofia Coppola, based on the novel by Thomas Cullinan and the screenplay by Albert Maltz and Grimes Grice Cinematography Philippe Le Sourd Production design Anne Ross Editor Sarah Flack Music Phoenix, based on Claudio Monteverdi’s ‘Magnificat’ Main Cast Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning

GALA

In the energetic, sparky Patti Cake$, an overweight, white New Jersey rapper struggles to escape her deadend life and blowsy, boozy, scene-stealing mother (played by Bridget Everett). Luminous plus-size actress Danielle Macdonald in the title role will draw plentiful media attention and support for Patti Cake$, and the soundtrack also bristles.

Picked up by Fox Searchlight after a bidding war at Sundance, and chosen to close Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, this is a full-flavoured film. Debut director Geremy Jasper opts for ultra-tight framing and riotous colours, seemingly influenced by New Jersey’s strip-club and late-night dive palette. This could be too strong a taste for international audiences to digest easily, although mid-level US success is all but assured.

Australian actress Macdonald plays Patricia Dombrowski: she calls herself Killer P and Patti Cake$, but is derided as a “white Precious” and “Dumbo” in the working-class north Jersey neighbourhood where she lives with mum Barb and ailing Nana (an unrecognisable Cathy Moriarty). Jasper has said Patti is part-modelled on his own experiences, and there is a real empathy on display here for her internal and external struggles.

There is the weight, of course, but Patti has to face down her crippling self-confidence issues. She may start the movie with the anthem ‘mylifesfuckinawesome’, daydreaming about her rap-artist idol O-Z (Sahr Ngaujah), but Patti needs to muster every ounce of bravery during the course of this 108-minute take on 8 Mile. With her family facing ruinous medical bills for Nana’s treatment and Barb in a nightly dance with alcoholism, it falls to Patti to support the Dombrowski clan with a series of catering and barwork jobs at bar mitzvahs and local dives.

Jasper sets out his stall from the opening fantasy sequence with O-Z, lit in neon green; it is clear this film is going to be an interesting visual ride. In fact Patti and her best friend Hareesh (Siddharth Dhananjay) look at Manhattan like some sort of Emerald City from the hood of their car, plotting the Yellow Brick Road that might take them there.

The soundtrack is, as might be expected, rousing throughout, retro ballads crashing into hip-hop bangers.

US. 2017. 108mins Director/screenplay Geremy Jasper Production company Department of Motion Pictures International distribution Fox Searchlight Producers Michael Gottwald, Noah Stahl, Rodrigo Teixeira, Dan Janvey, Chris Columbus, Daniela Taplin Lundberg Cinematography Federico Cesca Production design Meredith Lippincott Editor Brad Turner Music Geremy Jasper, Jason Binnick Main cast Danielle Macdonald, Siddharth Dhananjay, Bridget Everett, Mamoudou Athie, Cathy Moriarty, Sahr Ngaujah, McCaul Lombardi, Wass Stevens, MC Lyte

July 14-15, 2017 Screen International at Jerusalem 13

REVIEWS

Jeannette: The Childhood Of Joan Of Arc Reviewed by Lisa Nesselson

The Workshop Reviewed by Dan Fainaru Tackling once again the burning topics of the day — in this case France at a political and demographic crossroads — with subtle intelligence and a profoundly humanistic touch, Laurent Cantet (The Class) delivers a film that should connect strongly with the arthouse and festival crowds that have admired his previous work.

The Workshop (L’Atelier) is the story of a successful crime novelist invited to a small town to take charge of a writing project and is part social survey, part political documentary, with the potential flicker of romance and the touch of a thriller.

Cantet’s latest conveys a stunningly authentic portrait of French youth today — their class, racial and occupational concerns. The seven young people under the tutelage of author Olivia (Marina Foïs) represent a snapshot of the country’s colourful young population, none particularly well-read or with any writing experience.

Charged with producing a book to promote the image of La Ciotat, a small seaside town located in between Marseille and Toulon, Olivia soon discovers the one subject that interests all her students is murder, although they cannot decide how to write about or treat it.

As their work progresses, the discrepancy between the students’ world and that of their tutor becomes painfully evident, despite all her efforts to bridge the yawning gap.

No less visible are the fissures that separate the young people themselves, the grasp they have on their lives and the one common denominator they all share: the desire to break away from it all, be it only in the fiction they are about to write.

Each student quickly reveals a distinct personality, closely observed by the camera. The most remarkable of the seven is Antoine (Matthieu Lucci), whose rebellious conduct is in conflict not only with Olivia but his peers.

