Jerusalem Day 2

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FRIDAY, JULY 27 – SATURDAY, JULY 28 2018

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heymann brothers films presents

heymann brothers films presents

TODAY

SCREENINGS

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FRIDAY, JULY 27 – SATURDAY, JULY 28 2018

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Go2 listens to JFF title Echo

BY TOM GRATER

Amikam Kovner and Assaf Snir’s Echo, which premieres in the Feature Competition on Friday (July 27), has had its international sales rights picked up by Jerusalembased Go2Films. Echo depicts a man who suspects that his wife is having an affair. Yoram Toledano and Yael Abecassis star. It is produced by Dori Media Paran and received backing from Israel Film Fund, Channel 10 and the Israel Lottery Council for Culture & Arts.

Lev Films will distribute in Israel.

Go2Films also has rights to Roman Shumunov’s debut feature Here And Now, which will premiere in Feature Competition on Sunday (July 29), and Tal Pesses’ Wild Kids, premiering in Documentary Competition.

Shafran tunes up Eurovision comedy-thriller

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

Adar Shafran, the producer of hit Jerusalem-set comedy Maktub, is developing a comedy-thriller miniseries set against the backdrop of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Tel Aviv next May. Titled Douze Points, it revolves around a young gay Muslim coerced into joining a boy band created by extremists as a front for an assassination attack during the contest. “The aim is for all three episodes to be ready to air around the time of the contest,” says Shafran, who produces under the banner of Firma Films.

The project has secured the backing of Israeli broadcaster Reshet and is in negotiations with a French co-producer. Dror Shaul (Atomic Falafel) is attached to direct.

Firma Films is also gearing up for the November shoot of Matan Guggenheim and Assaf Abiri’s comedy Desire For Life, starring veteran Israeli actor Shlomo BarAba (Footnote), and is developing Maktub spin-offs, including a US remake set in Brooklyn.

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Israeli funds to retain autonomy, for now

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

As Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF) gets into its stride, much of Israel’s film industry is breathing a collective sigh of relief after culture minister Miri Regev’s attempt to amend the country’s Film Law — which would put her in control of film funding — failed to be voted on at the committee stage ahead of the summer recess.

Opposition members at the Israeli parliament successfully delayed a key vote on the proposed legislation on July 18 after they filed hundreds of questions around the bill, making the session overrun its time slot before a vote could be cast.

This means the process for pushing through Regev’s proposals is now grounded until the Israeli parliament returns in October.

Under the 2001 Film Law, Israel’s film funds autonomously mete out their portion of the $22m state film budget using their own teams of expert readers. Key poles of Regev’s proposals were taking control of the pool of readers as well as setting aside 15% of the state budget for commercial features.

It remains to be seen whether this small victory for the funds will stop Regev’s reform plans. There are suggestions that Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will

call an election for spring 2019, in which case Regev will have more pressing issues.

One of her key criticisms of the funds has been that the support does not reflect the diversity of Israel’s population, a claim refuted by the funds. Pointing to the diversity of the Israeli films at JFF this year, Israel Film Fund director Katriel Schory said: “The Unorthodox is an example of why these law changes are walking into an open door. It is a film by a first-time filmmaker from the religious film school Ma’aleh. It’s an example of how we’re doing our job without changing laws.”

Noam Preisman

TODAY

Girl, page 14

FEATURES Pitch Point Running down the Israeli features selected for this year’s event » Page 8

Dogman Matteo Garrone discusses his dark, violent Cannes prize-winner » Page 10

REVIEWS Girl Lukas Dhont’s assured debut dives into one transgender teen’s journey » Page 14

Samouni Road The aftermath of tragedy is explored in Stefano Savona’s powerful documentary » Page 15

Heymann doc Agassi inks sales deal

BY TOM GRATER

Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life, which is playing in Documentary Competition, has been boarded for international sales by Viennabased Autlook Filmsales. It is set to have its world premiere at JFF on Tuesday (July 31) and plays again on Sunday (August 5).

The film is an intimate look into the life of gay porn star Jonathan Agassi, chronicling his journey from tough Tel Aviv childhood to becoming a world-famous name in the porn industry. Tomer Heymann directed the project over an eightyear period, with brother Barak producing. Their Mr Gaga is the country’s most successful Israeli doc, with 131,378 national admissions. Jonathan Agassi was funded by the pair (who have retained Israeli rights) alongside Israeli broadcaster Channel 8, Hot, Makor Foundation and Mifal Hapais.

NOTE PERFECT French composer and pianist Jean-Francois Zygel was in Jerusalem yesterday (July 26) to perform a live-score accompaniment to a digital restoration of Henri e o r film er ion of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. Zygel performed for the duration of the film e i min e r n ime in Cinematheque 1, though was granted a break at the halfway point.

New Europe looks to build on Israeli success Warsaw-based sales outfit New Europe Film Sales is looking to continue its recent success in Israeli cinema with the acquisition of world rights to The Delegation, one of the projects being showcased Friday (July 27) at Pitch Point. The second

feature from director Asaf Saban following Outdoors, The Delegation focuses on Israeli teenagers visiting the sites of concentration camps and memorials in Poland. It is an Israel-Poland-Germany co-production with Gum Films’ Yoav

Roeh, Agnieszka Dziedzic of Koi Studio and Roshanak Behesht Nedjad of IGC Films. The project already has support from the Israel Film Fund and Polish-German Co-Development Fund.

Tom Grater

Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life

NEWS

Lev Films plots wide Unorthodox release

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

Israel’s top arthouse distributor and exhibition chain Lev Films has a strong presence at JFF this year, with a slew of local and international festival titles on its upcoming slate, including opening picture The Unorthodox and two contenders in the Feature Competition, Echo and Redemption. “We do have a lot in Jerusalem this year but we like to work closely with all the festivals, including Haifa and the Arava desert festival too,” says Lev Films CEO Guy Shani.

The company — which runs nine cinema venues with 24 screens across Israel — releases The Unorthodox on 40 screens on July 27 to coincide with its world premiere a day earlier as JFF’s opening film. “That’s the widest you can go in Israel. It’s in 40 locations so it’s screening in every part of the country,” says Shani.

The veteran distributor believes Eliran Malka’s debut feature, which explores the story of a forgotten founder of the Shas party in 1980s Jerusalem, will chime with all parts of Israeli society.

“It’s got a wide appeal,” he says. “I think it will work with people to the right and left, with sophisticated audiences, less

Guy Shani

sophisticated audiences, in big cities and smaller places, the religious, the non-religious. It caters to every taste.”

He suggests the film’s storyline, revolving around an individual taking a personal stand for minority rights, also makes the film particularly timely. “People have been taking to the streets in Israel recently to demonstrate for gay and immigrant rights, and this is the story in the film.”

In an unusual move, Lev has extended its marketing campaign into Israel’s religious communities, taking out adverts in free newspapers available in synagogues. “This is the time of year when religious people go to the cinema, and I think this movie will qualify as culture for these communities. I think they will go to see it,” says Shani.

Other festival titles on Lev’s upcoming slate include Joseph Madmony and Boaz Yehonatan Yacov’s Redemption, about a former rock singer who has embraced orthodoxy but must deal with a crisis of faith. “It’s very different from The Unorthodox. It’s more serious but it’s a great movie. I really believe in this film. There’s a healthy audience for Israeli films at home, which has grown recently and we think this can do well.”

International JFF titles due to be released by Lev include Iram Haq’s coming-of-age tale What Will People Say about a young Pakistani girl growing up in Norway; Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far On Foot, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a famous cartoonist who became quadriplegic after a night of drinking; Carey Mulligan-starrer Wildlife; and Richard Eyre’s The Children Act. Undated JFF titles on its slate include Adina Pintilie’s Berlinale 2018 Golden Bear winner Touch Me Not, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree, Matteo Garrone’s Dogman and Gaspar Noé’s Climax. Looking ahead, other big upcoming titles on Lev’s slate include Everybody Knows, At War, Cold War, Shoplifters, Life Itself and Laszlo Nemes’ Sunset.

Dieter Kosslick (left) and Lab founder Renen Schorr

Leopard chases down top Spiegel Lab prize

BY TOM GRATER

The 2018 Sam Spiegel International Film Lab, which this year ran outside of Jerusalem Film Festival from July 5-8, presented its top production grant of $50,000 to Turkish director Emre Kayis and producer Olena Yershova for their project Anatolian Leopard.

The feature is set in Turkey’s oldest zoo, which is undergoing privatisation with one obstacle remaining — an endangered Anatolian leopard. When a zookeeper finds the animal dead, he is determined to keep the news secret.

The film is being produced by Turkish outfit Tato Film with Polish company Donten & Lacroix Films as co-producer.

The second prize of $20,000 was divided between two Israeli projects: Checkout, from director Jonathan Dekel, writer Shai Satran and producers Chilik Michaeli and

Avraham Pirchi, which follows a desperate Mossad spy in Istanbul; and The Heat Of A Day from director Or Sinai and producers Shlomi Elkabetz and Galit Kahlon, which tells of a woman who is keen to get pregnant after her three daughters are taken away.

