Israeli film ‘Lebanon’ takes top prize in Venice
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Movies, Pop Culture, War
It’s ironic that just as a group of well-known actors and filmmakers, among them Jane Fonda and Danny Glover, are calling to boycott this year’s Toronto International Film Festival because one program there will be devoted to films set in Tel Aviv to mark that city’s centennial, an Israeli film walked off with top honors at the 66th Venice Film Festival.
Israeli director Samuel Maoz’s Lebanon won the Golden Lion, the top prize, at the closing ceremony on Saturday night, the third Israeli film based on soldiers in Lebanon besides Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort in 2008 and Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir in 2009 to win major awards. None of those films could come close to being described as Israeli propoganda, as the pro-boycotters claim all Israeli film is, and in fact, they provide a critical look at Israeli society and the wars we’ve fought.
Lebanon, Maoz’ first feature film, received glowing reviews from critics, with The International Herald Tribune calling it “a powerful and original film.” Based on Maoz’s battle memories, Lebanon depicts the fate of an IDF tank and its crew behind enemy lines at the beginning of the first Lebanon War in 1982.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the hard-hitting film is shot almost entirely from the point of view of the soldiers inside the tank, and is uncompromising in its depiction of the confusion of war, the inevitability of casualties (both civilian and military), and the claustrophobia of being stuck inside a machine that protects soldiers but can also become a death trap at any moment. It is highly critical of the leadership that brought these soldiers into such a deadly situation and left them there with so little guidance.
Lebanon is nominated for several Ophir Awards, the prizes of the Israel Academy for Film, including Best Picture. The Ophir winners will be announced in a ceremony on September 26.
The winner of the Ophir Award becomes Israel’s official entry to be considered for a nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
It’s also ironic, that as more and more quality Israeli films are being made that have nothing to do with war and conflict, it is precisely those war-based movies that are touching an international audience. If the naysayers who would deny audiences in Toronto from viewing the spectrum of film which reflect the diversity of Israeli culture – that don’t attempt to whitewash any blemishes or skirt over the pall of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – would only view some of the films themselves, they may reconsider their decision to boycott.
Is there a market for an Israeli comedy in the US?
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.
Lights, camera, Shalom
Academy Award nominee Waltz With Bashir
But one area where the local film industry hasn’t done so well is in attracting foreign film producers to shoot their movies here. It’s a shame, because Israel has such cinematic locations – the beach, the desert, the Golan, the old cities of Jerusalem and Acre.
But until now, it’s been too expensive to bring a huge crew and equipment over, so foreign productions have been few and far between. I was an extra once in 1988 in Appointment with Death, an adaption of an Agatha Christie novel, starring Peter Ustinov, Sir John Gielgud and my personal favorite, David (Starsky) Soul that was filmed in Jerusalem. My portrayal of a British soldier in Palestine circa 1930s did irreparable damage to the reputation of Israeli actors, and since then, we’ve been suffering.
Even Adam Sandler’s Zohan filmed the scenes that are supposedly in Israel in some other location like Hawaii.
But now, things may change. The Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry has announced that Israel will offer foreign film producers tax breaks of 20 percent if they collaborate with Israeli production companies.
The announcement was made a day ahead of the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, and one of the sessions there featuring producers will focus on Israel as a location for making movies and TV shows. The ministry will also man a booth at the festival distributing pamphlets listing the advantages of filming here.
The Jerusalem Post reported that according to the pamphlet to be distributed at Cannes, Israel has several selling points: a vast pool of actors and extras of varying ethnicities representing more than 100 countries, many different types of locations within easy driving distance, and 120 production companies, 10 production studios and 30 post-production facilities.
Israeli producer Gal Uchovsky, the business partner of director Eytan Fox (Walk on Water, The Bubble) said that he was pleased with the move.
“Countries [that] have offered such incentives drew a lot of producers. Morocco and Ireland, for example, have made a lot of effort to draw in foreign filmmakers and it has paid off.
“This is a very good financial decision. It will provide an income for much of the local industry and will raise the local industry’s standards,” said Uchovsky.
We may not see Brad and Angie here tomorrow, but hopefully the government decision will help Israelwood get off the ground.
Waltz with Bashir snubbed in LA
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, General, Movies, Pop Culture
Conventional wisdom unequivocally asserted that the only Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee to hold a candle to Waltz with Bashir was France’s The Class – but that even that movie was hardly as technically groundbreaking or thematically poignant as Israel’s nominee. Regardless, The Academy instead gave the award to Japan’s Departures (pictured in all of its smirking glory).
Bashir therefore joins a long list of Israel-made Oscar losers that includes Sallah Shabati and HaShoter Azoulay.
When Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort failed to take home a statuette a year ago, the director was gracious and stoic, putting the situation in the proper context. He even went so far as to give The Jerusalem Post the ultimate cliché Oscar loser soundbyte:
[Cedar] seemed to keep his hopes in check at a symposium prior to the ceremony, saying he was “happy just to have been nominated. I’m not even thinking about winning.”