It is Antoine who will be the one to finally define that youthful unease while attempting to find a place in a society that does not acknowledge his existence.

Working from a script written with Robin Campillo — whose credits include BPM (Beats Per Minute) — Cantet’s most impressive achievement is integrating the characters of his amateur performers with the parts they play.

The use of several cameras for the entire shoot (a technique used in The Class) ensures that no detail of their performances is lost.

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MASTERS Fr. 2017. 113mins Director Laurent Cantet Production companies Archipel 35, France 2 Cinema International sales Films Distribution, agathe@filmsdistribution. com Producer Denis Freyd Screenplay Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet Cinematography Pierre Milon Editor Mathilde Muyard Music Bedis Tir, Edouard Pons Main cast Marina Foïs, Matthieu Lucci, Warda Rammach, Issam Talbi, Florian Beaujean, Mamadou Doumbia, Julien Souve, Mélissa Guilbert, Olivier Thouret, Lény Sellam

Faced with confident musical oddity Jeannette: The Childhood Of Joan Of Arc — some 20 years after its director’s debut The Life Of Jesus and after Li’l Quinquin and Slack Bay by way of Humanity, Hadewijch and Hors Satan — one of the least likely sentences in the English language has to be, “Bruno Dumont has fallen into a rut.” His wacky yet assured take on the childhood and adolescence of the future Joan of Arc would be a perfect opening night offering if anybody starts a ‘Love It or Hate It’ film festival.

In song and dance — with the dialogue and lyrics drawn from two volumes by essayist Charles Péguy (18731914) — the film wears its literary and historical pedigree lightly, with religious fervour channelled into silly dances and earnest expressions.

Nature and faith were the main influences in the countryside in 1425. Jeannette, aged eight (Lise Leplat Prudhomme), sings about how, after 14 centuries of Christianity, there is still “nothing” on the tangible God front. But when the Lord created the heavens and the earth, he must also have included electrical outlets and power chords because the whiplash-inducing moves of headbanging are back. Choreographer Philippe Decouflé has given the actors basic movements to perform, which they do with gusto but little grace.

Jeannette’s friend Hauviette (Lucile Gauthier) senses the pious girl may seem happy but is actually miserable. Jeannette wants to speak with a certain Madame Gervaise, a nun in a nearby convent. When Madame Gervaise materialises there are two of her, singing in harmony.

Eight years go by and Jeannette at 16 (Jeanne Voisin) now wants to be called Jeanne because that is what she says Saint Michael calls her. Jeanne starts thinking that if God does not send a warlord to chase the English out of France, she may have to look into it herself. She and her uncle plan to head for Orleans but do not quite manage to depart. Will Jeanne ever connect with her destiny?

Originally destined for TV, Dumont has rejigged the aspect ratio and running time for the big screen. Whether Jeanne will drive the English out of France or first out of cinemas is an open question. For those who remain seated, this is a strange and forthright cinematic object with considerable rough-hewn charm.

MASTERS

Fr. 2016. 107mins Director/screenplay Bruno Dumont Production companies Taos Films, Arte France International sales Luxbox, fiorella@ luxboxfilms.com Producers Jean Bréhat, Rachid Bouchareb, Muriel Merlin Cinematography Guillaume Deffontaines Editors Bruno Dumont, Basile Belkhiri Music Igorrr Choreography Philippe Decouflé Main cast Lise Leplat Prudhomme, Jeanne Voisin, Lucile Gauthier, Victoria Lefebvre

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City Of Ghosts Reviewed by David D’Arcy

78/52 Reviewed by David D’Arcy The title 78/52 tells you something, but only in film-nerd code. It refers to the number of camera set-ups and cuts in Psycho’s shower scene, a 45-second sequence that took director Alfred Hitchcock seven days to shoot. The tech-code title may not help the film find a mass audience, but the scene’s dissection should be a huge festival hit and a VoD smash among movie geeks.

Alexandre O Philippe brings the murder to a jury of Hitchcock’s heirs — filmmakers, editors, composers and critics who take the film apart and voice their admiration.

This includes everyone from director Peter Bogdanovich to editor Walter Murch to Jamie Lee Curtis, actress daughter of Psycho star Janet Leigh. Fortunately, wisecracks temper the reverence, and Philippe’s tribute to Hollywood’s most famous stabbing is an archival feast.

Reactions range as widely as the participants. We enjoy factoids about the first toilet ever shown in a feature and the painting that Anthony Perkins takes off the wall to peer at Janet Leigh, plus pronouncements on the film’s pivotal status in world history.