This year’s Sam Spiegel Lab jury was chaired by Israeli-American filmmaker Oren Moverman and included Tribeca Film Festival artistic director Frédéric Boyer and Israel Film Fund director Katriel Schory.

Also inaugurated was the Lab’s new Force-of-Nature in Filmmaking Award, an honorary prize presented to a figure credited with changing the infrastructure of world cinema. The 2018 recipient was outgoing Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick. The Sam Spiegel Lab was founded by Renen Schorr and is co-directed by Lior Sasson.

ONE ON ONE AMIKAM KOVNER AND ASSAF SNIR, ECHO

I

say, just monogamists, which I think fed into the film.

sraeli directors Amikam Kovner and Assaf Snir dig deep into the dynamics of longterm relationships and infidelity in their Feature Competition title Echo, starring Yoram Toledano as a man who discovers his late wife, played by Yael Abecassis, had a secret life.

Where did the idea for the film come from?

AS We were both intrigued by the question of what happens when someone remains with only the voice of a loved one, which then reveals a different person. The idea started with a man who listens to his wife’s phone calls and then she dies. That was the core of everything.

How did you come to work together?

AS We’ve been friends since childhood. I had just graduated from film school and Amikam

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Amikam Kovner and Assaf Snir

had returned from a few years in New York and we were both looking for the next project.

Knowing each other for many, many years was helpful. We elevated our thoughts and both brought notions and reflections from our lives.

We’re both serial monogamists, or should I

A key backdrop is a tunnel construction site. Did that come about by chance?

AK We had it in the script from the beginning.

I think other than being a metaphor for digging and exposing, there was something very physical about this environment. The protagonist Avner is in a struggle against nature. He’s an engineer; he’s got it all covered.

And then something mysterious happens and it’s not in his plans. It’s a physical representation of this man of reason dealing with unexpected ideas and emotions.

Where is the tunnel?

AK Finding a tunnel where we could film was a big challenge; no one wanted the hassle. We

finally connected with these guys building a tunnel near Jerusalem [Har Hamenuchot cemetery tunnel]. They rolled out the red carpet and helped us in any way they could.

Do you think the fact relationship dramas like Echo are rare in Israeli cinema helped bring Yoram Toledano and Yael Abecassis on board?

AS They both liked the script. They’re big stars but actors like to act and if they like the script and you meet and get along, you’re going to end up working together. But it’s true that in the Israeli cinema landscape, it’s uncommon to find films that are not about the political situation, gender or religion. This story could have taken place anywhere in the world, it’s universal.

Melanie Goodfellow

July 27-28, 2018 Screen International at Jerusalem 4

GermanFilmsScreenJIFF2018.qxp_Layout 1 03.07.18 18:16 Seite 1

TRANSIT by CHRISTIAN PETZOLD © Christian Schulz / Schrammfilm

The cinema of Christian Petzold th at the 35 Jerusalem Film Festival

TRANSIT PHOENIX YELLA THE STATE I AM IN

IN FOCUS CHANTAL AKERMAN

Celebrating Chantal S

ome 18 months before her death in the autumn of 2015, pioneering filmmaker Chantal Akerman set down one last time at Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF) in July 2014 with an installation called De La Mer(e) Au Desert.

Filmed during a road trip to the Israeli town of Arad, the immersive experience revolved around tracking shots of desert landscapes projected onto the Jerusalem stone walls of the Mamuta Art and Media Center situated in Hansen House, the former leprosy hospital turned cultural space. A play on the words for ‘mother’ and ‘sea’ in French, its title translated as ‘from the sea (mother) to the desert’.

Footage from the installation would makes its way into Akerman’s final film No Home Movie, capturing her relationship with her mother and muse Natalia Akerman who died in April 2014, as well as the immersive video installation Now, which she exhibited at the 2015 Venice Biennale a few months later.

“At the same time as editing the footage for the installation, we were also watching material Chantal had shot of her mother,” says Akerman’s longtime editor Claire Atherton. “It was a beautiful and emotional time but also sad and difficult.

“Slowly the two sets of images started to intermingle. That is how the film was born.”

Collected works No Home Movie is one of a dozen films by Akerman screening at JFF this year as part of a retrospective devoted to her work. It has been put together by festival programmer Vivian Ostrovsky with the help of Cinematek, the Royal Belgian Film Archive.

Akerman — who was born and raised in Brussels to Holocaust survivors from Poland but mainly based between Paris and New York — was a regular visitor to Israel and JFF. She first screened here in 1975 with her breakthrough film Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.

The 2014 installation kicked off with an opening night reading by Akerman from her work My Mother Laughs (Ma Mere Rit), devoted to her mother, attended by fans and friends including late festival founder Lia van Leer.

Chantal Akerman at Venice Film Festival in 2011

WENN UK/Alamy

Jerusalem Film Festival is paying tribute to Chantal Akerman with a retrospective of her work.

Melanie Goodfellow looks back on the pioneering Belgian filmmaker’s career ‘I organised a screening of Blow Up My Town. When we came out, she said, “I have quite a presence, don’t I?”’ Vivian Ostrovsky, JFF programmer

No Home Movie

“Chantal came up to me during the event and said, ‘So, when are you going to have my retrospective?’,” recalls Ostrovsky. Her suggestion sowed a seed. “Of course, we were up for it. Many of Chantal’s films had shown at the festival over the years and I had been following her work since the very beginning, even before Jeanne Dielman.”

Ostrovsky first met Akerman when she

6 Screen International at Jerusalem July 27-28, 2018

invited her 1974 feature Je Tu Il Elle to a women’s film festival she organised under the auspices of the Ciné-Femmes International banner in the mid-1970s in Paris.

Akerman directed and starred in the picture as a solitary young woman who embarks on a series of intimate encounters, first with a truck driver, played by a young Niels Arestrup in one of his first big-screen roles, and then an ex-girl-

friend. It was regarded as a daring exploration of female sexuality when it hit the festival circuit in the 1970s.

“It was very courageous and a groundbreaker at the time,” Ostrovsky recalls.

“After the screening, we got chatting. She asked if I would like to see her very first film Saute Ma Ville (Blow Up My Town).”

Also starring Akerman, this time as a young woman engaged in a series of nonsensical domestic tasks in a sterile apartment that she then blows up, this 1968 debut short remains one of the director’s best-known works.

“I organised a screening in the venue that we used for the festival. We both sat in this huge, empty movie theatre. I loved the film. When we came out, she said, ‘I have quite a presence, don’t I?’” Ostrovsky remembers.

Akerman, she continues, was someone who constantly broke with convention.

“She didn’t play by the rules,” says Ostrovsky. “When she was teaching in New York, she would have the students come over to where she was staying because she couldn’t stop smoking and wasn’t allowed to smoke in the classroom. Her students would be lined up in the hall waiting for their tutorials. When she died, lots of these former students turned up to pay tribute at a special memorial event at the Lincoln Center.”

Blow Up My Town will open the retrospective on Friday (July 27) at the heart of a concert event called ‘Chantal?’ created and performed by Akerman’s long-term partner, the cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, out of her musical response to the film and memories of the filmmaker. The line-up also includes Jeanne Dielman, which put Akerman on the map after it screened to critical acclaim in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 1975.

Starring late French actress Delphine

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‘You don’t need to come to her films with any prior knowledge.

You just need to come with an open spirit’ Claire Atherton, editor

Akerman, pictured in Venice in the mid-1970s,

Blow Up My Town

Seyrig as a bored housewife going through the motions of a repetitive cooking and cleaning routine, it broke new ground for the way it captured female reality in a domestic setting as well as its observational style and full-frontal framing. It was later cited as an influence by numerous directors including Gus Van Sant on his films Elephant and Last Days.

Rare cuts Ostrovsky wants to take Jerusalem’s audiences on a journey beyond these well-known Akerman classics. “A lot of people are curious about her work but beyond Jeanne Dielman and Saute Ma Ville, as I’ve discovered myself programming this retrospective, it can be hard to get hold of her other films,” she says.

Further titles in the line-up include Autour De Jeanne Dielman, a making ofstyle documentary shot alongside the

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South

original film. “It’s quite fascinating, especially if you like Jeanne Dielman, and works as a good companion piece to the film,” says Ostrovsky, who has also tracked down a rarely screened TV interview called Chantal Akerman By Chantal Akerman in which the director talks about her work.

The 2006 documentary Down There (La-Bas) — in which Akerman reflects on her Jewish identity and relationship with Israel while holed up in a Tel Aviv apartment — will (Right) Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

screen together with the 1972 short selfportrait La Chambre.

“They are both chamber pieces in which she is closed up in a very intimate space but quite different,” says Ostrovsky. “La-Bas is an essay in a documentary style while La Chambre is more experimental and heavily influenced by the structural film scene in the US and artists like Michael Snow.”

Atherton suggests that watching Down There is the best way to understand Akerman’s complicated relationship with Israel. “It is a relationship based on a search for a sense of belonging.

Although she was passionate about Israel, she never

really felt like she belonged, it was an ‘ailleurs’ [an elsewhere] for her.”

