Following up films concentrating primarily on big themes, such as the position of Israel and its relationship to Palestinians, these contemporary Israeli films focus more on individual human destinies
Israeli cinema attracted the attention of domestic film lovers with two recent titles that were shown in our cinemas thanks to numerous international film awards. The Band's Visit, about an Egyptian military band on tour in Israel, brought its director Eran Kolirin an award for Discovery of the Year at the European Film Awards in 2007 and numerous awards from Cannes, through Sarajevo and Warsaw to Tokyo. It was supposed to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film but was disqualified because most of the dialogue in the film is in English (the main language that Israelis and Egyptians communicate in with each other). However, the documentary by Ari Folman about the intervention in Lebanon was transferred into an original animated film Waltz with Bashir (2008) which won that Oscar along with many other awards at festivals around the world. In the last few years, the Zagreb Jewish Film Festival has offered us a somewhat broader insight into Israeli cinema and over the last decade Croatian television has shown two programs of solid films from this country.
Interestingly, over the last few years, primarily thanks to international awards, Israeli film has become more popular in Israel itself. In the last decade, the percentage of tickets for domestic films grew from one to fourteen percent in Israel. During its first twenty years, film was not a priority in the new Israeli state. Then in the1970s film schools and an academy opened as well as movie theaters in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, which resulted in the creation of competent and educated filmmakers. In 1981, the Fund for the Promotion of Valuable Films was established. Even so, the situation is less than idyllic, because in the 1980s tension grew towards filmmakers who criticized the right-wing regime and their aggressive policies towards Palestinians. In the 1990s, this fierce criticism slowed down because it became clear that not even those Israelis who are friendly and understanding towards Palestinians would be able to find a solution. So, the films became more nuanced as well. One of the well-know Israeli directors, Amos Gitai, enriched his interesting themes with a pronounced modernist style and his films Berlin – Jerusalem (1989), Kippur (2000), Promised Land (2004), etc, received many international film awards and acclaim.
In 2000, the Fund for the Promotion of Valuable Films became the Israeli Film Fund and soon its activities significantly influenced the promotion of domestic film in its own country (there was a huge growth of popularity of domestic films in cinemas) and their distribution at international film festivals and film and TV fairs. In addition, it helped organize international co-productions so that in the last decade about half of Israeli films had foreign co-producers. This resulted in a greater number of films and ensured their presence on the international film market. Besides that, instead of concentrating primarily on big themes, such as the position of Israel and its relationship with Palestinians, the directors focus more on individual human destinies even when the hero is a member of Mossad, as in the interesting film by Eytan Fox Walk on Water. It starts as effectively as a James Bond film, but after great success as a secret agent, it leads the hero to start questioning his right to do the things he does, his convictions and finally his true nature and identity.
An even more representative example of this current trend in Israeli cinema is the impressive family drama Broken Wings by Nir Berman, winner of nine national film awards (among them for Best Film, Director, Actress and Supporting Actress) three awards in Berlin within the Panorama program and the Grand Prix in Tokyo. Even though it is a drama about social problems, which are not a common theme in Israeli films, its main value is found in the interesting characters in a family coping with the father’s recent death (not in war or a terrorist attack but from an allergic reaction to a wasp sting). The mother cannot earn a living and take care of a family of four children – two teenagers, who help their mother while their interests suffer, and two younger ones. The heroine is the oldest daughter, a seventeen-year-old musician who cannot find a balance between her obligations and love towards her family and her interests. In Someone to Run With by Oded Davidoff, the protagonist is a talented teenage musician, but the suggestive environment is completely different – a criminal milieu that uses maladjusted teenagers and their talents to earn money.
In her film Noodle Ayelet Menahemi created an unusual melodrama about a flight attendant who lost two husbands and had no children, so she fully becomes fully devoted to a small Chinese boy and the attempt to return him to his mother. Even more unusual is the moving comedy A Matter of Size by Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor about enormously overweight young people who cannot lose weight but find a Japanese sumo trainer for whom their weight is an advantage, and so they decide to become the first Israeli sumo fighters.
This program of Israeli films consists of outstanding works, winners of national and international film awards, and presents us with an opportunity to learn more about this interesting cinematography as well as the country that we usually only connect to news about conflicts in the Middle East. (Tomislav Kurelec)