Naturally, the meta-thought of 78/52 offers plenty of feminist insight — “the first modern expression of the female body under assault”, we are told. We hear of Hitchcock’s own attractions to his actresses, and mull the murder of a woman by a character who dresses as his mother. Murder upstages Janet Leigh in Psycho, and women, who had top billing in the 1930s, “were secondary by the time we got to the end of the 1950s,” says Bogdanovich.

As with any enduring work of art, Psycho sustains contradicting interpretations that it represents a view of moral punishment, or that it presents an absolutely indifferent universe. Hitchcock quipped that it was all a joke.

78/52 also eyes the film’s mechanics, as tech veterans review Saul Bass’s elaborate storyboards for the shower scene, which Martin Scorsese says he used for a fight scene in Raging Bull.

Sometimes the editing between archival footage and interviews can be jumpy, as if Philippe were overexcited about all the insights gushing from his interviewees.

Heavyish strings by composer Jon Hegel lack the nimbleness of Bernard Herrmann’s unforgettable score.

The audience will still walk out of 78/52 screaming for the original.

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CINEMANIA US. 2017. 91mins Director/screenplay Alexandre O Philippe Production companies Exhibit A Pictures, ARTE, Milkhaus International sales Preferred Content, kevin@ preferredcontent.net Producer Kerry Deignan Roy Executive producers Felix Gill, Joey Porcelli, Randy Pharo Cinematography Robert Muratore Editor Chad Herschberger Composer Jon Hegel

SPIRIT OF FREEDOM

The city of ghosts in the title is Raqqa, the Syrian city and de facto capital of the Islamic State (Isis). This documentary is Cartel Land director Matthew Heineman’s portrait of a dangerous place, observed by the city’s own journalists. There is plenty of horror on the streets, where shootings, beheadings and crucifixions have been the brand of Isis since it seized Raqqa in March 2014. The film’s exposure will be driven by its inside glimpse of zealotry gone savage, which distinguishes it from violent Aleppo. A strong run at film festivals is guaranteed, along with possible awards attention.

As fighting around Aleppo and in Mosul over the Iraqi border steals attention from Raqqa, the sheer brutality of the Isis regime there has been constant. Heineman followed an ensemble of citizen journalists, a group named Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), who have been filming secretly since 2014.

Heineman distills their cellphone and video imagery into a collage of atrocities and fear. RBSS activists explain that Isis took hold in a power vacuum after the initial demonstrations of Syria’s Arab Spring. Journalists who are not killed are driven out of the city yet, even in Turkey, they are hunted down and murdered.

Sequences of Skype calls from bare apartments abroad lack the combustion of the Raqqa streets, as do scenes bookending the film at a generic gala for the Society to Protect Journalists where well-groomed Americans applaud the courage of RBSS. Such interludes seem unnecessary when there is so much real drama in this story.

Yet Heineman makes sure we know RBSS has done work that is worth applauding, given the aggressive campaign by Isis to track computer signals and to dismantle every unofficial satellite dish in Raqqa. Also chilling is scrutiny of the refinement of Isis as a media force, with resources to produce slick jihadist snuff films as the RBSS shrinks under persecution and Isis puts targets on their backs, even in Germany.

Yet as the western media toasts the courage of RBSS, the US and European countries are not making Raqqa any less of a hellhole. City Of Ghosts shows us the power of the media to bring the grim truth about life under Isis to the world, and also reminds us of the limits of that ability.

US. 2017. 90mins Director/producer/ cinematographer Matthew Heineman Production companies A&E IndieFilms, Our Time Projects, Jigsaw Productions International sales Cinetic Media, sales@ cineticmedia.com Executive producers Alex Gibney, Molly Thompson, Maiken Baird, David Fialkow, Elaine Frontain Bryant, Stacey Offman, Robert Sharenow Co-producers Juan Camilo Cruz, Matthew Hamachek, Joedan Okun, Maya Seidler Editors Matthew Hamachek, Pax Wassermann, Matthew Heineman Music Jackson Greenberg, H Scott Salinas

July 14-15, 2017 Screen International at Jerusalem 15

SCREENINGS Edited by Paul Lindsell

» Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration.

paullindsell@gmail.com

and the police on his tail.

FRIDAY JULY 14

Melville Retrospective Cinematheque 3

10:00

17:15

BECOMING CARY GRANT

(France) 85mins.

Dir: Mark Kidel. English (Hebrew subtitles).

