When Lia van Leer founded the Jerusalem Film Festival 40 years ago, she wanted to make sure that while it would be international in scope, it would always provide Israeli filmmakers with a platform to showcase their work. Her strategy succeeded so well that the competitions for new Israeli movies, both features and documentaries, are the most highly anticipated part of the festival each year and have been a launching pad for some of the most acclaimed Israeli filmmakers and films.
This year, the Jerusalem Film Festival, which will run from July 13-23 at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and other places around the city, has just released its lineup of Israeli films and the festival will feature movies by both veteran directors and newcomers, on a diverse range of subjects.
This year, several new prizes will be awarded for the first time, including the Ensemble Prize in the feature competition, which will be given to the film with the most impressive cast. Also, for the first time, the Anat Farhi Award for Acting will be given.
The Haggiag Competition for Israeli Feature Films includes nine new films this year and some of the biggest names in the Israeli film industry will present their latest films at this year’s festival. These include Dover Koshashvili, best known for his 2001 film, Late Marriage, whose latest movie, The Giants of Easter Island, tells two parallel love stories, and stars Gavri Banai and Maria Ovanov. Eitan Green, whose films include It All Begins at Sea, Indoors and As Tears Go By, has just made My Daughter My Love, about an elderly widower who reconnects with his daughter in Paris. Green’s movie stars Sasson Gabay and Sivan Levy.
David Volach’s 2007 film, My Father My Lord won the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, and his first feature since then, Daniel Auerbach, a look at a director chronicling his own life, stars the director, Gloria Bess and Lihi Kornowski. Matan Yair’s Scaffolding won the Haggaig Competition in 2017 and his new film, His Own Room, looks at a teen struggling with the disintegration of his family, and stars Dror Keren.
Noam Kaplan’s The Future just had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. It tells the story of a criminal profiler who has a system that predicts terrorist attacks and who is hired to question a young woman suspected of killing a government official. Reymonde Amsallem and Samar Qupty star. Kaplan directed the 2014 film, Manpower.
ASAF SABAN, whose previous films include Outdoors and Paradise, made the film, Delegation, about a group of Israeli high schoolers on a trip to see concentration camps in Poland. The movie stars Ezra Dagan, Naomi Harari and Yoav Bavly and had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Shalom Hager’s Under the Shadow of the Sun tells the story of an Ethiopian man released from prison for murdering his wife who sets out to find his son and make amends. It stars Emos Ayeno, Netsanet Mekonen and Hanoch Wube.
Ehab Tarabieh is making his feature-film debut with The Taste of Apples is Red, which stars Makram Khoury as a sheikh in a Druze village on the Golan Heights whose brother’s return nearly 50 years after he disappeared sparks conflict. It also stars Tarik Kopty, Ruba Blal and Sohiel Hadad.
Maayan Rypp’s The Other Widow tells the story of a theater dressmaker who struggles to mourn after her lover’s death and stars Dana Ivgy and Ania Bukstein.
The Diamond Competition for Israeli Documentaries will feature eight very diverse movies. Among them will be a new film by acclaimed director Hilla Medalia, who has teamed up with Amos Roberts to make Prisoner X, about an inmate who committed suicide and turned out to have been a Mossad agent. The House in Kiryat Shmona, by Lisa Peretz and Ruby Elmaleh, looks at a gruesome terror attack that killed 16 people in Kiryat Shmona in 1974. Rafalel Balulu’s The Spy Family is about an Egyptian family that spied for Israel and the price they paid. Assaf Lapid’s The Return from the Other Planet looks at the life of the reclusive writer and concentration camp survivor, Ka-Tzetnik, who wrote the bestselling House of Dolls about sexual slavery during the Holocaust.
The festival will also feature competitions for short films, movies by high-school students and video shorts.
This year the Israel Film Archive, which is run under the auspices of the Jerusalem Cinematheque, has digitally restored the movie, Amazing Grace (1992), by the late director, Amos Guttman, which tells the story of a relationship between two gay men, one of whom is HIV positive. Amazing Grace will be screened at the festival.
The festival will open with a screening of Guy Nattiv’s Golda which stars Helen Mirren as Israel’s only female prime minister, at the Sultan’s Pool Amphitheater on July 13. The festival will feature over 200 films from 45 countries around the world. To find out more and buy tickets, go to the festival website at https://jff.org.il/