There is great news for moviegoers: Israeli Cinema Day will be held for the seventh time on October 27.
some 32 Israeli movies will be shown on that day at theaters all over the country, for the price of NIS 10.
It is especially exciting this year, because most of these films have not yet been released, due to the pandemic, and many still do not have a release date, so this is your chance to see them. In addition, if there is a recent Israeli movie you missed when it first came out, this is also a great opportunity. .
The Culture and Sport Ministry and the Film Industry Association sponsored the event and announced the details in a press conference at Cinema City Glilot on Monday morning, where Culture Minister Chili Tropper spoke.
“I see so much Israeli talent in this room,” Tropper said. “More and more, I am excited about Israeli cinema. I’d like to give a big thank-you to the Israeli creators in the film industry. After such a difficult year, I invite the moviegoing public to go out on Wednesday and enjoy Israeli movies.”
Tropper schmoozed at the event and was applauded and thanked by Israeli filmmakers and actors for his support of the film industry, which he made sure continued to make films during the pandemic, thanks to a special multi-million shekel fund which paid the cost of extra COVID-19 safety precautions.
Much of the top talent of the Israeli film industry attended the event, including producers Moshe Edery, Micky Rabinovitz and Israeli Academy of Film and Television president Assaf Amir; directors Avi Nesher and Gidi Dar; and many of Israel’s finest actors, including Lior Ashkenazi, Joy Rieger, Rotem Abuhav and Meshy Kleinstein.
Moshe Edery presented the Ma Kashur Trio – Zion Baruch, Asi Israelof and Shalom Michaelshwilli – with an award for Saving Shuli, the movie they created and starred in, which has sold over a million tickets already.
“I don’t remember such a success in all my years,” said Edery. His company, United King Films, is one of the sponsors of Israeli Cinema Day.
HERE ARE a few recommendations for movies to see on Israeli Cinema Day, which have not yet been released:
Nesher’s Image of Victory is a stirring and thought-provoking epic about the Battle of Nitzanim in the War of Independence, shown from both the Jewish and Egyptian sides. It stars some of Israel’s best actors, including Rieger, Amir Khoury, Kleinstein, Ala Dakka, Tom Avni, Eliana Tidhar, Yadin Gellman and Rasha Jahshan. I predict that Image of Victory will become an Israeli classic, and this is your chance to see it even before it opens.
Eran Kolirin’s Let It Be Morning swept the Ophir Awards this year, winning the Best Picture Award to become Israel’s official selection for a Best International Feature Oscar (a category once called Best Foreign Language Film). It won Best Director and Best Screenplay for Kolirin, as well as Best Actor (Adam Bakri), Best Actress (Juna Suleiman) and Best Supporting Actor (Ehab Elias Salami). The film also won the top prize at the Haifa International Film Festival. It’s a smart, funny and dark adaptation of Sayed Kashua’s novel about an Israeli-Arab man who gets trapped in his village after attending a family wedding and details the pressures and conflicts in the Arab community.
Nir Bergman’s Here We Are, one of the best movies waiting for release, was an official selection of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, and it is a moving and beautifully made film about a father (Shai Avivi) and his adult son (Noam Imber), who has autism. The two lead actors won Ophir Awards for their performances last year, and screenwriter Dana Idisis and Bergman won Ophirs for Best Screenplay and Best Director, respectively. Don’t miss the chance to see this movie on Wednesday.
Tom Shoval’s Shake Your Cares Away was one of the winners at the Jerusalem Film Festival this year. A complex reworking of the Luis Bunuel classic Viridiana, it stars French-Argentine actress Berenice Bejo as a wealthy widow who opens her beach house to a group of homeless people, and it’s a commentary on class warfare in Israel.
Pini Tavger is an actor who wrote and directed the feature film More Than I Deserve. It’s a well-made story of a Ukrainian single mother (Ana Dubrovitzki) and her young son (Micha Prudovsky) whose lives change dramatically when the son begins studying for his bar mitzvah with a newly religious man (Fauda’s Yaakov Zada Daniel).
The most buzzed-about movie at the cinema event was Perfect Strangers, the Israeli adaptation of the Italian film about a dinner party where the guests agree to let everyone at the table see everything on their phones. The story has universal appeal and has been remade in a number of languages already.
The Israeli version marks the feature film directorial debut of Ashkenazi. The movie stars Abuhab, Moran Atias, Guy Amir, Hanan Savyon, Shira Naor and Yossi Marshek. It will open in theaters in November.
Dar’s Legend of Destruction was released, but if you did not get to see it, or if you would like to see it again, you can catch it on Wednesday. It’s an extremely original and ambitious retelling of the story of the destruction of the Second Temple, using beautifully rendered paintings, and won three Ophir Awards this year.
Talya Lavie’s dark rom-com Honeymood about a couple whose relationship runs into trouble on their wedding night in Jerusalem was also in theaters this summer, but can be seen as part of Israeli Cinema Day.