Drawing upon a hidden autobiography and rare footage, this fascinating film tells Cary Grant’s life story from his lonely childhood in Britain, through becoming a film icon, to his final days.

1945

(Hungary) Magyar Filmunio. 91mins.

Dir: Ferenc Torok.

Hungarian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A Hungarian village in August 1945. The festive ambience of the clerk’s daughter’s wedding is tainted when two Orthodox Jews arrive carrying a mysterious trunk. Have they come to claim their lawful inheritance?

Cinemania Cinematheque 1

10:30 SUMMER 1993 See box, right

10:45 LUMIERE!

(France) Wild Bunch.

90mins. Dir: Thierry Fremaux. French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A collection of restored prints from the Lumiere Brothers.

Cinemania Cinematheque 2

11:00

FRIDAY JULY 14 10:30 SUMMER 1993

(Spain) New Europe Film Sales. 96mins.

Dir: Carla Simon.

Catalan (English and Hebrew subtitles).

After her parents’ death, six-year-old Frida 12:30

NEWTON

THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE

(India) Pascale Ramonda.

106mins. Dir: Amit V Masurkar. Hindi (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A rookie civil servant stationed in the jungle during elections in India faces both guerrilla forces and the locals’ apathy toward the democratic process.

(Finland, Germany) Match Factory. 100mins.

Dir: Aki Kaurismaki.

Finnish, English, Arabic, Swedish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

In contemporary Finland, a chance meeting between a salesman and a Syrian refugee provides them with abundant hope.

Spirit of Freedom Lev Smadar

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 3

12:00 WEST OF THE JORDAN RIVER

(Israel, France) Doc&Film. 84mins.

Dir: Amos Gitai. Hebrew, Arabic (English subtitles).

Amos Gitai returns to the Occupied Territories for the first time since his 1982 documentary ‘Field Diary’. ‘West Of The Jordan River’ describes the efforts of citizens, Israelis and Palestinians, who are trying to overcome the consequences of the Occupation.

Israeli Documentary Competition Cinematheque 1

International Competition Yes Planet

13:00 12 DAYS

(France) Wild Bunch.

87mins. Dir: Raymond Depardon. French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Legendary documentarist Raymond Depardon follows psychiatric patients who, 12 days after being admitted without their consent, are brought before a judge who will determine if they are eligible for discharge.

Masters Cinematheque 2

MENASHE

(US) Mongrel. 82mins.

Dir: Joshua Z Weinstein.

16 Screen International at Jerusalem July 14-15, 2017

spends the summer at her aunt and uncle’s home in rural Catalonia, where she finds it hard to cope with her loss and adapt to a new life.

Debuts Cinematheque 3

Yiddish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Menashe, a widowed ultra-Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn, fights for custody of his son. The rabbi gives him a week to prove he’s worthy of the task.

Debuts Yes Planet

13:15 CENTAUR

(Kyrgyzstan, France, Germany, Netherlands) Match Factory. 89mins.

Dir: Aktan Arym Kubat.

Kirghiz (English and Hebrew subtitles).

The life of a humble family man from a remote village in Kyrgyzstan is turned upside down when he is caught stealing a horse.

Panorama Lev Smadar

14:30 REDOUBTABLE

(France) Wild Bunch.

107mins. Dir: Michel Hazanavicius. French, English (English and Hebrew subtitles).

The love story between Jean-Luc Godard and

actress Anne Wiazemsky against the backdrop of the events of May 1968.

Opening Film Cinematheque 1

15:00 BRIGSBY BEAR

(US) Sony. 100mins.

Dir: Dave McCary. English (Hebrew subtitles).

After 25 years of isolation, James meets his biological family and decides to produce a film based on the TV show of his childhood.

Gala Yes Planet

CITY OF GHOSTS

(US) Dogwoof. 90mins.

Dir: Matthew Heineman.

English (Hebrew subtitles).

Follows a group of Syrian men who risk their lives to expose the atrocities inflicted by ISIS in the city Raqqa. Against the constant threat of death, they promise to fight till the bitter end.

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 2

IN HER FOOTSTEPS

(Israel) 70mins.

Dir: Rana Abu Fraiha.

Hebrew, Arabic (Arabic and Hebrew subtitles).

My mother’s last wish was to be buried as a Muslim in Omer, our Jewish hometown, where she lived for 20 years. I accompany my mother on her last journey, that forces the entire family to deal with dilemmas and loss.

Israeli Documentary Competition Cinematheque 3

15:15 I DREAM IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE

(Mexico, Netherlands) Mundial. 103mins.

