UW Hillel Presents
The 2010 Israeli Film Festival -
Growing Up in Israel.
February 28 - March 4 @ UW Hillel, 611 Langdon Street
Tickets are free. All screenings will be at Hillel, 611 Langdon Street.
Reserve ticket online Today!!
Sunday February 28 - Immigration
The Name My Mother Gave Me, 7P. 
Written & Directed by: Eli Tal-El
Year: 2008
Duration: 60 min.
Genre: Documentary
Language: Hebrew & Amharic with English subtitles
"The Name My Mother Gave Me" is a film about growth and self discovery. We follow Ethiopian and Russian Israelis who meet at a leadership training program in Israel. Their year of learning culminates in a journey to Ethiopia where the Ethiopian born participants return to their native villages and confront their roots. Though, back home in Israel, all the participants would consider themselves members of the fringes of Israeli society, in the highlands of the Ethiopian landscape they discover the universality of their experiences and their shared commitment to their new home in Israel. How will this journey transform them?
Awards and Festivals:
Audience Choice - Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema, USA, 2009
India Int'l Women Film Festival, Special Showcase for Ruth Diskin Films, December 2009
San Diego Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2010
Philadelphia Israeli Film Festival, USA, 2010
Washington Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2009
Hartman Institute, Israel
Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema, USA, 2009
Jewish Federations of North America's Special Screening – NYC, USA, 2009
The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, Israel, 2008
Turn Left at the End of the World, 8:15 PM
Directed by: Avi Nesher
Written by: Avi Nesher & Sara Eden
Year: 2004
Duration: 110 min.
Languages: Hebrew, English, French, Jewish Moroccan.
Cast: Neta Garty, Liraz Charni, Rubi Porat Shuval, Rotem Abuhab, Aure Atike.
The year is 1969. Into a small town in the Israeli desert, inhabited mostly by Moroccan immigrants, come a few indian families - who have immigrated to israel seeking a better life in the west. Not only do the Indians end up in a place distant from the mythical "West" - they also find themselves embroiled in a cultural war with the Moroccans.
Awards and Festivals:
Award of the Israeli Film Academy - Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design.
Taormina Film Festival - Grand Prix Award
International Film Festival of India, Goa
World Film Festival of Bangkok
Haifa International Film festival, Israel
Boston Jewish film festival
Toronto Jewish film festival
Baltimore Jewish film festival
San Diego Jewish film festival
Detroit Jewish film festival
Dayton Jewish film festival
Rochester Jewish film festival
San Jose's Israeli film festival
DC Jewish Film Festival
Monday March 2 - The LGBTQ Scene and femininity in Israel
Campfire, 7PM
Directed and written by: Joseph Cedar
Year:2004
Genre: Drama
Duration: 95 min.
Language: Hebrew
Cast: Michaela Eshet, Hani Furstenberg, Moshe Ivgy, Maya Maron, Assi Dayan, Oshri Cohen Yehoram Gaon, Yehuda Levi, Avi Grainik.
The year is 1981. Rachel Gerlic, a 42 year-old widow and mother of two beautiful teenage daughters, Esti and TamiI, wants to join the founding group of a new religious settlement on the West Bank.
The problem is that the acceptance committee won’t accept her unless she remarries and proves that she and her daughters can meet the group’s religious and ideological standards. When Tami, her youngest daughter, is accused of seducing some boys from her youth movement, Rachel is forced to weigh her alliances.
Only Yossi, a 50 year-old bachelor and the new man in Rachel’s life, can show Rachel that living as an outcast is not as bad as it seems.
Campfire is a story of one woman’s personal battle for acceptance, but also a portrait of a political movement that affects millions of lives in the Middle East.
Awards and Festivals:
Winner of 5 Awards of the Israeli Academy
Berlin International Film Festival - Don Quixote Award (Special Mention)
Chicago International Film Festival - FIPRESCI Award
The Secrets, 8:50PM
Director: Avi Nesher
Written by: Avi Nesher & Hadar galron
Year: 2008
Genre: Drama
Duration: 120 Min.
Language: Hebrew & French
Cast: Fanny Ardant, Ania Bukstein, Michal Shtamler, Adir Miller, Guri Alfi, Alma Zack
Naomi, the brilliant and pious daughter of an ultra orthodox rabbi finds herself at a crossroads of life choices when her mother dies and she is expected to immediatly marry her father's prodigy. Distressed yet determined, she begs that her father allow her one year to study at a women's religious seminary in Safed, the birthplace of the kabala, in order to prepare herself for the sacrifices she will make as a wife. Her father relents and Naomi's life begin to take an unexpected turn.
Devote but lively, Naomi and her new friend Michelle befriend a beautiful, mysterious older woman, Anouk, who is ill and living nearby who may not be Jewish, and may have comitted a crime of passion. Naomi devises a series of rituals which will somehow "purify" Anouk and purge her of her sins, but as these streches the borders of Jewish law they must be kept secrets. Eventually this journeys into the forbidden and leads to a growing attraction between the two girls and more crossroads are faced.
The Secrets present the complexities of a religious lifestyle in a vibrant environment of youth, rebellion and desire.
Awards and Festivals:
The Secrets was nominated for 9 awards of the Israeli Film Academy in 2007 including best actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress.
Tuesday, March 3 - Boys coming of age
Nina's Tragedies, 7PM
Director: Savi Gabizon
Written by: Savi Gabizon
Year:2003
Language: Hebrew
Duration: 110 min.
