Israel’s New Fund for Cinema and TV is commemorating 25 years of funding Israeli entertainment by partnering with IZZY to launch its first-annual international film festival!
For three weeks — November 19 through December 9, 2020 — more than 30 NFCT-supported documentary films will be available for on-demand streaming via IZZY and its suite of apps, which are available worldwide, outside of Israel.
Here is a list of just a few of the films we’re most excited to watch!
1. One Day After Peace by Miri and Erez Laufer
Born in South Africa during the apartheid era, Robi Damelin later lost her son, who served in the Israel Defense Forces. At first she attempted to initiate a dialogue with the Palestinian who killed her child. When her overtures were rejected, she embarked on a journey back to South Africa.
2. Sabena Hijacking — My Version by Rani Saar
From the writer of “Fauda” comes this intense docu-drama based on the events of May 8, 1972, when four hijackers from the Palestinian organization “Black September” took control of a Sabena commercial airliner from Brussels to Tel Aviv.
3. Kosher Beach by Karin Kainer
The beautiful coastline of Tel Aviv draws devoted beachgoers eager to find peace and relaxation in the Mediterranean. Among these are residents of Bnei Brak, a closed Orthodox suburb, who frequent a gender-segregated stretch of seaside, closed off to the neighboring gay beaches with a modesty fence.
4. WEEK 23 by Ohad Milstein
The daughter of the Bishop is going through a high-risk identical twin pregnancy. After discovering that one of the fetuses died, she is recommended to terminate the pregnancy and kill her living fetus.
5. Death in the Terminal by Tali Shemesh and Assaf Sudry
A Rashomon-style reconstruction of the 2015 terrorist shooting at the bus terminal in the Israeli town of Be’er Sheva by several eyewitnesses.
6. The Green Dumpster Mystery by Tal Haim Yoffe
Traveling on his scooter through Tel Aviv, filmmaker Tal Haim Yoffe finds a discarded box of old photographs in a green dumpster. This docu-detective film, slowly unwinds a family history, beginning in Lodz, Poland, and traveling through the Siberian Gulag, a Samarkand sugar plant, a Ha’apala ship and the battlefields of the Sinai Peninsula.
7. Buried Alive by David Fisher
The film documents the struggle of a middle-aged woman from Yavneh who sets out in search of her husband, who was a member of the Israeli Black Panthers organization, and disappeared twenty years earlier under mysterious political circumstances. His wife’s search for the truth leads her to uncover two contradictory stories surrounding her husband – some claim that he was working for the Mossad, while others claim that he was a traitor working for the anti-Israel Arab front.
8. Spotting Yossi by Kabi Farag and Morris Ben-Mayor
Thirteen years after his death, the great actor Yossi Banai comes to life for one final encore, with a cinematic memoir led by his own deep iconic voice. Pieced together from numerous archival sources – films, plays, radio, songs, and comedy shows – Banai directs the spotlight on to his own image.
9. To Die in Jerusalem by Hilla Medalia
This instant-classic Israeli documentary unabashedly explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the personal loss of two families.
10. The Patriot by Daniel Sivan
In recent years Anti-Semitism in France is on the rise. Tension is felt on the streets of Paris, but the real battlefield is online, where hatred has no limits or censorship. This reality gives birth to a new kind of vigilante: A militant-Zionist hacker by the name of “Ulcan”, who declares a one-man-war against the leaders of the Anti-Semitic movement. “The Patriot” is a dark tale of extremism and vengeance in the Cyber Age.
11. The Five Houses of Lea Goldberg by Yair Kedar
She died 41 years ago, but even today, Lea Goldberg is still an enigmatic figure. One of Israel’s most beloved poet, she was a powerful woman who reinvented herself from the ashes of WW1 though her magical poetry.
12. Jenny and Jenny by Michal Aviad
Jenny and Jenny are 17-years-old cousins, living in the town of Bat Yam. This film follows one summer in their lives as they make the transition from girlhood to womanhood.
Admission to the festival involves a monthly or yearly subscription to IZZY. Subscribers will also receive unlimited, on-demand access to IZZY’s growing library of 200+ hours of Israeli entertainment, complete with English subtitles, at no additional charge.