Dir: Ernesto Contreras.

Spanish, English (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Martín, a young linguist, hopes to preserve an endangered ancient dialect.

He travels to the jungle to locate two surviving speakers who have not spoken to each other for 50 years.

Panorama Lev Smadar

17:00 FIELD DIARY

(Israel) 83mins.

Dir: Amos Gitai. Hebrew (English subtitles).

Amos Gitai documents the IDF’s actions in the Occupied Territories before and during the invasion of Lebanon. Gitai’s camera is not an objective eye but, rather, a subversive means of expression on the Occupation.

Israeli Special Screenings Cinematheque 2

LE SAMOURAI

(France, Italy) Rene Chateau. 101mins.

Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville.

French (Hebrew subtitles).

A cold-hearted hit man finds himself in an ongoing nightmare with the gangsters who hired him

THE BEGUILED

(US) Universal Pictures.

94mins.

Dir: Sofia Coppola.

English (Hebrew subtitles).

During the American Civil War, a wounded Yankee soldier finds refuge in a girls’ boarding school, and stirs up a whirlwind of desires.

International Competition Cinematheque 1

17:30 MIMOSAS

(Spain, Morocco, France, Romania, Qatar) Luxbox.

96mins. Dir: Oliver Laxe.

Arabic (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A caravan carries a dying sheik who wishes to be buried beside his loved ones in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains. After his death, two crooks promise to complete the mission.

Panorama Lev Smadar

19:15 WESTERN

(Germany, Bulgaria, Austria) Films Boutique.

119mins. Dir: Valeska Grisebach. German, Bulgarian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

German construction workers are sent to an isolated Belgian village. A naturalistic drama screened at Cannes to critical acclaim.

A fascinating portrait of masculinity, Western culture, and its attitude www.screendaily.com

FURTHER JFF COVERAGE, SEE SCREENDAILY.COM

towards other cultures.

International Competition Cinematheque 2

19:30 78/52

(US) Dogwoof. 91mins.

Dir: Alexandre Philippe.

English (Hebrew subtitles).

It took Hitchcock 78 set-ups and 52 cuts to create the shower scene in ‘Psycho’. Sixty years later, director Alexandre Philippe examines the scene that redefined the power of the cinematic experience.

Cinemania Yes Planet

19:45 PATTI CAKE$

(US) Fox Searchlight.

108mins. Dir: Geremy Jasper. English (Hebrew subtitles).

Patti Cake$, a white, overweight, charismatic and enormously talented rapper, dreams of escaping her tedious life in New Jersey.

With the help of good friends and her grandmother, Patti sets out to conquer the rap scene.

Gala Lev Smadar

20:00 BLOODY MILK

(France) Pyramide.

90mins. Dir: Hubert Charuel. French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

The peaceful life of a young dairy farmer is shattered when an epidemic spreads to cowsheds throughout France.

Debuts Cinematheque 3

DEATH OF A POETESS

(Israel) 77mins. Dir: Dana Goldberg, Efrat Mishori. Hebrew, Arabic (English subtitles).

The worlds of two women meet for a critical moment and are bound together inseparably.

Israeli Feature Competition Cinematheque 1

21:30 GABRIEL AND THE MOUNTAIN

(Brazil, France) Films Boutique. 127mins. Dir: Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa.

English, Portuguese, www.screendaily.com

Swahili, Chichewa, French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A young Brazilian travelling the world arrives in Kenya determined to discover the Dark Continent.

International Competition Yes Planet

21:45 JEANNETTE, THE CHILDHOOD OF JOAN OF ARC

(France) Luxbox.

115mins. Dir: Bruno Dumont. French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

The childhood of Jeanne d’Arc — the French military leaderturned-saint — in an unconventional and daring musical comedy.

Masters Cinematheque 2

22:00 THE WORKSHOP

(France) Films Distribution. 113mins.

Dir: Laurent Cantet.

French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A realistic drama surrounding the conflict between a seasoned crime novel author and a participant in a writing workshop she’s instructing.

SATURDAY JULY 15 10:00 DEATH OF A POETESS

(Israel) 77mins. Dir: Dana Goldberg, Efrat Mishori. Hebrew, Arabic (English subtitles).

Israeli Feature Competition Cinematheque 2

THE RED CIRCLE

(France, Italy) Studiocanal. 140mins.

Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville.

French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A recently released convict, an alcoholic former policeman and a fugitive convict plan a jewellery heist.

Melville Retrospective Cinematheque 3

10:30 THE MAN WITH THE IRON HEART

(France, UK, Belgium, US) 120mins. Dir: Cedric Jimenez. English (Hebrew subtitles).

