A wandering Jew

May 31, 2010 - 11:56 AM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Art, Israeliness, Movies 

The just-over-a-minute trailer for “The Wanderer” is gripping in its scenes and silence. Just premiered at the Cannes Festival, this film by unknown Avishai Sivan tells the story of yeshiva student Isaac, a 19-year-old only child of ultra Orthodox parents (the father is played by an Israeli Arab) who is suddenly gripped by severe abdominal pains.

Variety reviewer Alissa Simon wrote that the film is “visually assured but narratively underdeveloped.”

“Independently made, tonally mixed drama, rigorously shot on 35mm with minimal means, reps a peculiar but memorable calling card destined to meander through the fest circuit, likely finding mixed reviews as well as some passionate supporters.”

How did Sivan get to Cannes? Ha’aretz reports that despite many previous rejections for his other films, Sivan was about to spend his life savings on “The Wanderer”, when the Israel Film Fund finally gave him the NIS 200,000 needed to put together a bare-bones production. He didn’t even have enough money to finish the editing process, and sent an unfinished version to Cannes. But they accepted it anyway, and he made it to the red carpet.

Check out the trailer:
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Bashir still dancing

October 24, 2008 - 12:31 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: General, Movies, Pop Culture 

Waltz with BashirUnder the auspices of the Haifa Film Festival and the Tel Aviv Journalists’ Association, the Israeli Film Critics Awards ceremony gave Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir a statuette for being the year’s “Best Israeli Film” earlier this week.

The IFC award will have to vie for surface space on Folman’s mantelpiece, as Bashir, a new fusion of genres (documentary and animation), has been garnering accolades for quite some time now. Aside from perhaps finally heralding the dawn of the Israeli feature film animation industry, the movie received mad love at Cannes this past summer.

Now people are starting to wonder if it could be a contender for an Academy Award in the “Foreign Language” category – the category that allowed Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort to beat out The Band’s Visit for an Oscar nomination at the last ceremonies. Could Israeli films possibly be nominated for two Oscars in two years?

The Academy recently released a list of 67 movies chosen for the award by 67 countries, with Waltz with Bashir representing Israel. Since no animated movie has ever received a nomination in the Foreign Language category, it’s highly unlikely that Folman will make it to the red carpet. But then again, given that the Jews rule Hollywood with an iron fist, one never knows….

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