Israeli Film Festival

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Michal Aviad | 2018 | 93 minutes

Working Woman is an engrossing, complex, and very timely drama. With three young children to look after and her husband’s restaurant struggling to break even, Orna feels incredibly lucky to have landed an assistant position with a luxury real-estate development firm. She quickly proves her worth and is rewarded with a promotion. Trouble is, Orna’s career advancement is also accompanied by unwanted advances from her wealthy and powerful boss, Benny. Initially seemingly innocuous, Benny’s personal transgressions with Orna soon begin to arrive with increasing intensity and with hints that if she wants to keep her lucrative job, she will have to play his game. With every professional triumph, Orna is forced to contend with more aggression from Benny. She needs to tell someone, but will anyone believe her? “Eschewing melodrama, Aviad delivers a hard-hitting and empowering drama that depicts murky workplace dynamics and the insidious nature of sexual harassment.” Toronto Jewish Film Festival.

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Roman Shumunov | 2018 | 87 minutes

A powerful, finely observed social drama about four young Russian immigrants to Israel, living in the slums of Ashdod. Striving to adapt to Israeli society, they form a hip-hop band, aspiring to participate in an international music festival. Their dream of taking part in the competition is seriously challenged when key band member Andrey suffers a crisis at home. Andrey’s father has been in the hospital for months, leaving him responsible for his little sister and payments on their mortgage. As this intimate and intense drama reveals, he must struggle constantly between caring for his family, work, and still participate in the band's rehearsals. While it’s not easy, Andrey is a determined young man and artist. As with Fig Tree, Here and Now is another impressive first feature by a promising young filmmaker, Roman Shumunov.

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Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian | 2018 | 93 minutes

Set in Addis Ababa in 1989, Fig Tree is an unforgettable story of one extraordinary teenage girl's harrowing coming of age. Mina is 16 years old, and it seems the endless Ethiopian Civil War has been going on throughout her entire life. She lives with her brother and grandmother in a humble house and dreams of a better future elsewhere. The family is Jewish and is planning to flee Ethiopia for Israel, where Mina's mother awaits their reunion. But this plan leaves out the person Mina loves most: Eli, her Christian boyfriend, who lives in the woods so as to evade being drafted into the corrupt and brutal Ethiopian government army. Mina hatches a scheme to save her family and Eli, but can it possibly work? Drawing upon her own memories of growing up in war-torn Ethiopia, writer-director Davidian's feature film debut announces a bright new talent in Israeli cinema.

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Joseph Madmony, Boaz Yehonatan Yacov | 2018 | 104 minutes

Menachem (Moshe Folkenflik) is a middle-aged single father struggling to finance his cancer-stricken six-year-old daughter’s formidable medical expenses with his modest income as a grocery clerk. In his recent past, he had fronted a rock-and-roll band until personal tragedies prompted his retirement from music and the adoption of a devoted Hasidic practice that has alienated most of his old friends. Playing music promises to be more lucrative than stocking shelves, but would a return to singing be compatible with a life of worship? As Menacham’s financial situation worsens, he decides to call up his former bandmates and maybe try to make a comeback. “By focusing its energies squarely on Menachem’s existential crisis and its sources — his fierce love for his daughter, his sense of fulfillment as a performer, his humility as a novice Hasid — Redemption finds an exquisite balance between the secular and the religious. Folkenflik’s performance is beautifully graded, traversing a broad spectrum of grief, rage, and exaltation.” Jane Schoettle, Toronto International Film Festival.

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Avi Nesher | 2018 | 112 minutes

From acclaimed director Avi Nesher (whose previous film, Past Life, was screened at our Israel Film Festival in 2014), The Other Story is a powerful contemporary drama. In Nesher’s latest, complications arise when a dysfunctional Israeli family tries to lure their willful daughter away from Orthodox Judaism. Renouncing the hedonism of her Jerusalem youth, obstinate young Anat devotes herself to a pure life and the study of Torah. Her upcoming marriage to Shahar, a former pop star-turned-devoted Hasid,  is the final straw for Anat’s family. Upon hearing the news, her divorced secular parents and grandfather scheme to prevent the marriage. Amid rising tensions and shifting alliances, no one has a monopoly on virtue, as multi-layered plots converge with unexpected consequences. Intelligently exploring the religious-secular divide, this tale of broken relationships and forgiveness is a masterful weave of its many narrative threads.