A thriller about the assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi criminal, architect of the “Final Solution”.

Gala Yes Planet

11:00 MY HAPPY FAMILY

(Germany, Georgia, France) Memento Films.

120mins. Dir: Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Gross. Georgian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Manana, 52, is fed up with her life. She rents an apartment in Tbilisi, far from her parents, husband and children who wonder why she has left and whether she’ll return.

International Competition Cinematheque 1

THE PARIS OPERA

(France, Switzerland) Les Films du Losange.

110mins. Dir: JeanStephane Bron. French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Behind the scenes of the Palais Garnier, one of the world’s most prestigious theatres. Panorama Lev Smadar

12:00 THE NOTHING FACTORY

(Portugal) Memento Films. 177mins.

Dir: Pedro Pinho.

Portuguese (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Discovering their factory’s equipment has been smuggled out by management, workers fear the worst and fight for their future.

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 2

12:45 BORN IN DEIR YASSIN

(Israel, France) 63mins.

Dir: Neta Shoshani.

Hebrew (English subtitles).

The tragic metamorphosis account of Deir YassinKfar Shaul, that after being occupied in the independence war, became a hospital for the mentally insane.

Israeli Documentary Competition Cinematheque 3

13:00

International Shorts Cinematheque 4

13:15 FELICITE

(France, Senegal, Belgium, Germany, Lebanon) Jour2fete.

123mins. Dir: Alain Gomis. Lingala (English and Hebrew subtitles).

The inspirational story of an independent woman determined to save her son.

Spirit of Freedom Lev Smadar

13:45

A MAN OF INTEGRITY

HOLY AIR See box, below

International Competition Yes Planet

WIND RIVER

(US, UK, Canada) Voltage Pictures. 110mins. Dir: Taylor Sheridan. English (Hebrew subtitles).

An American hunter and FBI agent join forces to investigate a rape and murder that shocks a Native American reservation.

14:45 LOVER FOR A DAY

(France) SBS International. 76mins.

Dir: Philippe Garrel.

French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Separated from her boyfriend, heartbroken Jeanne knocks on her father’s door. But her welcome is matched by a baffling discovery: her father’s new girlfriend is his student and also Jeanne’s age.

Masters Cinematheque 3

15:30 AFTER THE WAR

(Italy, France, Belgium) Pyramide. 92mins.

Dir: Annarita Zambrano.

Italian, French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

An Italian activist exiled to France 20 years ago, is accused of ordering the murder of a judge as part of leftist protests in Bologna. This unsettles his life, and the lives of his daughter and estranged family in Italy.

Gala Cinematheque 3

22:15 AMANT DOUBLE (THE DOUBLE LOVER)

International Competition Cinematheque 1

128mins. (English subtitles).

The live-action shorts nominated for the 2017 Academy Awards.

(Iran) Match Factory.

117mins. Dir: Mohammad Rasoulof.

Farsi (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A fish farmer’s routine is disrupted by a corrupt company with strong ties to the authorities seeking to take over every aspect of life in the region.

Masters Lev Smadar

(France, Belgium) 107mins. Dir: Francois Ozon. French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A fragile young woman, falls in love with her psychoanalyst. She moves in with him but soon discovers that her lover is concealing a part of his identity.

OSCAR SHORTS LIVE ACTION

SATURDAY JULY 15 13:45 HOLY AIR

(Israel) 81mins. Dir: Shady Srour.

Arabic, Hebrew, English, French, Italian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

When Lamia becomes pregnant,

Adam decides that it is time to make it big and provide for his family by entering the biggest local business – religion. He begins to sell… Holy Air.

Debuts Cinematheque 2

Israeli Feature Competition Cinematheque 1

(Germany) Match Factory. 94mins. Dir: Julian Rosefeldt. English »

MANIFESTO

July 14-15, 2017 Screen International at Jerusalem 17

SCREENINGS

(Hebrew subtitles).

Cate Blanchett inhabits 13 different personas in Julian Rosefeldt’s wondrous feature film, paying homage to the moving tradition and literary beauty of artistic manifestos, ultimately questioning the role of the artist in society today.

staring at four dead bodies.

Israeli Feature Competition Cinematheque 1

FRANTZ

Intersections Yes Planet

OSCAR SHORTS ANIMATION

62mins. (English subtitles).

The animation shorts nominated for the 2017 Academy Awards.