The programme also includes works shot during Akerman’s early years in New York such as the 1977 documentary News From Home, in which images of the city are overlaid with readings from letters sent by her mother back in Brussels. A further joint screening will combine the 1999 documentary South (Sud) — capturing the aftermath of the murder of a black man in the small Texas town of Jasper in 1998 by three white men who dragged him along the road behind their truck — and the short 2007 observational film Nightfall In Shanghai.

“This is the nomadic side of her cinema,” says Ostrovsky. “The way Sud came about was wholly unexpected.

Chantal had gone down south to look for locations [for a film inspired by the work of US writer William Faulkner], and came across the story of the murder and set about filming its wake.”

Further titles in the selection include the documentary From The East, a snapshot of life in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1993.

Looking over Akerman’s filmography some two-and-a-half years after her death, one striking aspect of her work is how timely it remains as the world debates issues such as gender equality, immigration, race, belonging and identity.

Atherton attributes this to Akerman’s filmmaking process, which was “hyperconscious” in terms of how she captured the moment on camera, paying close attention to how it was framed and shot, but never trying to impose meanings, answer questions or fill in gaps in the final work.

“The spectator has to become an active participant in the film, which keeps the material alive,” says Atherton.

“You don’t need to come to a Chantal Akerman film with any prior knowledge.

You just need to come with an open spirit. Her films take on a different meaning on the basis of who is watching them and when. This is why they remain so relevant today and will still be relevant 50, 100 years from now… they are s true classics.” ■

July 27-28, 2018 Screen International at Jerusalem 7

SPOTLIGHT PITCH POINT

Maor Zaguri’s workin-progress selection Virginity (Betulim)

International connections

Some of Israel’s leading filmmakers are showcasing anticipated new projects at Pitch Point (July 27-28), one of the festival’s key industry events. Melanie Goodfellow reports

C

annes regular Shira Geffen, Locarno Special Jury Prizewinner Avishai Sivan and director Michal Vinik, whose coming-of-age lesbian love story Blush was a hit on the international festival circuit in 2016, are among the filmmakers unveiling feature projects at the 13th edition of Jerusalem Film Festival’s Pitch Point industry event (July 27-28).

Pitch Point is an annual co-financing meeting aimed at connecting Israeli filmmakers with specific international partners, and is at the heart of Jerusalem’s Industry Days programme aimed at cinema professionals. It sits alongside the second edition of the Think Fest conference, which is designed to foster debate on the future of film festivals in the digital age.

Numerous high-profile Israeli features have been unveiled at Pitch Point over its past 12 editions, either at the production or rough-cut stage, including this year’s

festival opener The Unorthodox — which was presented at the meeting in 2015 — as well as a number of films in Feature Competition including The Dive, Red Cow, Here And Now and Echo.

“We have concentrated the industry programme in the first weekend of the festival so we can combine all the people who are here for the different events,” says new industry head Anna Kardaszewska. “The idea is that the festival programmers who are here for Think Fest can then check out the Pitch Point rough-cut screenings the following day.”

Industry guests due to attend Jerusalem this year include French sales veteran Carole Baraton of Paris-based company Charades, Italian producer Carlo Cresto-Dina, Los Angeles entertainment lawyer Craig Emanuel of Paul Hastings, German sales agent Gabor Greiner of Films Boutique and Michael Weber, executive director of sales powerhouse The Match Factory.

8 Screen International at Jerusalem July 27-28, 2018

‘I spent two months talking to every producer in the country’ Anna Kardaszewska, Pitch Point

Film festival professionals in attendance will include Karlovy Vary programme co-ordinator Anna Purkrabkova, Cannes Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson and Marge Liiske, head of industry at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Pitch Point line-up Ten features in development and production will be unveiled on Friday July 27, while a further six rough-cut

projects will screen in an industryonly event the following day.

Shira Geffen, whose credits include her Cannes Camera d’Or winner Jellyfish and second feature Self Made, will unveil her long-awaited third film, A Responsible Adult. Set against the backdrop of a school trip to the legendary Masada plateau, it is a coming-of-age tale in which the 13-year-old protagonist learns to take responsibility for her life as she navigates the ups and downs of her parents’ deteriorating marriage. Elad Gavish, whose credits include hit comedy The Last Band In Lebanon, is producing under his Marker Films banner.

Avishai Sivan, who swept the awards at JFF in 2015 with Tikkun, will present Lot’s Wife, a horror fantasy about a Haredi couple who give birth to a child with two heads, called Lot and Noah, one wicked, the other good-natured. When the virtuous Noah dies, his head is detached from their shared body, but Lot

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misses his sibling and vows to overcome his evil nature.

Michal Vinik, whose debut feature Blush drew comparisons with Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is The Warmest Colour, will be looking for partners on her second feature You Are My Everything about a mother who embarks on a desperate plan to thwart her 18-year-old son’s ambition to join an elite Israeli combat unit. Green Productions, which produced festival hit Scaffolding, is developing the project.

Tawfik Abu Wael, who won the top Pitch Point prize last year with his Tel Aviv-set thriller Wise Hassan, is back for the second year running with romantic drama Children Of The Railway, about a mixed marriage between an Israeli man and a Palestinian widow, which has won the backing of the major Israeli production company United Channels Movies (UCM).

First features in the line-up include Eti Tsicko’s As If You Were Never Here about a female Israeli defence lawyer who travels to Georgia to research the background of a woman on trial for drowning a baby who was in her care.

Other directors participating with their feature debuts include Kaid AbuLatif and Yousef Abo Madegem with their film Eed, a family drama set within Israel’s Bedouin community about a sexually abused young man with aspirations of becoming a theatre director. He must flight for his freedom when his family sets him up for an arranged marriage. Eed will be shot against the backdrop of Rahat, a Bedouin city in the Negev desert that has never been captured on the big screen. Shlomi Elkabetz, whose recent credits include Maysaloun Hamoud’s In Between, is producing alongside Elad Peleg and Haggai Arad of southern Israeli company Daroma Productions.

The other projects in the selection include Asaf Saban’s drama The Delegation about a group of Israeli teenagers on a school trip to the sites of Second World War concentration camps in Poland; Idan Haguel’s second feature Earthquake about a schoolteacher staring into the “abyss” of retirement; Moshe Rosenthal’s dark comedy Karaoke, about a couple who become obsessed with a former Miami-based model agent who moves into their building; and Adam Kalderon’s coming of age tale The Swimmer, set against the backdrop of the competitive swimming scene.

Rough-cut screenings The works-in-progress selection includes a number of productions with strong festival potential. Rising Israeli filmmaker Oren Gerner will preview his debut feature Africa about a retired engineer who

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retreats into himself after he is not invited to a local village meeting, in a sign he is being superseded by younger members of the community. In his solitude, he recalls a trip to Africa with his wife Maya.

Gerner previously toured Sundance and San Sebastian with his student film Greenland and was at Cannes this year with his France-set short Gabriel about a teenager who breaks away from the search for a lost classmate in a forest, which was produced by Paris-based Why Not Productions.

Evgeny Ruman’s Golden Voices is about a pair of veteran Soviet dubbing artists struggling to make a life in Israel. It is loosely inspired by the experiences of Ruman’s own family when they emigrated from Belarus to Israel in the 1990s.

The event will also showcase Chained, the second feature in Yaron Shani’s The Love Trilogy, a ground-breaking project that blurs the lines between fiction and documentary, in which mostly non-professional actors were asked to inhabit the lives of their fictional characters over a year-long shooting period.

Chained revolves around a police officer

Africa

with a complicated home life that is put on hold after two boys — suspected of dealing drugs at a local school — accuse him of sexual assault. The first feature in the trilogy, Stripped — which is being sold internationally by Celluloid Dreams — is set to premiere in Venice’s Horizons section.

Further projects generating buzz in the works-in-progress line-up include Keren Yedaya’s long-awaited Red Fields, which is a big-screen version of the cult 1980s anti-war rock opera Mami; Maor Zaguri’s small-town coming-of-age tale Virginity (Betulim); and Dani Rosenberg’s comedy drama The Gospel According To My Father, about a filmmaker coming to terms with his father’s terminal illness through his camera.

Building anticipation With Jerusalem uncoupling this year from the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab — which traditionally held its final pitching event during the festival — as a result of JFF’s later dates, there could have been slimmer pickings for the sales agents and producers in town on the

hunt for new projects. But Kardaszewska has managed to pull together one of the strongest Pitch Point line-ups to date, working closely with the event’s key partners — Israel Film Fund, the Jerusalem Film & Television Fund and Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts — to identify upcoming projects of interest.

“We started quite early this year,” Kardaszewska explains of the process.

“We know from past experience that it takes time to get the projects. All the production companies in Israel are aware of Pitch Point, but they’re not always eager to submit.”

Kardaszewska, who also works as a programmer with the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv as well as the Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival, adds: “They’re sometimes a bit scared of taking part for fear that their projects aren’t advanced enough.

“I spent two months talking to every producer in the country about how Pitch Point could be a good thing for their projects as well as liaising with the funds to find out what had got funding and could be at a good place for an event like this.”

