World Film Report Israeli: Sivan is ‘The Wanderer’ in Cannes, Kosahvili Becomes An ‘Infiltration’

Israeli Film Scene: Local

After Phobidilia sadly evaporated from local theaters, there isn’t much to look as Keren Yedaya’s Jaffa (which we mentioned in last month’s report) has been push from its slated April release date to a mid-May launch – ironically warm responses from audiences in premiere screenings and an Oscar nomination has pushed the distributors to push the release date back.

For the most part, the Israeli movie industry has always relied on scripts written directly for the screen, but this year, it seems that the tables have turned, and most of the Israeli movies of 2010 are adaptations of novels. In last month’s report, you could read about the new projects of Eran Ricklis, Nir Bergman and Ari Folman, all of them adaptations from previously released books. There was a void of film adaptation material in the past as they the films didn’t live up to the expectations, but the list has continued to grow with another book to film adaptation in the works. Dover Kosahvili’s next project, “Infiltration” is based on a book by Yehoshua Kenaz by the same name, and chronicles the army training of a group of people from various backgrounds. Kosahvili created a revolution in Israeli cinema in 2001 with “Late Marriage“. It was the first Israeli movie in five years to attract mass audiences to the movie theaters. “Late marriage” was the first in a chain of quality Israeli films that were also attractive to crowds, Israeli and international. Kosahvili’s follow-up to “Late marriage” was 2004’s “A Gift from Heaven” in 2004 — a comedy that turned out to be flat-footed and wasn’t half as successful as his debut film nether critically or commercially. After more than half a decade, Kosahvili appears to be on the comeback trail.

Ready for release, there’s Avi Nesher’s new film, “Once I Was” (previously known as “Lessons in love” and before that as “Dwarfs”). It is a free adaptation of Amir Gutfreund’s book “When Heroes Fly”. In the 1970’s, Nesher directed a few films that turned out to be classics: “The Band” and “99 Dizengof st.” which are repeatedly shown on TV even up to this day. But after two painful flops in the 1980’s (“Rage and Glory” and “Breaking”), Nesher flew away to America, trying out his luck in Hollywood. After a few B movies (one of them stared Drew Barrymore, and another was led by Joe Pantoliano), Nesher came back to Israel to direct a movie that became the biggest hit Israeli cinema has seen in three decades: “Turn Left at the End of the World”. That film, although being a huge success, was overlooked by Israeli Academy members, creating a major dispute over the gap between the “establishment” and the general public. The follow up to that success was “The Secrets”, starring French thesp, Fanny Ardant. That movie didn’t do too well at the box office, and yes, most of the critics didn’t care for it either, but Nesher appears to be unfazed by such results. Most of the time, the release date on Israeli films coincides with the Israeli Academy awards ceremony — the thinking is that nominations and/or awards will help sell the movie — a concern that Nesher doesn’t really have this year as his film will be release in late June — here is the trailer.

Another anticipated project is “An X-Ray Burst“, a passion-crime drama. Written for the screen by Edna Mazya as an adaptation of her own book by the same, the movie will serve as a vehicle for Eitan Tzur’s debut on the big screen. Tzur is a well established television director, with a successful TV series in his resume. This tells the story of an astrophysics professor who finds out his young and beautiful wife has a lover. He kills the lover, but then is forced to live between two extremes: trying to conceal his crime, and thinking about turning himself in, as his wife is torn with longing for her missing lover. The movie stars Melanie Peres (see pic above), Yossi Pollack and Rami Hueberger.

Israeli Film Scene: International

Acclaimed Russian director Sergey Bodrov (Mongol) visited Israel this month, scouting locations for his new project, “Samson“. The movie will be based on a book by the same name, written in the 1920’s by Ze’ev Jabotinski, an important figure in the Israeli political map of the early 20th century. Jabotinski’s ideas are still relevant to this day, as the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is heading a party relying on Jabotinski’s writings. “Jabotinski was brave enough to base a book on the biblical Samson, and yet make him his own. I’m convinced this story will touch the hearts of people all over the world” – said the director in a press conference. Music for the movie will be written by Arkadi Duchin (an important figure in the Israeli rock scene in the past 20 years). Shooting is scheduled for early 2011.

Over the course of the past year, various local industry people have been worried about Israeli cinema no longer finding place among international festivals and markets. As you can see in this month’s and last month’s report, there are a number of intriguing projects by Israeli directors in various stages of production, but none of them managed to qualify for the upcoming Cannes film festival. Word is that perhaps the film weren’t finished on time, and maybe they will be accepted in Venice, but it wasn’t a complete shut out from the festival as one Israeli project managed to qualify for the Director’s Fortnight section in Cannes. It was flying low on everyone’s radar — here are some production details from the official site and the film’s just released trailer. 

The Wanderer is Avishai Sivan’s debut feature film. A film school graduate in 2001, his only film to date was a barely noticed documentary film. This tells the story of Isaac, a young yeshiva student, an only child to born-again orthodox parents. Trapped in a dysfunctional family and a failing body, Isaac finds refuge in wandering. Tormented by his newfound infertility, Isaac looks for answers in his father’s dubious past. Wandering through the backstreets of the city, he seeks deliverance. The film includes the presence of Arab-Israeli director Ali Nassar and Rinat Matatov from The Band’s Visit fame. Pic at top of this article is the film’s lead and first time actor, Omri Fuhrer.