International Shorts Cinematheque 4

15:45 THE ROAD TO MANDALAY

(Taiwan, France, Germany, Myanmar) Urban Distribution International.

108mins. Dir: Midi Z. Burmese (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Lianqing escapes Myanmar to seek employment in Bangkok. As an illegal immigrant, she discovers that while her reliance on others may be necessary, it is no less dangerous.

Spirit of Freedom Lev Smadar

16:15 A WOMAN’S LIFE

(France, Belgium) MK2.

120mins. Dir: Stephane Brize. French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

In 19th century France, the life of a young aristocratic woman turns into a series of harsh realisations.

International Competition Cinematheque 1

17:00 A GENTLE CREATURE

(France, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands) Wild Bunch. 143mins.

Dir: Sergei Loznitsa.

Russian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Upon receiving a package addressed to her imprisoned husband, a woman travels to the distant prison. But her journey becomes an absurd odyssey into Russia’s heartless darkness – an allegory on contemporary Russia.

Masters Cinematheque 3

SATURDAY JULY 15 18:00 APRIL’S DAUGHTER

(Mexico) MK2/ Protagonist. 103mins.

Dir: Michel Franco.

Spanish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

When Valeria, 17, becomes

EUROPEAN ACADEMY SHORTS I

90mins. (English subtitles).

Short films nominated to the European Film Academy.

International Shorts Cinematheque 4

17:30 GAZA SURF CLUB

(Germany) 87mins.

Dir: Mickey Yamine, Philip Gnadt. Arabic, English (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Documentary about a group of young Gaza residents determined to realise their aspirations through surfing.

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 2

pregnant, her mother, April, comes to stay. But when the baby is born, we begin to understand why Valeria was so eager to keep April away.

Panorama Lev Smadar

International Shorts Cinematheque 4

HEAL THE LIVING

(France, Belgium) Films Distribution. 103mins.

Dir: Katell Quillevere.

French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A young surfer from Normandy is hospitalised after a terrible accident.

No one can tell if he’ll survive. At the same time in Paris, a woman awaits an organ transplant. An exemplary French drama about the fragility of life.

Gala Cinematheque 1

19:30 TEHRAN TABOO

(France, Belgium) MK2.

83mins. Dir: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon.

French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Fiona arrives in Paris in search of her 93-year-old aunt, only to discover the old lady is missing.

(Germany, Austria) Celluloid Dreams. 90mins.

Dir: Ali Soozandeh. Farsi (English and Hebrew subtitles).

In their desperate search for freedom and happiness, four young people from Iran are forced to break the taboos of a restrictive, Islamic society.

Panorama Yes Planet

Debuts Yes Planet

LOST IN PARIS

18:00

20:00

APRIL’S DAUGHTER

YOURSELF AND YOURS

See box, above

(South Korea) Finecut.

86mins. Dir: Hong Sangsoo. Korean (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A witty and absurd fable about a man who suspects

19:00 EUROPEAN ACADEMY SHORTS II

90mins. (English subtitles).

18 Screen International at Jerusalem July 14-15, 2017

his wife of drinking and brawling in Seoul bars.

Masters Cinematheque 2

BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY

(France, Germany) Films Distribution. 113mins.

Dir: Francois Ozon.

French, German (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A small German town in 1919: Anna meets Adrian, a young Frenchman who has come to lay flowers on the grave of her fiancé, killed in the First World War. His presence, so soon after Germany’s defeat, kindles new desires.

Gala Yes Planet

21:45 LA FAMILIA

(US) Dogwoof. 86mins.

Dir: Alexandra Dean.

English (Hebrew subtitles).

The world’s most beautiful woman was also the secret inventor of secure wifi, bluetooth and GPS communications, but her arresting looks stood in the way of her being given the credit she deserved... until now.

(Venezuela, Chile, Norway) Celluloid Dreams. 82mins.

Dir: Gustavo Rondon Cordova. Spanish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Andres and his son Pedro live in a bad neighbourhood in Caracas.

When Pedro pushes his luck too far, they escape to save their lives.

Cinemania Cinematheque 3

Debuts Cinematheque 2

20:15 THE PRINCE OF NOTHINGWOOD

(France, Germany) 85mins. Dir: Sonia Kronlund. Dari, French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A fascinating documentary about Afghanistan’s most popular filmmaker.

Cinemania Lev Smadar

21:00 EUROPEAN ACADEMY SHORTS III

95mins. (English subtitles).

International Shorts Cinematheque 4

21:30 FAMILY

(Israel, Germany) 104mins. Dir: Veronica Kedar. Hebrew (English and Hebrew subtitles).