Cast: Ayelet Zurer, Aviv Elkabets, Yoram Hatav, Shmil Ben-Ari, Anat Waxsman, Alon Aboutboul, Dov Navon
Nina’s Tragedies takes place over an intensely emotional six months in the life of 14 year-old Nadav. The film unfolds through a series of funny and touching journal entries in which Nadav reminisces about this turbulent period in his family’s history -from his high - strung Uncle Haimon’s untimely death to the passing of his estranged, deeply religious father, Amnon.
After Haimon is killed in a terrorist attack, Nadav is asked by his wild, recently divorced mother Alona ,to move in with her sister, Nina, to provide comfort while Nina mourns the death of her new husband, Haimon. Nadav is only too happy to comply, as he’s infatuated with his stunning aunt, with whom he shares a special friendship - not to mention a secret, adolescent crush.
But as Nina gets over her loss and finds solace with a handsome but eccentric photographer named Avinoam, Nadav feels unexpectedly betrayed and must find a way to reconcile his hormonally charged emotions. At the same time, his best friend Menahem -a kind of grown-up version of Nadav- has found love with a sultry Russian immigrant named Galina, leaving Nadav alone to pursue the “peeping tom” exploits he once shared with the sex-obsessed Menahem.
The sensitive Nadav eventually finds his way, forced to mature quickly and irrevocably, as the fallible, often disappointing adults around him go through their own “growing pains.”
Awards and Festivals:
Winner of 11 Israeli Academy awards including Best film & Best Director.
SUNDANCE Film Festival, Utah
The Jerusalem International Film Festival - Best Film and Best Screenplay awards
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
Columbus Jewish Film Festival
Seattle International Film Festival
San Diego Jewish Film festival
The N.Y. Jewish Film Festival
Sweet Mud, 9PM
Directed & Written by: Dror Shaul 
Year: 2006.
Duration: 97 min.
Genre: Drama
Languages: Hebrew
Cast: Tomer Steinhof, Ronit Yudkevitz, Pini Tavger, Henri Garcin,Daniel Kitsis.
On a kibbutz in southern Israel in the 1970's, Dvir Avni (12) realizes that his mother, Miri, is mentally ill. It is the year of his Bar Mitzvah, and in a series of sometimes funny, sometimes frightening tasks, Dvir and his classmates have to prove their ability to live up to the social standards of the Kibbutz
In this closed, unique society, bound by rigid rules, Dvir navigates between the kibbutz motto of equality and the stinging reality that his mother has, in effect, been abandoned by their collective community.
Awards and Festivals:
Berlin International Film Festival 2007 - Winner of the Crystal Bear for Best Feature Film
Sundance International Film Festival 2007 - Winner of Dramatic World Cinema Jury Award
Montpellier International Film Festival - Winner of Prix Nova Award and Prix Jeune Public Award
Opening Film San Francisco JFF 2007
Miami Int'l Film Festival 2007
Rochester Jewish Film Festival
Israeli Chicago Film Festival
Youngstown Jewish Film Festival
Fairfield County Jewish Film Festival
Central New Jersey Jewish Film Festival
Milwaukee Jewish Film Festival
Winner of Israeli Academy Best Film Award 2006
Wednesday, March 4 - Nostalgic View
Under the Domim Tree, 7PM
Directed by: Eli Cohen 
Written by: Gila Almagor, Eli Cohen & Eyal Sher
Year: 1994
Duration: 102 Min.
Genre: Drama
Language: Hebrew, Polish, Dutch & English
Cast: Gila Almagor, Juliano Mer, Uri Avrahami, Yael Pearl, Kaipo Cohen
In a boarding school in Israel, circa 1953, Aviya is the only Israeli-born girl among her schoolmates (the rest are Holocaust survivors from various European countries).
The public debate on the issue of accepting German reparations for Nazi atrocities awakens the dormant individual memories of each of the youths, and creates sharp conflicts which influence their coming-of-age with its fears, dreams, problems of identity, and first love. Aviya is determined to find the tomb of her father, who died before she was born, while in the mental hospital,her mother refuses to recall her own painful past.
Awards and Festivals:
Artistic Excellence Award 1996 - Winner of best director.
Israeli Film Academy 1994 - nominated for Best Cinematography |
and Best Supporting Actress.
Golden Spike 1995 - nominated for best director.
Alex Lovesick, 9PM
Directed & written by: Boaz Davidson 
Year: 1986
Genre: Drama
Duration: 88 Min.
Language: Hebrew
Cast: Eitan Anshel, Sharon Hacohen, Uri Kabiri, Avi Kushnir, Jupiter Leonid, Avraham Mor, Hana Rot, Joseph Shiloach.
The film is a romantic comedy which takes place in Israel during the Austerity period of the 1950s. The main hero is Alex, a 13 year old boy who is about to attend his Bar Mitzvah.
Alex has a typical Polish mother and father that suffer quietly. On account of the difficult economic situation they are compelled to share their apartment with a Persian tenant named Faruk that tries to fight his baldness by means of different creams.
Alex falls in love with the new girl in his class, Mimi. Everything changes when his aunt Lola arrives in Israel from Poland to search for a lost love. They were together when she lived in Poland but he vanished when Nazis conquered the country. Alex falls for his aunt and she on her part gives him more than just maternal love.
The film describes in the exact form the atmosphere that dominated the country in the 1950s, known as the Austerity in Israel including, the black market, the radio broadcasts concentrating on the search for lost relatives, music of the 1950s, the clothes and dresses and pastimes.
The 2010 Israeli Film Festival is being brought to Madison by The Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, Department of Hebrew and Semitic studies, the Ettinger Family Foundation, The Multi Cultural Council and The Association of Students Madison. Co -Sponsors are Israel Cultural Experience, MadPAC, Kavanah, and the Middle East Studies Program.