The festival has also added film marketing expert Claudia Landsberger, who has previously moderated the Pitch Point sessions, along with filmmaker and screenwriter Suha Arraf to the selection committee alongside the festival’s artistic director Elad Samorzik.

There is also a new $23,200 (¤20,000) prize that is sponsored by luxury jewellery brand Goralska. It joins the existing Wouter Barendrecht-Lia Van Leer Award of $4,600 (¤4,000) and two post-production support grants, the DB & OPUS Award worth $15,000 (ILS55,000) and the Cinelab Award, which is worth s $17,400 (¤15,000). ■

Red Fields

July 27-28, 2018 Screen International at Jerusalem 9

Q&A MATTEO GARRONE

Dogman bites back Italian director Matteo Garrone talks to Gabriele Niola about his acclaimed feature Dogman, why his lead actor inspired a change of ending, and what scares him most about working in TV Dogman is an Italian western of sorts, set in a rundown seaside town where a mild-mannered dog groomer is pulled into a violent conflict. However it still feels like the most tender movie you have made.

Dogman swings between moments of sweetness and others of indisputable violence, both psychological and physical. For sure it’s a movie in which the leading character with his humanity brings warmth and lightness in an almost incredible way. In the first part, thanks to [lead actor] Marcello [Fonte], there are also moments of comedy that remind me of silent stars such as Buster Keaton or Chaplin, especially in the relationship with the dogs.

Describe the relationship between Marcello and Simoncino, played by Edoardo Pesce, the local thug who hangs out in his shop.

Their bond is contradictory. Marcello fears Simoncino and suffers his presence, but is also fascinated by him because Simoncino has something that he lacks. I think the fragmented personality of Marcello’s character and the way in which he defies logic makes him a very modern character. You know, years ago when I was starting to conceive Dogman, one of the starting points was Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground.

Dogman is inspired by a true story but the film ends very differently.

Why is that?

The end is the part in which the movie gains some heft. In the first part we’re just setting up the situation. And it was thanks to Marcello — it was he, on set, who took us in that direction, not the writing. The screenplay still had some ties to the actual facts, but seeing how Marcello acted his part made me decide we had to change the ending.

The real story took place in Rome in the 1980s but you chose to set it further south in Campania.

Dogman was shot in the same locations I used for Gomorrah, because it’s a place in which you feel you can be anywhere. It’s a universal location. When writing, me and my writers put a lot of effort in creating a universal story, one that anyone can relate to. It happened with Gomorrah too.

Matteo Garrone’s Dogman: “a kind-hearted man turned monster”

When it was released, many people said it was a movie about those places and those people, but luckily the audience all over the world quickly understood it wasn’t the case, that the actual facts were just a starting point to talk about the universal conflicts of the human being.

You started thinking about the project back in 2006. How did you eventually get it made?

As always, I started production with my own [company] Archimede Film. But Rai Cinema, who already knew about it, was happy to jump in. In those years, I was both attracted and repelled by this story because of (Right) Matteo Garrone and Marcello Fonte at Cannes Film Festival

10 Screen International at Jerusalem July 27-28, 2018

its cruel ending. It’s something we have seen too many times — the kind-hearted [man] turned monster. This is one of the reasons why the film is only ‘inspired’ by those events.

In what ways did it challenge you logistically?

Production of Dogman wasn’t complicated at all. As always, I shot the movie in chronological order and was even able to save a day and a half to go back and reshoot some scenes I wasn’t happy with.

I decided at the last minute to commission a small electronic score.

It’s been 10 years since you directed Gomorrah, which has since been adapted into an acclaimed TV series that

‘When writing, me and my writers put a lot of effort in creating a universal story, one that anyone can relate to’ Matteo Garrone

has also sold widely. Do you have any desire to work in TV? I’m a little bit scared by the fact that in TV scriptwriters are in control more than the directors. But I’m fascinated by the idea of having such a long time to explore a character. I’m waiting for the right time and the right offer. Oddly enough, back in 2006, I originally envisioned Gomorrah as a TV series, because the book by Roberto Saviano is very episodic. But it was not the right time in Italy for such a project. Today, on the s other hand, the exact opposite is true. ■ Dogman plays in International Competition on July 27 (Lev Smadar, 19:30), July 29 (Cinematheque 1, 17:00) and August 3 (Cinematheque 1, 20:30)

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ALI ABBASI INTERVIEW

True identity Iran-born, Copenhagen-based filmmaker Ali Abbasi tells Wendy Mitchell how being an outsider formed the inspiration behind his International Competition title Border

B

order (Gräns) director Ali Abbasi knows what it is like to be the outsider. After spending the first 20 years of his life in Iran, he studied architecture in Sweden before moving to his current home, Copenhagen, where he studied at the National Film School of Denmark.

“Even if I go back to Iran, where I lived for 20 years, I see everything through the outsider gaze, and it’s the same in Denmark or Sweden,” he says. “Before, I thought it was depressing that I would never be a real Swede or a real Dane, I thought it was a handicap not to know a culture from the inside. But now I accept this is my place in this world, and there are advantages.”

Abbasi’s second feature Border, which is playing in Jerusalem Film Festival’s International Competition, is about a woman who feels like an outsider in her own community. Tina (played by Swedish actress Eva Melander) is a customs officer who forms a special bond with a suspect she is investigating — the mysterious Vore (Finnish actor Eero Milonoff ). As she uncovers the true identity of this seductive — but also slightly revolting — stranger, she also realises the truth about herself.

“The important thing is the love story and the coming of age of this 40-year-old woman who doesn’t know who she is — she gets to choose her own identity,” the director explains. “Through this journey you always feel this Nordic melancholy of a person connected with nature but not with human beings. That’s the experience of being a minority.”

The film is adapted from a short story

by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who wrote the novel and accompanying screenplay for

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Christian Geisnæs © Meta, Spark & Kärnfilm, AB, 2018

Eero Milonoff as Vore and Eva Melander as Tina in Border

Ali Abbasi during the filming of Border

vampire thriller Let The Right One In (2008). Like Tomas Alfredson’s hit Swedish film, Border also draws on Nordic mythology and supernatural elements. And like Abbasi’s debut feature Shelley (which premiered in Berlin’s Panorama in 2016), Border uses genre elements to explore deeper meaning.

“What I like about genre is that people tend to treat it as entertainment and that’s when they have their guard down,” says the filmmaker. “That’s a good time and place to talk about politics — when people least expect it.”

He notes Shelley was not just a psychological horror about a posh Danish couple living in a forest lakehouse who ask a Romanian woman to be their surrogate, “It was about how the EU structure works, how rich Europe takes advantage of poor Europe.” Border, he adds, is less about geographic boundaries than internal ones: “The border I’m interested in is your different identities.”

Even before he made Shelley, Abbasi was speaking to Meta Film, lead producers on Border, about how much he

wanted to work with Lindqvist. “I think our universes overlay in a way,” notes Abbasi. “What I like about John’s work is it looks like fantasy on the surface but it has a dark underbelly.”

Meeting of minds Abbasi had not yet made a feature at that stage, so it took some convincing that he would be able to handle the adaptation of a story written mostly in diary form. The men clicked immediately when Abbasi met Lindqvist at his house in a forest near Stockholm. According to the director, the author granted him the rights on the proviso “you promise to keep its soul alive, you don’t make it into some Englishspeaking, big Hollywood project”.

After Lindqvist wrote a first draft, Abbasi set to work on his version, and brought on writer/director Isabella Eklof (Holiday) as co-writer to help with dialogue, character work and a general vibe of “psychological realism”. The search for his lead actress took nearly 18 months before he finally cast Eva Melander, who he praises as “one of the

‘People treat genre as entertainment and that’s when they have their guard down. That’s a good time and place to talk about politics’ Ali Abbasi

most talented actresses in all of Europe”.

It was a physically demanding role for Melander, who gained 20kg to portray Tina and had to be in a make-up chair four hours a day.

A Sweden-Denmark co-production, Border features collaborators from across the Nordic region. Alongside producers Nina Bisgaard, Piodor Gustafsson and Petra Jönsson for Meta Film Stockholm, other participants included Black Spark Film & TV, Karnfilm, Meta Film Denmark, Film i Väst, SVT, Copenhagen Film Fund, the Swedish Film Institute and Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The film made its debut in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard — where it won the section’s top prize — and Films Boutique is handling sales.

“We had a limited budget and high ambitions, and we recruited the ‘top of the top’ Nordic VFX guys, make-up artists and more,” says Abbasi. “It’s a true pan-Scandinavian production, in a way — we squeezed all the talent that was out there. I’m proud that we could make it s happen that way.” ■ Border plays in International Competition on July 27 (Cinematheque 3, 18:30), July 29 (Yes Planet 8, 20:00) and August 4 (Cinematheque 1, 19:30)

July 27-28, 2018 Screen International at Jerusalem 11

REVIEWS Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan inn. alligan@screendaily.com

Grass evie ed y Sara

John McEnroe: In The Realm Of Perfection evie ed y i i Baug an Ever since he exploded onto the tennis scene as an amateur in the late 1970s, US player John McEnroe has been a source of fascination — not only for his sporting talent, but also his explosive temper and colourful private life. While he has been the subject of several documentaries and features over the years, he has arguably never been profiled so intriguingly as in In The Realm Of Perfection, which draws on archive footage, psychology and film theory to present a multi-faceted portrait of a complex man.