In a perfect world, Lily would have grown up in a normal family. But you can’t always get what you want… and Lily finds herself in her living room

22:00 GOOD TIME

(US) Memento Films.

100mins. Dir: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie.

English (Hebrew subtitles).

Brotherly love is put to the test when a bank robbery turns into a chaotic nocturnal journey through the streets of New York in this brilliant film by the Safdie brothers.

International Competition Cinematheque 3

22:15 THE UNTAMED

(Mexico, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland) Match Factory. 100mins.

Dir: Amat Escalante.

Spanish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A mysterious stranger disrupts a Mexican family’s tranquil life.

A powerful allegory on the feral dimensions of the psyche.

Jerusalem Cinematheque, 11 Hebron Road, 91083 Editorial Editor Matt Mueller, matt. mueller@screendaily.com, +44 7880 526 547 Reporters Melanie Goodfellow, melanie.goodfellow@ btinternet.com, +44 7460 470 434 Tom Grater, tom.grater@ screendaily.com, +44 7436 096 420 Reviews editor and chief film critic Fionnuala Halligan, finn. halligan@screendaily.com Features editor Charles Gant, charles. gant@screendaily.com Production editor Adam Richmond Sub editors Paul Lindsell, Richard Young Advertising Commercial director Scott Benfold, scott. benfold@screendaily.com International sales consultants Gunter Zerbich, gunter. zerbich@screendaily.com, +44 7540 100 254 Pierre-Louis Manes, pierre-louis.manes@ screendaily.com Ingrid Hammond, ingridhammond@mac. com VP business development, North America Nigel Daly, nigeldalymail@ gmail.com Sales and business development executive, North America Nikki Tilmouth, nikki. screeninternational@ gmail.com Production manager Jonathon Cooke, jonathon.cooke@ mb-insight.com, +44 7584 333 148 Marketing executive Charlotte Peers, charlotte.peers@mbi. london Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam Published by Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI) Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London, EC2A 4HJ United Kingdom Subscriptions help@subscribe. screendaily.com

Masters Lev Smadar

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‫קרן הקולנוע הישראלי בפסטיבל הקולנוע ירושלים‬ THE ISRAEL FILM FUND AT THE JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL

‫אוויר קדוש‬ ‫ שאדי סרור‬:‫ תסריטאי‬/ ‫במאי‬ ‫ שאדי סרור‬,‫ אילן מוסקוביץ‬:‫מפיקים‬

Holy Air Director & Script: Shady Srour Producers: Ilan Moskovitch, Shady Srour

‫געגוע‬ ‫ שבי גביזון‬:‫ תסריטאי‬/ ‫במאי‬ ‫ אברהם‬,‫ תמי ליאון‬:‫מפיקים‬ ,‫ שבי גביזון‬,‫ חיליק מיכאלי‬,‫פרחי‬ ‫ לאון אדרי‬,‫משה אדרי‬

‫מוטלים בספק‬

Longing Director & Script: Savi Gabizon Producers: Tami Leon, Avraham Pirchi, Chilik Michaeli, Savi Gabizon, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery

Doubtful

‫ אלירן אליה‬:‫ תסריטאי‬/ ‫במאי‬ ‫ אורן רוגובין‬:‫מפיק‬

Director & Script: Eliran Elya Producer: Oren Rogovin

‫מות המשוררת‬

Death of a Poetess

,‫ דנה גולדברג‬:‫ תסריטאיות‬/ ‫במאיות‬ ‫אפרת מישורי‬ ‫ דנה גולדברג‬:‫מפיקה‬

‫משפחה‬ ‫ רוני קידר‬:‫ תסריטאית‬/ ‫במאית‬ ‫ תנאסיס קרתאנוס‬,‫ מוש דנון‬:‫מפיקים‬

‫פיגומים‬ ‫ מתן יאיר‬:‫ תסריטאי‬/ ‫במאי‬ ,‫ רועי קורלנד‬,‫ גל גרינשפן‬:‫מפיקים‬ ,‫ משה אדרי‬,‫סטניסלב דייז'יק‬ ‫לאון אדרי‬

Director & Script: Dana Goldberg, Efrat Mishori Producer: Dana Goldberg

Family Director & Script: Veronica Kedar Producers: Mosh Danon, Thanassis Karathanos

Scaffolding Director & Script: Matan Yair Producers: Gal Greenspan, Roi Kurland, Stanisław Dziedzic, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery

FILMFUND.ORG.IL

-‫חפשו אותנו גם ב‬