The Jewish International Film Festival (JIFF) has been ongoing at the Ritz Cinema in Randwick, Sydney, which started from 18 February up to 24 March 2021. It is midway through this annual event, and the Ritz Cinema has been busy accommodating lovers of Jewish cinema.
Among the choices of this festival are the following select narrative feature films from Israel.
ABU OMAR
Numbed by loss and grief, this film explores the Israeli-Palestinian relationship on a more personal level through a fated encounter between two disparate individuals. Sadness and sorrow engulf this contemplative road movie, a kindred meeting between Salah, a grieving Palestinian father carrying his dead son Omar in a duffel bag and Miri, a pregnant single Israeli woman helping Salah cross the Israeli border. Despite the two opposing cultures, this film has a very moving ending, with humanity reigning amidst the tragedy.
AFRICA
This existentialist drama from Israeli writer-director Oren Gerner focuses on his parents Meir and Maya’s partly fictionalised reality-based midlife crises. This interestingly-titled first feature from Gerner refers to a recent trip his parents took in Namibia, using quick intercuts of their home-movie videos, an alluding metaphor of a time now past. Confronted by today’s youth, Meir challenges his age constraints, reflecting on the realities of ageing and being relevant. This slow-burn is a wallowing study on living, dissolution and mortality.
ANTON
This beautifully realised film is from Oscar-nominated director Georgian director Zaza Urushadze who brought to the screen the unforgettably lush TANGERINES. The film is classically set in 1919 during Trotsky’s repressive Bolshevik military regime. Quite historical in treatment, the film touches on the unlikely friendship between the German Catholic Anton and the Jewish Yakiv amidst the details of a turning point period in Ukraine’s history. With incredible cinematography and an authentic period piece look, this intricately plotted time-aged creation immerses you into the era through the innocent eyes of its leads.
ASIA
Israeli writer-director Ruthy Pribar’s debut film is quite affecting as it is detached. This moving drama won Best Picture at the Israeli Academy Awards and is Israel’s Best International Feature Film Oscar submission. The story revolves around a slightly estranged mother-daughter relationship fraught with busy schedules and early motherhood. Young, carefree single mother Asia moved from Russia to Jerusalem with her rebellious teenage daughter Vika. While Vika hangs at the skating park all day, Asia works long shifts as a nurse. Vika longs for physical romance, which Asia openly explores, finding time to meet men in singles bars and having an affair with a married colleague. Both are headstrong and hardly talk, but all that is about to change when Vika’s progressive illness worsens and Asia steps up to the role of mother to her now vulnerable daughter. This film has exceptional performances from both leads, a rousing soundtrack and entirely unsentimental yet layered with deep emotions, primarily through the end.
BORN IN JERUSALEM AND STILL ALIVE
This dark comedy on life and death from Yossi Atia stars himself as Ronen Matalon, who confronts his fears of terrorist attacks in his hometown of Jerusalem through a guiding tour of terror attack sites. This terror tour starts at the infamous Jaffa Road, where tourists are shown bombing sites and the number of overwhelming deaths during the 90s and 2000s. It is his way of overcoming the trauma from the absurd fatalism of existence in his part of the world. Along the way, he meets Asia, who used to live in Jerusalem and a trauma-healing relationship blossoms. This painfully beguiling debut examines the fears of mortal uncertainty we face as we nervously laugh them away.
ESAU
This modern retelling of Esau and Jacob’s story from the Bible’s chapter of Genesis is from Cannes winner Pavel Lungin. It features an all-celebrity cast including Harvey Keitel, Lior Ashkenazi, Mark Ivanir, Shira Haas, and Israeli grand dame of theatre Gila Almagor. This opulent epic is an adaptation of the novel ESAU from Israeli writer Meir Shalev and spans generations of a family of bakers from the first World War through the 70s. It is an emotional journey following a writer who returns to his ancestral home in Israel as he confronts his brother with his past sins. This star-studded gem is a real cinematic experience at its finest.
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW IN BUCHAREST
This is a fascinating true story of murder and revenge, where vengeance creeps through the decades of drive and determination as ten-year-old Eliahu is focused on avenging the death of his father from an Iron Guard neighbour of Romania’s fascist militia. The film spans Eliahu’s journey from his juvenile imprisonment to his emigration to Israel through his experience as part of the French Foreign Legion until his encounter with his father’s murderer. Eliahu’s immersion into various wars and continents tests the human spirit of perseverance and resolve, which ultimately climaxes into a much-awaited conclusion.
Other must-watch Israeli feature-film highlights are the following gems: INCITEMENT, GOLDEN VOICES, HERE WE ARE, HONEYMOOD, LOVE IN SUSPENDERS, PERSIAN LESSONS, RED FIELDS.
