Is there a market for an Israeli comedy in the US?

June 6, 2009 - 9:45 PM by David

lost-is The crowd-pleasing 2008 Israeli film ‘Lost Islands’ was featured over the weekend at the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles.

The comedy, produced by Dudi Zilber and directed by Reshef Levy, is about twin brothers in late-1970s Israel who fall in love with the same girl. And according to Zilber, that light remise might be precisely the reason why the film, the biggest box office hit locally last year, has not yet been able to procure American distribution.

All of the recent Israeli films that have resonated with American viewers have had something to do with the conflict – whether it be directly (“Waltz With Bashir,” “Beaufort”) or indirectly (“The Band’s Visit”).

“It’s a big disappointment,” Zilber told The Los Angeles Times, which ran a feature on the film. “Not even one distributor has given us an offer. No one is interested.”

According to Zilber, when it comes to foreign imports, US distributors are far more interested in serious, art-house dramas than in popular comedies. In fact, being a big comedy hit in Israel probably makes “Lost Islands” a harder sell than if it were a small, thoughtful adult drama.

“The movies that sell well overseas — and this is true if they are from France or Iran as well as from Israel — are the ones that have soft or delicate subject matter, a serious theme that would appeal to the U.S. art-house moviegoer,” says Zilber. “Non-English-speaking films are geared to a very specific audience in the U.S. — the cinephiles, the people who want serious drama. So actually, the more commercial the movie is in Israel, the less commercial it would be in America.”

However, even though nobody may want the rights to “Lost Islands”, they are interested in the story. Zilber told The Times that he’s in negotiations with several US-based film companies for the American remake rights to the film.

If remade, it would also join a trend of US adaptions of Israeli productions, ranging from HBO’s In Treatment to:

– Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi, – a 2003 Shemi Zarhin comedy being remade as Diego Ascending, by actress Salma Hayek’s production company about an underappreciated 16-year-old boy charged with taking care of his eccentric family.

- Wristcutters, the 2006 film adaption by director Goran Dukic of Etgar Keret’s short story Kneller’s Happy Campers.

– Colombian Love, a 2004 comedy by Shai Kannot about modern romance, acquired by a Hollywood production company that intends to remake it in an American setting.

So, remember, just because an Israeli film doesn’t have any soldiers in it or bombs going off, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not bound for the bright lights of Hollywood.

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