Director Julien Faraut, who oversees the French Sport Institute’s 16mm collection, showcases impressive command of the documentary form. His insightful, entertaining and humorous film will appeal to fans of McEnroe, tennis and sport in general, while cineastes should also enjoy the parallels drawn between sport and cinema.

The film opens with stilted monochrome footage from a 1960s French tennis instructional video. Narrator Mathieu Amalric explains that players thought they could recreate match movements. Realising this was folly, Gil de Kermadec, then technical director of the French Tennis Federation, asked for cameras at the 1969 French Open at Roland-Garros to capture the reality of the game. Still frustrated by static camera limitations, in 1977 de Kermadec began making his own ‘portrait’ series of films, which analysed the unique form of individual players.

Fascinated by this immersive approach, Faraut discovers reams of unseen footage of McEnroe, the subject of de Kermadec’s final film in 1985. Splicing these together, Faraut builds up a portrait of the player which, despite being largely confined to the dusty clay at Roland-Garros, takes a broad approach. The film is less a biopic and more a thesis about human psychology.

In a question that is relevant to every doc maker, Faraut ponders whether the presence of on-court cameras changed McEnroe’s behaviour; there is plenty of evidence to suggest he was irritated by them. Is he simply a performer, playing up to the crowd and harnessing their response? Or is he in fact a master director, able to change the pace of on-court action, whether by outbursts or languorous pauses, to the detriment of his opponent?

12 Screen International at Jerusalem July 27-28, 2018

PA

AMA

Fr. 2018. 95mins Director/screenplay Julien Faraut Production company F Production International sales Film Constellation, sales@ filmconstellation.com Producers illiam Jéhannin, Raphaelle Delauche Editing Andrei Bogdanov Cinematography Julien Faraut, Gil de ermadec Music Serge Teyssot Gay Narration Mathieu Amalric

ard

Short, bittersweet and unsurprisingly soaked in soju, Hong Sangsoo’s Grass could double as a snapshot of his filmography: tales of life, love, connection, sorrow and yearning all unfurling in a café. Each of the filmmaker’s features may seem more archetypal than the last, but his 21st picture focuses Hong’s recognisable traits, themes and flourishes into a conversation-driven package. This time, he is serving up an existentially minded series of vignette-like chats between men and women.

Indeed, Grass demonstrates a fresh type of playfulness from the prolific director. It is a film filled with his usual intimacy, but it is also one that is purposefully more concerned with the bigger picture than the individual details. Names are not mentioned, relationships are not explained, and emotions, not incidents, fuel the discussion. The approach is engaging, aided by a brisk 66-minute running time.

Brandishing his classic naturalistic style, Hong’s black-and-white film hops between conversations at the central alleyway coffee house, listening in — and zooming for emphasis where necessary, of course. On The Beach At Night Alone star and Berlinale 2017 best actress winner Kim Minhee, in her fourth consecutive film for Hong, proves a distinctively solo figure amid the groups chatting over beverages. Writing at her laptop but quick to explain she is not a writer, she is happy spinning her eavesdropped snippets into her own commentary.

Among her fellow patrons are a younger couple (Gong Minjeung and Ahn Jaehong) reconnecting after clear difficulties, an older pair (Ki Joobong and Seo Younghwa) swapping dreams and disappointments, and two friends (Jung Jinyoung and Kim Saebyuk) loosely talking about collaborating. The men are all actors, and there is more than one writer there.

Unsurprisingly, Kim Minhee stands out among the cast, though every player — many of them Hong regulars — really sells the emotion behind each conversation.

That said, it is the classical music (Schubert, Wagner, Offenbach) paired with the majority of Grass’s discussions that has the biggest impact. The film might paint existence as cyclical, but each melodic tune offers a reminder of the beauty and variety in its ebbs and flows.

MASTERS

S Kor. 2018. 66mins Director/screenplay/ producer Hong Sangsoo Production company Jeonwonsa Film Co International sales Finecut, cinein o@finecut. co. r Editing Son Yeonji Cinematography im yung oo Music Andre r in Main cast Kim Minhee, Jung Jinyoung, Ki Joobong, Seo Younghwa, im Sae yu , A n Jaehong, Gong Minjeung, Ahn Sunyoung, Shin Seo o, im Myoungsu, Lee Youyoung

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» John McEnroe: In The Realm » Infinite Football p13 Of Perfection p12 » Border p13 » Grass p12 » Girl p14

» Transit p14 » Samouni Road p15 » Dogman p15

Border Reviewed by Allan Hunter

Infinite Football Reviewed by Allan Hunter If the intricacies of football’s offside rule are beyond you, then Infinite Football (Fotbal Infinit) could prove challenging. The second feature-length documentary from Corneliu Porumboiu charts his friend Laurentiu Ginghina’s obsessive quest to revolutionise football and develop a more harmonious game in which the ball moves more and the players move less.

In 1986, Ginghina was kicked in the leg while playing football, breaking his right fibula. The following year, he broke his tibia at work. The second injury was a direct result of the first and completely changed the course of his life. Ginghina eventually concluded the blame for his misfortune lay not with his aggressive opponent or himself, but with football itself. Ever since, he has been devising ways to improve the beautiful game.

We learn all of this as Porumboiu chats to Ginghina at the sites of the injuries, at work and at home. The director is present throughout the documentary, prompting his friend with the odd question, but generally content to play silent witness to the flowing monologues.

Ginghina offers extensive testimony about his many inspired notions to change how the game is played, from octagonal pitches to teams that are split into sub-teams with players who would no longer be allowed to cross the midfield line. He illustrates his often harebrained ideas with flip charts, boards and even an attempt to play a game under his own rules. There are welcome digressions in which Ginghina considers the roads untravelled, including employment on an orange farm in Florida. We see him at work as a bureaucrat trying to assist an elderly woman still seeking to regain possession of her land 27 years after the Romanian revolution.

There is a possibility the vicissitudes of Ginghina’s life provide some small window into events in Romanian society over the past 30 years — the factory where he once worked is now derelict, his expectations for Romania as a member of the EU have dwindled into disappointment.

No matter where the film may veer, everything eventually leads back to football and Ginghina’s belief that he has something in common with superheroes, leading the double life of an ordinary pen pusher by day and radical revolutionary of the sporting world by night.

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IN THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM Rom. 2018. 70mins Director Corneliu Porumboiu Production company 42 Km Film International sales mk2 Films, intlsales@ mk2.com Producer Marcela Ursu Cinematography Tudor Mircea Editing Roxana Szel Featuring Laurentiu Ginghina

Discovering your true self is fraught with untold difficulties in Border (Grans). Following 2016’s Shelley, Ali Abbasi’s second feature is a bracingly original fusion of twisted fairy tale, folklore, police procedural, tragic romance and existential drama. It is mesmerising in its initial oddness and develops into a complex, richly satisfying piece of storytelling in which all the seemingly jagged, awkward edges eventually fit together smoothly.

Border picked up the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes, acknowledgement of the dexterous narrative and an extraordinary central performance from Eva Melander.

Tina (Melander) has spent all her life accepting she is different. Her hooded eyes and Neanderthal features give her the appearance of someone from a lost world. In her work as a customs officer, she can sniff out the guilty crime-breakers and almost sense the presence of evil.

Abbasi depicts her talents in loving close-ups of quivering lips and twitching nostrils.

More animal than human, Tina heads home each night to a cabin she shares with her feckless boyfriend Roland (Jorgen Thorsson) and his three vicious Doberman dogs. She seems happiest in the nearby forest, at one with nature and the creatures she encounters.

Everything changes when she stops one traveller as he walks through customs: standing before Vore (Eero Milonoff) is like looking in a mirror. They have more in common than Tina could ever imagine and the film really grips as we discover what might be the story of her life.

Abbasi juggles many unpredictable plot elements and then brings them together like a well-tuned orchestra.

Tina’s voyage of discovery unfolds alongside an investigation into a paedophile ring, troubles with her aged father and her growing attraction to Vore.

Abbasi is also commendable in the way he plays some of the film’s more grotesque, gothic elements entirely straight, but also teases out the humour and humanity in Tina’s plight. Melander captures Tina’s dour, lumpen manner with a sense of the hurt and pathos beneath and the character’s innate instinct for decency.