….”We have shown that Israel can make very good movies,” Beaufort actor Eli Eltonyo told the cheering crowd [at a post-Oscars party], “and we will prove it again next time.”
Next time was earlier this week, but Eltonyo’s prediction didn’t come to fruition – at least not as fully as he might have hoped. But Bashir’s creative team was hardly as gracious as Beaufort’s was. The jPost caught up with director Ari Folman after the show:
“It’s a game,” Folman said, shrugging. “It’s 500 anonymous voters, and I don’t know a single one.”
He said he planned to drink the night away before getting on a plane home to Israel.
“I’ll be glad to be done with all of this traveling, though I am going to miss it in a few months – but right now I just want to go home and be with my kids,” Folman told the Post.
Back here in Israel, the rest of the Bashir team was even more disappointed, as Haaretz notes:
Nitzan Roiy, in charge of composing and special effects, stayed in his chair.
“It’s horrible,” he said. “When we came here we were sure we had it in our hand. It’s a shame.”
…. “We were very confident before the ceremony,” said Neta Holzer, one of the animators who joined the Israeli delegation to Los Angeles. “We didn’t talk about winning, but we had a very good gut feeling. Everyone is disappointed, but we’re getting used to it.”
With so many great movies continuing to come out of our local industry, we can all comfort ourselves by saying, “There’s always next year.” At least that;s what the good sports among us will say.
Waiting to see if Bashir wins
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Movies, Pop Culture, War
Anticipation is already building in Israel today, as people across the country wait to discover if the Israeli movie Waltz with Bashir will win an Oscar at tonight’s ceremony in Los Angeles.
Certainly things look pretty good for the critically acclaimed movie by Ari Folman. It’s already won a string of prestigious awards – from a Golden Globe to an award for the best documentary from the Writers Guild of America, and gambling Web sites are predicting that the Israeli contender for the best foreign film is the most likely of all the entries to win the award.
Critics have also indicated that the movie, which deals with Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, is their favorite for the prize as – aside from its moving and powerful story – it also breaks new cinematic ground. Critic David Carr, from The New York Times, urged readers to “Put a nickel on Bashir, and keep it there.”
We all love it here when an Israeli film (musician, artist, model etc. etc.) makes good. Last year hopes were high for Beaufort, another moving anti-war film also set in Lebanon, but it was pipped at the post.
For all the success of Folman’s movie, however, there are rumblings of discontent amongst certain sectors of society who feel this, the eighth Israeli Oscar contender, but the one most likely to win, is an anti-Israeli movie.
Folman’s effort to piece together his memories as a combat soldier of the Lebanon War, and particularly the massacre at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp in Beirut, are regarded as unjustly demonizing Israel.
Stung by the criticism, one of the film’s backers, the US Foundation for Jewish Culture and Makom, has put out a study guide explaining why the film isn’t unfair. The guide is based on Israel’s own investigation into Sabra and Shatilla, gives the history of the battle, and charts its aftermath.
But why does criticism of Israel’s actions or behavior in a war have to be anti-Israeli? Folman’s film, like Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort before it, is a profound attempt by a soldier to examine a very painful part of his own history and that of his country. It’s soul-searching at its deepest level. And what it reveals about Israel is that this soul searching, doubt and regret is a fundamental part of who we are.
In the media, particularly during the Gaza war, but in many wars and conflicts, Israel is often portrayed as a militaristic nation that doesn’t really give a damn about who gets hurt. Films like Beaufort, and Waltz with Bashir, may not be easy viewing, but they show a completely different truth.
Golden Globe for Waltz with Bashir
Bashir still dancing
Sabra subtitles
Ever ponder seeing an Israeli film, but wind up too intimidated by the choice of what’s out there? There are some great cinematic experiences available, and Jewish film festivals and repertory theaters in the US and Europe are increasingly screening blue and white movies. Heck, we almost won an Academy Award last year for Beaufort.
So, now’s the time, if you haven’t already, to familiarize yourself with the increasingly excellent creations coming out of our new generation of filmmakers. Luckily, there’s a handy blog out there that’s providing some insight into the industry, the films, the stories and the directors – and it’s written by a true expert in the field.
Amy Kronish’s Israelfilm is constantly growing its database of thoughtful, in depth postings on Israeli films, and Amy knows what she’s talking about. She served for 15 years as the curator of Jewish and Israeli Film at the Jerusalem Cinematheque/Israel Film Archive and established the Cinematheque’s Jewish Film Festival. She’s also the author of two books on Israeli film – “World Cinema: Israel and co-author of Israeli Film: A Reference Guide.
One of the nice things about the blog is that it’s not only about newly released movies, but standout films that have been out there for a while that may deserve a second look. A recent post delved into the fine Dror Shaul film Sweet Mud, which was a prize winner at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006.
This film is a study of kibbutz members’ difficulties in coping with one woman’s weakness and instability, and Kronish provides some insightful background to the issue – which is natural, because another field of her expertise is lecturing on contemporary issues of Israeli society as seen through film.
Israeli films keep getting better and better, so don’t let a silly thing like language dissuade you from exploring what’s out there. Let Israelfilm be your guide as you take the plunge.
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