Israel Film Festival

It is remarkable – non? – that, with the vast amounts spent on arts marketing it’s so hard to know what great arts events are on, where they’re on and whether you should go to them ahead of other arts events. In other words that it’s so hard not just to ensure that the information turns up on some feed of yours in a form that’s easily accessible and comprehensible, but also in a form that allows you to ignore dross, unless you want dross.

As a small contribution to solving this problem (with larger contributions in the wings), as you know Troppo hosts film festival highlights in a form that makes it easy for you to identify when and where good films are on. Here’s the Israeli Film Festival films that score around four stars or more from decent independent reviewers.

What’s there not to like?

Top Picks

A deeply compassionate depiction of the intricate and complex relationship between Jews and Arabs in the late 1980s, based on Sayed Kashua’s bestselling novels Second Person Singular and Dancing Arabs. Leaving his Arab home town of Tira to attend a prestigious Jewish boarding school, Eyad faces a dilemma: can he be accepted in this new environment without sacrificing his sense of self and culture? Though this opportunity suggests a positive future, Eyad struggles among Israeli Jews, feeling shame at simple things like not knowing how to use silverware, what music to listen to, and not pronouncing Hebrew correctly.
????? IMDB
Show Timings:
This multi award-winning comedy is set in 1991 during the immigration wave from Russia to Israel and depicts one family’s hilarious experience through a video recording when their aunt dies in-flight causing all kinds of problems with entry paperwork!
????? IMDB
Show Timings:
From around the world, a group of thirty somethings return to their homeland of Israel to attend a mutual friend’s wedding with dramas forcing them to reexamine their relationships and desires.
????? IMDB
Show Timings:
Zohara decides to travel to her estranged sister’s wedding, but on the way becomes an accomplice in a young Bedouin woman’s desperate escape from an arranged marriage.
????? IMDB
Show Timings:
Aidan Bloom is a 35-year-old man who finds himself at major crossroads, which forces him to examine his life, his career, and his family. A struggling actor, father and husband, he is still trying to find his identity; a purpose for his life. He winds up trying to home school his two children, when his father can no longer afford to pay for private education and the only available public school is on its last legs. Through teaching them about life his way, Aidan gradually discovers some of the parts of himself he couldn’t find.
????? IMDB
Show Timings:
Two men, spy and handler, whom history insists must be adversaries, forge an unexpected trust and friendship. A Palestinian in Ramallah, Mosab Hassan Yousef, whose father is a Hamas leader, grows up angry and ready to fight Israel. Arrested for smuggling guns at the age of 17, he’s interrogated by the Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, and sent to prison. But shocked by Hamas’ ruthless tactics in the prison and the organization’s escalating campaign of suicide bombings outside, Mosab astonishingly agrees to spy for Israel. Focusing on the complex relationship with his handler, The Green Prince is a gripping account of terror, betrayal, and unthinkable choices, along with a friendship that defies all boundaries
????? IMDB
Show Timings:

Melbourne Schedule

@Palace Cinema Como

Wednesday 20 August

07.00pm Self Made (Opening Night)

Thursday 21 August

Friday 22 August

Saturday 23 August

Sunday 24 August

Monday 25 August

Tuesday 26 August

Wednesday 27 August

Thursday 28 August

Friday 29 August

Saturday 30 August

08.30pm Wish I Was Here (AICE Preview)

Sunday 31 August

Monday 1 September

Tuesday 2 September

Wednesday 3 September

Thursday 4 September

06.30pm The Green Prince (Closing Night)

@Palace Brighton Bay

Thursday 21 August

Friday 22 August

Saturday 23 August

Sunday 24 August

Monday 25 August

Tuesday 26 August

Wednesday 27 August

Thursday 28 August

Friday 29 August

Saturday 30 August

Sunday 31 August

02.30pm Hora 79 (Dance Performance)

Monday 1 September

Tuesday 2 September

Wednesday 3 September

@Kino Cinemas

Thursday 21 August

Friday 22 August

Saturday 23 August

Sunday 24 August

Monday 25 August

Tuesday 26 August

Wednesday 27 August

Thursday 28 August

Friday 29 August

08.30pm Wish I Was Here (AICE Preview)

Saturday 30 August

Sunday 31 August

Monday 1 September

Tuesday 2 September

Wednesday 3 September

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Tel
Tel
10 years ago

Great art is much like your car keys… always in the last place you look.

Not that I own a car you understand, I just go searching for keys now and then to keep in touch with how the other half lives.

whyisitso
whyisitso
10 years ago

Nothing to do with this topic, but I haven’t visited this site for quite a long time.

I’m amazed that you persist with that childish jibe underneath the main title at Tony Abbott’s slip of the tongue that happened quite a long time ago.

Mel
Mel
10 years ago

Whyisitso, it is hardly a jibe. Don’t be be such a silly and dishonest old drama queen.

whyisitso
whyisitso
10 years ago
Reply to  Mel

What’s silly and dishonest about my comment? Tony Abbott made a slip of the tongue over twelve months ago using the word “suppository” when he meant to say “repository”. The jibe has been done to death and Troppo has had it up there all this time. It’s incredibly childish, even stupid, to continue with it.