Best Israeli Films
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- DirectorEphraim KishonStarsTopolGeula NuniGila AlmagorThe sharp, often hilarious satire that became the most successful film in Israeli history (until that time) is about new immigrants Sallah and his family, who are left in a shack near their promised apartment and are abandoned for months. A Yemenite Jewish family that was flown to Israel during "Operation Magic Carpet" - a clandestine operation that flew 49,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel the year after the state was formed - is forced to move to a government settlement camp. The patriarch of the family, portrayed by Chaim Topol, tries to make money and get better housing, in a country that can barely provide for its own and is in the midst absorbing hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
- DirectorUri ZoharStarsUri ZoharAvraham HeffnerArik LavieA new immigrant, Tzelnik, arrives at the port of Jaffa. He goes to live in the Negev desert where he opens a kiosk in the middle of nowhere. Mizrachi comes along and opens a competing business across the way. The two make a living by selling to each other. As there is nothing there, they decide to create a world out of their imagination. They build a cardboard film set, which slowly takes on real dimensions- the buildings turn to concrete, people come to audition for parts in the "film" (cinema 'verite' style, with Zohar mocking viciously the pretensions of the "actresses") and builders come to void apartment buildings (mocking the glorification of concrete and "heroic" settlement). In one sequence, Arab actors come and ask the filmmakers turn positive to negative, and they're given the role of pioneers who plow the land and sing Zionist songs. The imagined world of the filmmakers becomes so real eventually they lose sight of the thin line between fantasy and reality.
- DirectorGilberto TofanoStarsEran AgmonGila AlmagorYael AvivStory of a war-widow pressured by her friends to behave in the role of the heroic widow, and the journey she takes in a country of people under siege.
- DirectorAvi NesherStarsGidi GovLiron NirgadSassi KeshetComedic musical about an army singing group.
- DirectorRenen SchorrStarsDor ZweigenboimYoav TzafirShahar Segal"Blues for the Big Vacation" follows 7 teens during a pivotal time between exams and IDF recruitment in 1970. They navigate identity, dreams, and activism amidst the backdrop of war. Key figures are Yossi, Arle, Musi, and Margo.
- DirectorEran RiklisStarsMoshe IvgyMohammad BakriSalim DawAn Israeli soldier is taken hostage by a small PLO squad in lebanon. The soldier planned to go on vacation and to fly to the world final soccer cup (mondial), he and his capturers share the love to soccer and toward the (not so happy) end a relationship is made.
- DirectorMoshé MizrahiStarsGila AlmagorShaike OphirYosef ShiloachA fatherless family immigrates to Israel from Egypt during the British Mandate period. The film traces the hardships the family suffers in the politically unstable country.
- DirectorEytan FoxStarsLior AshkenaziKnut BergerCaroline PetersFollowing the suicide of his wife, an Israeli intelligence agent is assigned to befriend the grandchildren of a Nazi war criminal.
- DirectorAssi DayanStarsGila AlmagorAkram TillawiSmadar KilchinskyThe film takes place in Tel Aviv, much of it in a fictitious local pub called Barbie, a satirical nickname for a famous Israeli mental health institution. The pub's name hints at the characters and the events which occur in the pub and which befall its owner (Daliah), the employees and customers. The plot unfolds with a streak of violence which takes a surprising turn.
- DirectorShira GeffenEtgar KeretStarsSarah AdlerNikol LeidmanGera SandlerMeduzot (the Hebrew word for Jellyfish) tells the story of three very different Israeli women living in Tel Aviv whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a young child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a young bride who breaks her leg in trying to escape from a locked toilet stall, which ruins her chance at a romantic honeymoon in the Caribbean. One of the guests is Joy, a Philippine chore woman attending the event with her employer, and who doesn't speak any Hebrew (she communicates mainly in English), and who is guilt-ridden after having left her young son behind in the Philippines.
- DirectorAvraham HeffnerStarsHanna MaronRuth SegalShmuel BunimClara, a Polish born Jew, living in Tel Aviv of the 1970's, has her ideas about how people should behave, and runs everybody's life accordingly: her husband, her sisters, their husbands, their children, her brother who lives in London (probably because it was the only way to get away from her...). Whenever something "improper" does happen, Clara's way of handling it is simply to shove it under the carpet and ignore it completely, as if it never happened. 3 basic rules, are, of course: 1. Never marry some one "under" your class (Or the class you think you are). 2. Never become pregnant out of wedlock and 3. No Abortions. As one may expect, everything crumbles when her niece gives her no option, but to break at least one of those rules.