The complex relationship between Vore and Tina lies at the heart of a film that has the rare quality of feeling quite unlike anything else you might have seen.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION Swe-Den. 2018. 101mins Director Ali Abbasi Production companies META Film, Spark Film & T , arnfilm International sales Films Boutique, valeska@ films outi ue.com Producers Nina Bisgaard, Peter Gustafsson, Petra Jonsson Screenplay John Ajvide Lindqvist, Ali Abbasi and Isabella Eklof, based on a short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist Production design Frida Hoas Editing Olivia NeergaardHolm, Anders Skov Cinematography Nadim Carlsen Music Christoffer Berg, Martin Dirkov Main cast Eva Melander, Eero Milonoff, Jorgen Thorsson, Ann Petren

July 27-28, 2018 Screen International at Jerusalem 13

REVIEWS

Transit Reviewed by Demetrios Matheou

Girl Reviewed by Wendy Ide An assured and empathetic feature debut, Lukas Dhont’s Girl uses the discipline and rigour of ballet training to explore the journey of a transgender teenager and her relationship with her body. Fifteen-year-old Lara (a mesmerising performance from Victor Polster) exudes a steely serenity, a carapace that covers pain from the bleeding feet and screaming muscles to the unwitting cruelty of her classmates and her body’s betrayal. Slight pacing issues notwithstanding, this is a sensitive and emotionally persuasive study of Lara’s determination to achieve her dreams, against the odds.

There is a compassion and intimacy to Dhont’s approach to gender issues that evokes the work of Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy. Girl picked up the Camera d’Or for best first feature at Cannes Film Festival and is an impressive calling card for both Polster and Dhont, neither of whom should have any shortage of offers for future projects.

The world of ballet, where bodies are bent and reshaped by sheer force of will, provides fertile ground for this exploration of transition. The camera’s fascination with Lara’s body is justified — it is her preoccupation and battleground. Polster, a trained ballet dancer with a sylph-like physique, is utterly convincing in the role. Lara is poised and reserved, she keeps the world, even her supportive father (Arieh Worthalter), at arm’s length.

The screenplay, by Dhont and Angelo Tijssens, leaves much discreetly unsaid. The absence of Lara and her younger brother’s mother is never explained, nor is there much exploration of Lara’s journey up until the point we join her at a prestigious ballet school. Instead, we can read much of her backstory in the superb performances — in the hint of anxiety that bleeds into her father’s solicitous concern; in Lara’s brittle tranquillity as she fields yet another of his blundering attempts to get her to open up. What’s never in question is her father’s support of her decision to transition — his main concern is that she does not put herself at risk in the process.

The rhythms and repetition of endless rehearsal form the film’s central spine. Shot fluidly at first, the camerawork takes on a more feverish and agitated quality as Lara pushes herself to breaking point. Music is elegantly threaded into the film, lifted out of rehearsals and carried into other scenes.

14 Screen International at Jerusalem July 27-28, 2018

DEBUTS Bel. 2018. 105mins Director Lukas Dhont Production companies Menuet, Frakas Productions, Topkapi Films International sales The Match Factory, info@matchfactory.de Producer Dirk Impens Screenplay Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens Production design Philippe Bertin Editing Alain Dessauvage Cinematography Frank van den Eeden Music Valentin Hadjadj Main cast Victor Polster, Arieh Worthalter, Oliver Bodart, Tijmen Govaerts, Katelijne Damen, Valentijn Dhaenens, Alice de Broqueville, Alain Honorez, Chris Thys, Angelo Tijssens, MarieLouise Wilderijckx, Virginia Hendricksen

Christian Petzold’s films are invariably peopled by characters wrestling with identity, ghosts — both real and metaphorical — who are trying to escape world war, cold war, and reunification. So it was perhaps inevitable the director would find his way towards Anna Seghers’ lauded, 1942set existential novel concerning wartime refugees trapped in Vichy France while fleeing the Nazis. You might say that, for good and ill, Transit is a match made in limbo.

With the Nazi troops just outside Paris, German refugee Georg (Franz Rogowski) escapes to Marseille. Before leaving Paris, he comes into possession of the papers that belonged to a writer called Weidel, who has just committed suicide. These include a manuscript and a letter from the Mexican Embassy assuring Weidel of a visa. As only those refugees who can prove they are able to leave Marseilles are allowed into the port town in the first place, Georg duly assumes Weidel’s identity.

While waiting for his ship, Georg encounters other refugees desperately waiting for the same papers to whisk them to safety, including the mysterious Marie (Paula Beer), who is desperate to find her husband — Weidel. As Georg falls in love, he has to find a way of saving Marie without revealing his deceit.

Petzold has taken the bold decision to not dress Transit as a historical film, but to locate its action in the present day. Petzold and his production team have eschewed historical recreation and placed actors amid contemporary Marseilles. There are no soldiers or tanks on the streets, only police cars. Costumes are what you might call ‘classic’.

Thematically, this gives the scenario the potential for incredible resonance. As the starving, fearful Europeans in the foreground of the story yearn for escape and a new life, Georg encounters today’s African immigrants, who inhabit their own living hell. The powerful impression is that nothing has changed in the trade of lost souls, other than the conflicts that create them.

Like all of his work, the writer/director’s fourth film is elegantly made, ingenious and intellectually challenging.

Yet it is also too much like hard work to be entirely satisfying and, dramatically, it suffers from the same condition as its protagonists: inertia. Ironically, given his temporal ploy, Petzold does not offer enough contact with modern-day refugees — yet the one moment in which he does so, it is electrifying.

CHRISTIAN PETZOLD TRIBUTE, THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE Ger-Fr. 2018. 101mins Director Christian Petzold Production company Schramm Film Koerner & Weber International sales The Match Factory, info@matchfactory.de Producers Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber Screenplay Christian Petzold, based on the novel

by Anna Seghers Production design Kade Gruber Editing Bettina Böhler Cinematography Hans Fromm Music Stefan Will Main cast Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batman, Maryam Zaree

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Dogman INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Reviewed by Lee Marshall

Samouni Road Reviewed by Lee Marshall “I don’t know how to tell a story,” says teenage girl Amal Samouni at the beginning of this powerful documentary about a Palestinian family torn apart by war. Luckily, Italian director Stefano Savona is there to help — though it will emerge over the course of his thoughtful, partanimated film that Amal is a perfectly capable weaver of memories herself.

The tragedy at the centre of the film is the notorious Zeitoun incident of January 2009, when 48 civilians were killed during an Israeli military operation in a previously peaceful district of Gaza City, among them 29 members of the same Samouni family. Recounted through a mix of scratchy black-and-white animation with a linocut feel (courtesy of artist/animator Simone Massi) and reconstructed drone imagery, the 30-minute representation of the massacre lends the film its considerable emotional impact.

Yet it is what takes place either side of this dramatic core that makes Savona’s sensitive film stand out. The clear intent here is to go beyond the emergency view of the conflict that is absorbed through TV news screens and social-media feeds, in order to simply spend time with an ordinary family attempting to piece together its life after a terrible trauma.

Amal, who was left for dead for three days after the Israeli rocket strike that killed her father and several other family members, has several fragments of shrapnel still embedded in her brain. Yet she is a radiant, resourceful girl whose battle against her brothers’ attempts to exclude her from their important male business is a powerful strand of a film that does not flinch from the less-than-illuminated aspects of life in this intensely tight-knit, judgmental, patriarchal society.

In the film’s final section, the fissures as well as the healing currents of the aftermath are highlighted in the edit of the handheld footage Savona shot during several visits to the family. We see fights break out over land distribution when the residents of the Zeitoun district are finally allowed to return to their devastated homes, and watch, with his worried mother, as Amal’s younger brother nurses jihadist dreams of revenge.

But there is hope too, in the wedding that closes this nuanced documentary, and in the resilience of the family at its centre.

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PANORAMA Fr-It. 2018. 132mins Director Stefano Savona Production companies Picofilms, Dugong Films, Alter Ego Production, Arte France Cinéma, Rai Cinema International sales Doc & Films International, sales@docandfilm.com Producers Penelope Bortoluzzi, Marco Alessi, Cécile Lestrade Screenplay Stefano Savona, Léa Mysius, Penelope Bortoluzzi Animation director Simone Massi Editing Luc Forveille Cinematography Stefano Savona Music Giulia Tagliavia

If narrative cinema is all about the harnessing of character and atmosphere in the service of a strong story, then Matteo Garrone’s follow-up to his 2015 Tale Of Tales succeeds on every level. On the surface, this dark Italian seaside western is about a perennial victim who attempts to turn the table on his bully after years of subjugation. But it turns into a universal tale of suffering and lost dreams in the director’s hands, thanks largely to the memorable central character created by Garrone and his co-writers, translated brilliantly onto the screen by actor/director Marcello Fonte.

The film’s hero, everyman and Job figure is mild-mannered Marcello (Fonte), who runs a grooming parlour and hotel for dogs in an unnamed, failing seaside suburb.

Marcello is part of a close-knit, intensely male community that includes the owners of the cash-for-gold shop next door and a nearby slot-machine parlour. They eat in the same beachside trattoria, play five-a-side football together — and all grumble about local thug Simoncino (an incandescent Edoardo Pesce), a former boxer who tends to head-butt people, walls or slot machines when they don’t co-operate.

