Uri Ran Klauzner
Secrets, lies, surprises and more are explored in this rich selection of gay short films from Israel.
In an alternate reality of present day Israel, a Haredi wheeler-dealer named Broide makes his living smuggling minor contraband between the secular “State of Israel” and the ultra-Orthodox “Haredi Autonomy” in Jerusalem. One day he receives a life-changing job offer: kidnap a little girl at the heart of a custody battle between two families - one Haredi and one secular.
When Filipina stay-at-home nurse Christie disappears, Araleh is forced to help his brother tend to their dying father. Trying to protect himself, he begins scattering white lies, which only bring closer the inevitable end they all feared.
Haifa on a sunny day. Moshe is a crumbling man walking up the Carmel Mountain on yet another work day. Will this day mark his collapse? Uri walks down the mountain to board a ship and leave behind all the things he loves and despises. His sense of belonging is losing ground. He is likely to miss his military reserve service-call, thus risking jail. Will the two collide or pass through one another? An existential comedy, where the overbearing mountain with its endless stairs takes control over destinies in this unique panorama of the Mediterranean port city.
A political drama centered around Israel's pullout from the occupied Gaza strip, in which a French woman of Israeli origin comes to the Gaza Strip to find her long ago abandoned daughter.
The series tells the story of Nadav Feldman , a young social worker , who discovers that he is adopted and finds himself in the depths of his biological father's family, Baruch Asulin, a leader of an organized crime syndicate in Israel known as "Ha-Borer"(The Arbitrator), due to his activities as an arbitrator in disputes in the underworld. The series focuses on the combination of dramatic stretches , the conflict between the norms of society including crime, especially norms and codes of conduct of the underworld. Among other highlights of the series, in a satirical way, the contrast between certain behaviors of some of the heroes of the series (as a demonstration of piety) and other behaviors (such as the blatant disregard for human life).
Debbie, a young belly dancer, her dangerous yet charming lover, a criminal, and a dance club owner tell the story about love and crimes, friendship and betrayal.
Through a mosaic of stories intertwined and created a current picture of the sad social and economic situation in Israel. Mother forced into prostitution to support her son; Blind man must survive after loosing his dog; Son is looking for his rocker father's; Apartment owner complicates his life while entering the underworld...
Life in a Tel Aviv apartment complex, an urban mosaic whose seedy characters, try as they might, can't get out of one another's faces. Gabi, a bobbed haired sexpot, and her lover Hezi—who's older, balding and married—rent a room to have an affair, while Ezra, a pot bellied divorcee, supervises an illegal construction site next door. All this racket drives Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor, to a mental breakdown. Other characters include illegal Chinese immigrants, a teenage boy who's afraid to serve in the army, and a corrupt police detective.
In ha-Argazim, a neighborhood that time forgot, the one-year anniversary of Morris Mandabon's death is approaching, and his youngest son, Nissim has had a dream in which his father orders him to re-open the old neighborhood movie theater, thus breaking the vow that Morris had made years before never to screen movies again. Nissim and his brother George, together with Aharon Gabardine, who was the projectionist back in the old days, are determined to fulfill Morris' request. The same day Nissim has his dream, Avram Mandabon, Morris' brother, returns for his brother's memorial after a 25-year absence. His reappearance causes old family feuds to resurface.
Is today's fanaticism tomorrow's policy? In a West Bank settlement, Rabbi Meltzer has a grand design: he's building a movement "to pray at the Temple Mount." His yeshiva has scholars, and the settlement is getting its own military company to be commanded by Menachem, a disciple of the rabbi. He also wants his daughter, Michal, to marry Pini, the yeshiva's best scholar. Michal has no interest in Pini, but she is attracted to Menachem. When she rebuffs Pini, he hatches a bold and secret plan. Is jealousy the motivation or something else? Meanwhile, the army and Moussad are closely watching the rabbi's activities and Menachem's military training. Who is trustworthy?
The film takes place in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War in which Egypt and Syria launched attacks in Sinai and the Golan Heights. The story is told from the perspective of Israeli soldiers. We are led by Weinraub and his friend Ruso on a day that begins with quiet city streets, but ends with death, destruction and devastation of both body and mind. Various scenes are awash in the surreal, as Weinraub's head hangs out over a rescue helicopter's open door, watching with tranquil desperation as the earth passes beneath, the overpowering whir of the blades creating a hypnotic state. It is not a traditional blood, guts and glory film. There are no men in battle, only the rescue crew trying to pick up the broken pieces.
The year 2000 approaches in Jerusalem's Orthodox Mea Shearim quarter, where the women work, keep house, and have children so the men can study the Torah and the Talmud. Rivka is happily and passionately married to Meir, but they remain childless. The yeshiva's rabbi, who is Meir's father, wants Meir to divorce Rivka: "a barren woman is no woman." Rivka's sister, Malka, is in love with Yakov, a Jew shunned by the yeshiva as too secular. The rabbi arranges Malka's marriage to Yossef, whose agitation when fulfilling religious duties approaches the grotesque. Can the sisters sort out their hearts' desires within this patriarchal world? If not, have they any other options?
Since his daughter's death, Moshe lives alone rejecting his wife whom he blames for this tragedy. In order to get out of his confinement, he accepts a job from the Jerusalem post office, unaware that it is for a very special division: The Department of Letters to God. Through the letters sent by people from all over the world, Moshe will face humanity in its most secret privacy, sometimes most fanciful wishes. He doesn't believe in anything anymore but a series of strange events will transform his bitterness and lead him to discover how forgiveness can reconcile him with his wife and bring him peace again.