- DirectorJoseph CedarStarsShlomo Bar-AbaLior AshkenaziAliza RosenEliezer and Uriel Shkolnik are father and son as well as rival professors in Talmudic Studies. When both men learn that Eliezer will be lauded for his work, their complicated relationship reaches a new peak.
- DirectorJoseph CedarStarsMichaela EshetHani FurstenbergMoshe IvgyThe story of one woman's personal battle for acceptance, but also a portrait of a political movement that has forever affected millions of lives in the Middle East.
- DirectorNir BergmanStarsOrly SilbersatzMaya MaronNitai GvirtzDaphne and her four children try to cope with the abrupt death of husband/father. As the family seems to fall apart, a sudden incident gives them a chance to heal their 'broken wings'.
- DirectorEphraim KishonStarsShaike OphirZaharira HarifaiAvner HizkiyahuOne of Israel's most beloved films, this film centers around the policeman Azulai, who is as kind as he as inept.
- DirectorDaniel WachsmannStarsShlomo TarshishYasein ShawafRuth GellerNamed after the hot desert wind that periodically blows through the Middle East sending temperatures and tempers soaring to potentially explosive heights. Set in an old farming village in the Galilee, the story revolves around inherited land ownership of Israelis and Arabs, of disappointed dreams, political tensions, and torn emotions as the clash between love and nationalism.
- DirectorYaky YoshaStarsMiriam Bernstein-CohenGedalia BesserLevana FinkelsteinAmi Sus'etz, an Israeli artist, abandons his wife and daughter in New York, and comes back to his home land after years of absence. Sus'etz wishes to decipher his constant feeling of failure as a human being, as a family man, as an artist. His best friends were killed in war, his paintings were burned not without intent. He has no past and no future. Back home Sus'etz reunites with his dying father, with his mother, who unsuccessfully tries to understand her son, and with a childhood friend, Ansberg, now a philosopher/homeless. Ansberg has adopted unusual methods in order to bring love back to Tel Aviv and expects "conscientious" Sus'etz to assist him in that. Sus'etz cannot be a "conscientious", or anything else for that matter, not before he resolves his own personal fate: who is he, why was he born, why does he live. Ami Sus'etz decides to make a movie, about himself, his parents, his hometown Tel Aviv, and about all that constitutes the puzzle we call human life. His movie fails in resolving the pattern but ironically becomes a commercial blockbuster. At the end of the day, the movie gets burned, just like the paintings, not without intent.
- DirectorSavi GabizonStarsMoshe IvgySharon HacohenSinai PeterComedy about life among Tel Aviv's 30-something bourgeoisie is nothing if not proof that self-absorbed, would-be hipsters are the same the world over. The central character is Asher, an unbecoming depressive and all-round schlemiel who publishes a book on 'How to Be an Idiot', and finds himself becoming the guru of a self-help circle. A liberal sprinkling of sight gags and non-sequiturs - and even a slight flavour of Almodóvar in the sexual absurdities - keeps things lively.
- DirectorAmos GitaiStarsYaël AbecassisYoram HattabMeital BerdahTwo sisters become victims of the patriarchal, ultra-orthodox society.
- DirectorDover KoshashviliStarsLior AshkenaziRonit ElkabetzMoni MoshonovZaza is a 31-year old Israeli bachelor, handsome and intelligent, and his family wants to see him married. But tradition dictates that Zaza has to choose a young virgin. She must be beautiful and from a good family, preferably rich. Zaza's parents, Yasha and Lily drag Zaza to meet potential brides and their families. Zaza has no choice. He plays along with his family, advocates of the suffocating traditions of their Georgian Jewish heritage. But Zaza always manages to somehow get out of being engaged. What his parents don't know is that Zaza is already in love. Judith is sensuous, strong and intriguing. She's also a divorcée with a 6-year-old daughter. So Zaza has kept Judith a secret from his family. He will have to choose between respect of the strict confines of family and tradition, or the love of his life.
- DirectorRafi BukaiStarsSalim DawSuhel HaddadTuvia GelberJune 11th 1967, the Six-Day War is over and the cease fire has just begun. We follow the journey of Gassan and Haled, two Egyptian soldiers whose only wish is to make their way through the Sinai desert and safely reach the Suez Canal. Thus begins a comical, almost surrealistic saga during which they meet various groups of people across the desert, including Israeli soldiers on patrol and a pushy news reporter.
- DirectorJudd Ne'emanStarsGidi GovMoni MoshonovShlomo Bar-AbaNot everyone is born to be a soldier. Not even in Israel, where universal conscription is the tradition. This movie is about a Sad Sack in the Israeli army, incompetent to complete training and yet incompetent to extricate himself.