Tolerated by the other tough cookies in the ’hood, Marcello is a sensitive, fragile, childlike soul, a mere slip of a man who seems most himself when lovingly tending to the dogs in his care, or bonding with his young daughter Alida (Alida Baldari Calabria) — one of the few female presences in a film that is squarely about the disease of being male. But Marcello is also hungry for acceptance from the grown-up playground alpha males that surround him. This may be why he has become a small-time coke dealer on the side; it is certainly why he tolerates Simoncino, who Marcello seems to view as a savage dog that can be tamed and befriended with the right kind of grooming.

Shot with a mix of tense handheld close-ups interspersed with a few long-shot breathing spaces, Dogman is a film that slowly, inexorably shuts the walls around its hero, and around its audience. Fonte does so much here with his face and eyes: we see a good man, a dreamer, gradually brutalised by despair. Perhaps the most impressive thing about a hugely successful exercise in directorial control is the fact we come away from an intensely violent film, a film where bones crunch and blood smells, touched by pathos and a strange sense of hope.

It-Fr. 2018. 102mins Director Matteo Garrone Production companies Archimede Film, Le Pacte International sales Rai Com, cristina. cavaliere@rai.it Producers Matteo Garrone, Paolo del Brocco, Jean Labadie, Jeremy Thomas Screenplay Matteo Garrone, Ugo Chiti, Massimo Gaudioso Production design Dimitri Capuani Editing Marco Spoletini Cinematography Nicolaj Brüel Music Michele Braga Main cast Marcello Fonte, Edoardo Pesce, Alida Baldari Calabria, Nunzia Schiano, Adamo Dionisi, Francesco Acquaroli, Gianluca Gobbi

July 27-28, 2018 Screen International at Jerusalem 15

SCREENINGS Edited by Paul Lindsell

» Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration.

paullindsell@gmail.com

FRIDAY JULY 27

16:15 ECHO

10:00

See box, left

JOHN MCENROE: IN THE REALM OF PERFECTION

GRASS

(France) Film Constellation. 95mins.

Dir: Julien Faraut.

French, English (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A documentary exploring the parallels between tennis and cinema.

The director combines fascinating 16mm footage featuring tennis legend John McEnroe and witty narration in a refreshing meditative polemic.

Panorama Cinematheque 3

THE OPERA HOUSE

(US) 151mins. Dir: Susan Froemke. English (Hebrew subtitles).

A chronicle of the Metropolitan Opera’s history including archival footage, recordings and interviews with legendary pillars of this great institution.

Panorama Cinematheque 2

10:30 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

(UK, US) Warner Bros.

164mins. Dir: Stanley Kubrick. English, Russian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece follows two astronauts and a supercomputer on their journey to Jupiter. This newly restored version premiered at Cannes in celebration of the film’s 50th anniversary.

JFF Classics Yes Planet 8

10:45 LEAN ON PETE

(UK) 121mins. Dir: Andrew Haigh. English (Hebrew subtitles).

Charlie, 15, gets a job at a racetrack taking care of an ageing horse named Lean On Pete. When he learns Pete is bound for slaughter, the two embark on an odyssey in search of a place to call home.

International Competition Cinematheque 1

(South Korea) Finecut.

66mins. Dir: Hong Sangsoo. Korean (English and Hebrew subtitles).

In a remote alley in Seoul lies a cafe where guests sit and chat. As the hours pass, they mingle and get to know each other. A lone woman observes the others and records her thoughts.

Masters Cinematheque 2

HANNAH

FRIDAY JULY 27 16:15 ECHO

(Israel) 98mins.

Dir: Amikam Kovner, Assaf Snir. Hebrew (English subtitles).

Avner suspects his wife is cheating on him.

Secretly recording her

11:00 THE WILD PEAR TREE

(Turkey, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Sweden) Memento Films International. 188mins.

Dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

Turkish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Sinan returns home to raise money for the publication of his first novel. But his parents’ relationship is on the rocks and his flamboyant, gambling father is deep in debt.

International Competition Lev Smadar

12:00 TOKLOMATI

(Israel) 65mins. Dir: Shir Ben, Gad Aisen, David Ofek. Hebrew, French (Hebrew and English subtitles).

Thirteen years after being kicked out of Israel for allegedly lying about his age, African footballer Tony Toklomati will meet his son Idan for the first time. Idan’s mother will

16 Screen International at Jerusalem July 27-28, 2018

phone conversations, he tries to discover her lover’s identity. But while searching for one thing, he discovers another. He doesn’t really know the woman he loves.

Israeli Cinema Cinematheque 1

need to decide whether she wants to marry Tony, thereby allowing him to stay for good.

Israeli Cinema Cinematheque 3

12:15 OBLIVION VERSES

(France, Germany, Netherlands, Chile) Urban Distribution International. 92mins.

Dir: Alireza Khatami.

Spanish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

When a cemetery caretaker discovers the body of a young woman, he embarks on a surreal journey in search of the circumstances of her death.

Debuts Cinematheque 2

13:15 HAPPY AS LAZZARO

(Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany) The Match Factory. 125mins.

Dir: Alice Rohrwacher.

Italian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Lazzaro is a labourer on the Marchesa de Luna’s tobacco plantation. When

her son Tancredi visits the fields, he is captivated by Lazzaro’s sincerity and kindness.

In the Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 1

13:45 IN MY ROOM

(Germany, Italy) The Match Factory. 119mins.

Dir: Ulrich Köhler.

German, English.

(English and Hebrew subtitles).

A rowdy 40-year-old Berlin photographer feels empty, until he awakes to discover that he is the only human being in the world.

Masters Yes Planet 8

KING BIBI

(Israel) 87mins. Dir: Dan Shadur. Hebrew (Hebrew and English subtitles).

The remarkable and controversial story of Benjamin Netanyahu’s rise to power, reflected through four decades of public appearances that changed Israel forever.

Israeli Cinema Cinematheque 3

14:30 A PARIS EDUCATION

(France) Films du Losange. 137mins.

Dir: Jean-Paul Civeyrac.

French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Moving to Paris to study film at the Sorbonne, Etienne meets other

students who share his passion for cinema. They face heartbreak and moral dilemmas as they wander through the city, succumbing to their sexual desires.

International Competition Lev Smadar

THREE QUARTERS

(Bulgaria) Memento Films International.

83mins. Dir: Ilian Metev.

Bulgarian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A subtle drama about a Bulgarian family: a teenage daughter who dreams of becoming a pianist, her aggressive little brother and their distant father. Exemplary cinematic language renders the absent mother, the fourth quarter, present.

Debuts Cinematheque 2

15:45 HITLER’S HOLLYWOOD

(Germany) Wide House.

105mins. Dir: Rüdiger Suchsland. German (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Based on archival footage from German films produced between 1933 and 1945, this documentary debates the entertainment industry’s submission to Nazi demands and ponders its double role as a propaganda mouthpiece and escapist space.

JFF Classics Cinematheque 3

(Italy, France, Belgium) TF1. 95mins. Dir: Andrea Pallaoro. French, English (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Hannah escorts her husband to the prison gate and tries to stick to her routine as a way to face his crime and its consequences.

Panorama Yes Planet 8

17:30 GIRL

(Belgium) The Match Factory. 105mins. Dir: Lukas Dhont. French, Flemish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Fifteen-year-old Lara dreams of becoming a professional ballerina.

But the frustrations of adolescence intensify as she faces the challenges ballet imposes on the body of one born male.

Debuts Lev Smadar

17:45 INFINITE FOOTBALL

(Romania) mk2. 70mins.

Dir: Corneliu Porumboiu.

Romanian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Documentary following a man whose life is dedicated to developing an alternative version of soccer.

In the Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 2

18:00 SHORT MATTERS II

94mins. Various www.screendaily.com

FURTHER JFF COVERAGE, SEE SCREENDAILY.COM

languages (English subtitles).

Short films nominated to the European Film Academy.

International Shorts Cinematheque 4

18:15 AVA

(Iran, Canada, Qatar) Pascale Ramonda.

103mins. Dir: Sadaf Foroughi. Farsi (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Ava, a middle-class teenager in Tehran, is under strict supervision.

When she develops an intimate relationship with a boy, her mother invades Ava’s privacy, and kindles a spark of rebellion in her heart.

Debuts Yes Planet 8

18:30 BORDER

(Sweden, Denmark) Films Boutique. 101mins.

Dir: Ali Abbassi. Swedish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Tina is a customs officer with a unique sense of smell. When she encounters a mysterious man who resembles her, her special skills are compromised, and she develops a strange obsession towards him.

International Competition Cinematheque 3

Gaza, the Samouni family is about to celebrate a wedding — the first celebration since the latest war.

Through recollections, the film conveys a deep, multifaceted portrait of a family before, during and after the tragic event that changed their lives forever.

In 1993, a teenage girl is sent to a Christian boarding school to “treat” her homosexuality. There, she forges a path through pseudo-psychological clichés.

Panorama Cinematheque 2

CHANTAL?

19:30 DOGMAN

(Italy, France) Rai — Radio Televisione Italiana. 95mins.

Dir: Matteo Garrone.

Italian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Marcello runs a dogboarding facility but another job leads him into a dangerous relationship with a violent former boxer.