- DirectorAmos GuttmanStarsSharon AlexanderAki AvniDvora BartonovAgainst the backdrop of AIDS, the film explores two families, each with a gay son. Jonathan is splitting from Miki because the more experienced Miki is playing around. Then Jonathan sees Thomas, the son and grandson of his neighbors, who is back in Israel after failing to make it as a musician in New York: Thomas is ill, detached, in search of hard drugs. Jonathan tries to connect with him. Meanwhile, Thomas's grandmother, facing old age, has become bitter, particularly toward her hard-working daughter. They worry about Thomas. A few blocks away, Jonathan's mother, brother and sister maintain their sometimes bickering relationships, watching Jonathan brave adulthood.
- DirectorUri ZoharStarsOded KotlerShai OshorovJudith SoléBased on a short story by Abraham B. Jehoshua, the movie follows Eli (Oded Kotler) taking care of an old girlfriend's child for three days. He wants him to get hurt, he worries about him. Will the child survive the three days? Will Eli?
- DirectorAri FolmanStarsAri FolmanRon Ben-YishaiRonny DayagAn Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.
- DirectorShemi ZarhinStarsOshri CohenArieh EliasEsti ZakheimThe new math teacher and new school principal discover the 16-year-old underachiever failing classes is really a genius, and the kid's own family's too busy relying on him to mend family fences to notice his brilliance either.
- DirectorEran KolirinStarsSasson GabayRonit ElkabetzSaleh BakriA band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in the wrong town.
- DirectorAssi DayanStarsYisrael PoliakovGavri BanaiShaike LeviSwindler Sergio Konstanza owes money to Mr. Hasson. He escapes to the desert where he joins a wacky Army reserve unit whose Sergeant has his eye on one of Mr. Hasson's daughters, although Mr. Hasson won't let her get married until her older sister is safely married and situated.
- DirectorEphraim KishonStarsBomba TzurNissim AzikriShraga FriedmanA slapstick comedy lampooning bureaucracy and the madness of everyday life in Israel centers on an escaped lunatic who digs up the streets of Tel-Aviv with a drill.
- DirectorElia SuleimanStarsElia SuleimanManal KhaderGeorge IbrahimSeparated by a checkpoint, Palestinian lovers from Jerusalem and Ramallah arrange clandestine meetings.
- DirectorThorold DickinsonStarsEdward MulhareHaya HarareetMichael ShilloIn 1948, four Israeli soldiers recount the events that led them to take up arms while preparing for a final mission in the hours leading up to a truce.
- DirectorVictor NordStarsShaike OphirMelanie GriffithTuvia TaviAn old man tends his garden under the threat of encroaching urbanization. In wanders a beautiful tourist, dazed and naked after a sexual assault, and he mistakes her for an angel.
- DirectorElia SuleimanStarsElia SuleimanNazira SuleimanFuad SuleimanA Palestinian expatriate filmmaker (Elia Suleiman) documents the loss of national identity in Israel's Arab population.
- DirectorAmos GuttmanStarsIcho AvitalShay CaponAmiram GabrielAdapted from Yoram Kaniuk's best-selling novel, this heart-rending love story unfolds during the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. A young and beautiful volunteer nurse is drawn to the enigmatic Himmo, a mortally wounded and mutilated soldier who cannot speak or move.
- DirectorYaky YoshaStarsShraga HarpazShimon FinkelHanna MaronBoaz, a reserve soldier returns from the battlefield and becomes involved in editing a memorial album dedicated to a friend who was killed before his eyes. He becomes increasingly involved in the lucrative business of producing memorabilia of this kind and does not hesitate exploiting the grief feelings of the survivors and symbolically becomes a "vulture," even in his romance with the dead hero's girlfriend.
- DirectorKeren YedayaStarsDana IvgyRonit ElkabetzMeshar CohenOr shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.
- DirectorEran KolirinStarsRotem KeinanSharon TalDov NavonA family man becomes obsessed with looking at his own life out of context.
- DirectorGilberto TofanoStarsEran AgmonGila AlmagorYael AvivStory of a war-widow pressured by her friends to behave in the role of the heroic widow, and the journey she takes in a country of people under siege.
- DirectorRonit ElkabetzShlomi ElkabetzStarsRonit ElkabetzSimon AbkarianGabi AmraniAfter a lukewarm marriage of over twenty years, a woman appeals to her husband's compassion to obtain the desirable divorce document in front of a court, which proves to be more challenging than she would expect.
- DirectorTalya LavieStarsDana IvgyNelly TagarShani KleinA unit of female Israeli soldiers at a remote desert base bide their time as they count down the minutes until they can return to civilian life.