International Competition Lev Smadar

20:00 SHORT MATTERS III

90mins. Various languages (English subtitles).

International Shorts Cinematheque 4

20:15 THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST

(US) Elle Driver. 90mins.

Dir: Desiree Akhavan.

English (Hebrew subtitles).

International Competition Yes Planet 8

20:45

Eyre. English (Hebrew subtitles).

A family law magistrate is assigned a case involving a young man with an unusual outlook on life.

Their meeting has immense emotional consequences.

Gala Lev Smadar

22:15

A performance by the celebrated cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, intertwined with Chantal Akerman’s ‘Blow Up My Town’ (1968).

Chantal Akerman — Farewell Cinematheque 3

21:30 WHITNEY

(UK, US) Miramax.

120mins. Dir: Kevin Macdonald. English (Hebrew subtitles).

An intimate documentary that sheds light on the fascinating trajectory of Whitney Houston’s life.

Gala Cinematheque 1

SAUVAGE See box, below

UPGRADE

(Australia) 100mins. Dir: Leigh Whannel. English (Hebrew subtitles).

In the near future, quadriplegic Grey volunteers for a chip implant that will restore his ability to move. As the line between human and mechanical blurs, an in-body power-struggle evolves.

Gala Yes Planet 8

22:30 CLIMAX

THE CHILDREN ACT

(France) Wild Bunch.

96mins. Dir: Gaspar Noé.

French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A group of dancers meet to rehearse for three days. On the last night they throw a wild party. When things spiral out of control, the dance floor becomes a hell on Earth.

(UK) FilmNation.

105mins. Dir: Richard

Masters Cinematheque 3

21:45 SHORT MATTERS I

96mins. Various languages (English subtitles).

International Shorts Cinematheque 4

22:00

TRANSIT

(Germany, France) The Match Factory. 101mins.

Dir: Christian Petzold.

German, French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A man escaping Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation adopts a dead author’s identity.

In Marseilles, he meets a woman looking for her husband — the very man he impersonates.

SAMOUNI ROAD

(Italy, France) Doc & Film. 128mins. Dir: Stefano Savona. Arabic (English and Hebrew subtitles).

On the outskirts of www.screendaily.com

10:00 NEWS FROM HOME

(France, Belgium, West Germany) 85mins.

Dir: Chantal Akerman.

English.

In 1977, Chantal Akerman returns to New York. Urban scenes are combined with the reading of letters from her mother that gradually reveal Akerman’s need to detach herself from her roots while raising questions about the physical meaning of ‘home’.

Chantal Akerman — Farewell Cinematheque 2

10:30 UNTIL THE BIRDS RETURN

(France, Algeria, Germany) mk2. 113mins.

Dir: Karim Moussaoui.

Arabic, French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Set in contemporary Algiers, this sensitive debut interweaves three stories: past and present collide in a builder’s life; a woman is torn between reason and emotion; and a neurologist struggles with wartime demons.

Debuts Cinematheque 3

11:00 EUPHORIA

(Italy) True Colors.

115mins. Dir: Valeria Golino. Italian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A businessman invites his brother, a provincial teacher who has been diagnosed with a brain tumour, to stay with him in Rome.

Gala Lev Smadar

MIRAI

Christian Petzold Tribute Cinematheque 1

19:15

SATURDAY JULY 28

FRIDAY JULY 27 22:15 SAUVAGE

(France) Pyramide. 97mins.

Dir: Camille Vidal-Naquet. French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Leo is 22. He sells his body on the streets for cash. He yearns for love but cannot say what lies ahead.

Debuts Cinematheque 2

(Japan) Charades. 98mins.

Dir: Mamoru Hosoda.

Japanese (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Kun’s life turns upside down when his baby sister gets all the attention.

But things improve when he discovers a magic garden where he meets his relatives at different points in their lives.

Gala Yes Planet 8

THE PRAYER

(France) Le Pacte.

107mins. Dir: Cédric Kahn. French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Thomas is sent to a Catholic rehabilitation centre in the Alps. In time, he feels God’s spirit, but events conspire to set him at a crossroads.

International Competition Cinematheque 1

11:45 ECHO

(Israel) 98mins.

Dir: Amikam Kovner, Assaf Snir. Hebrew (English subtitles).

Avner suspects his wife is cheating on him. Secretly recording her phone conversations, he tries to discover her lover’s identity.

Israeli Cinema Cinematheque 2

12:45 CAUSE OF DEATH

(Israel) 80mins. Dir: Ramy A Katz. Hebrew, Arabic (Hebrew and English subtitles).

Ten years after the death of policeman Salim Barakat in a terror attack, his brother Jamal investigates the identity of Salim’s killer and whether the police are withholding information.

Israeli Cinema Cinematheque 3

13:15 THELMA

(Norway, France, Denmark, Sweden) Memento Films International. 116mins.

Dir: Joachim Trier.

Norwegian, Swedish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

An introverted student from a religious background faces her burgeoning sexuality and the telekinetic superpowers it entails.

Masters Yes Planet 8

13:30 AGA

(Bulgaria, Germany, France) Beta Cinema.

96mins. Dir: Milko Lazarov. Yakut (English and Hebrew subtitles). »

July 27-28, 2018 Screen International at Jerusalem 17

SCREENINGS

In icy northern Siberia, Nanook and Sedna struggle to maintain their traditional ways.

While Nanook refuses to acknowledge their estranged daughter, Aga, Sedna misses her desperately.

Qiao leaves home to try her luck in the big city. She falls in love with mafioso Bin. Their relationship is tempestuous but Qiao remains loyal.

International Competition Cinematheque 1

PHOENIX

WILDLIFE

(US) FilmNation.

104mins. Dir: Paul Dano. English (Hebrew subtitles).

When Jerry leaves home to fight a raging fire, his young son assumes the role of responsible adult, while his wife tries to take care of her family in different ways.

Gala Lev Smadar

13:45 THE CLEANERS

(Germany, Brazil) Cinephil. 88mins.

Dir: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck. English, Tagalog (English and Hebrew subtitles).

In Manila, men and women carry out the internet’s dirty work — screening content on social networks. Yet underneath their work lies profound questions around what makes an image art or propaganda and what defines journalism.

In the Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 2

14:45 AMOS GITAI: HOUSE & LETTER

(Israel) 86mins. Dir: Amos Gitai. Hebrew, Arabic (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Epitomising Gitai’s view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, House (1980) chronicles a Jerusalem residence from its expropriation in 1948 to its remodeling by an Israeli professor. Letter (2018) pays homage to Camus and explores the return to Palestinian villages.

Masters Cinematheque 3

15:45 ASH IS PUREST WHITE

(China, France) mk2.

150mins. Dir: Jia ZhangKe. Mandarin (English and Hebrew subtitles).

International Competition Lev Smadar

Dir: Yann Gonzalez.

French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

In late 1970s Paris, a gay porn producer sets out to make her most ambitious film, but when the lead actor is murdered, her life takes an overwhelming turn.

(Germany) The Match Factory. 98mins. Dir: Christian Petzold.

German, English (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A Holocaust survivor returns to Berlin. When she finds her husband, he does not recognise her but suggests she help him claim his ‘dead’ wife’s inheritance.

Panorama Yes Planet 8

Christian Petzold Tribute Cinematheque 2

Intersections Cinematheque 4

VIRUS TROPICAL

(Colombia, Ecuador) Stray Dogs. 97mins.

Dir: Santiago Caicedo.

Spanish (English and Hebrew subtitles).

The ups and downs of two sisters’ adolescence unfolds through the eyes of the youngest daughter in an unusual family from Quito.

Debuts Yes Planet 8

16:00 DONBASS

(Germany, Ukraine, France, Netherlands, Romania) Pyramide.

121mins. Dir: Sergei Loznitsa. Ukrainian, Russian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Taking advantage of the raging war in Ukraine’s Donbass region, gangs perpetuate crime and the propaganda machine works incessantly.

Masters Cinematheque 1

17:00 ANGELS WEAR WHITE

(China, France) Wild Bunch. 107mins. Dir: Vivian Qu. Mandarin (English and Hebrew subtitles).

In a small Chinese seaside hotel, two young girls are sexually assaulted by a middle-aged man.

In the Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 3

17:45 KNIFE+HEART

(France, Mexico) Kinology. 100mins.

18 Screen International at Jerusalem July 27-28, 2018

18:00 READERS

(US) 108mins. Dir: James Benning.

Several people read from a wide range of books. They read — not aloud but to themselves — as viewers ‘read’ them.

18:15 LEMONADE

(Romania, Canada, Germany, Sweden) Pluto Films. 88mins. Dir: Ioana Uricaru. English, Romanian (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A Romanian nurse working in the US awaits her green card. When the process veers off course, she realises that America is not all she had hoped for.

Debuts Cinematheque 2

18:30 MEKTOUB, MY LOVE: CANTO UNO

(France, Italy) Pathé.

175mins. Dir: Abdellatif Kechiche. French, English (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A young screenwriter spends the summer in his hometown. He moves between beaches and bars, facing raw emotions and passions.

Masters Lev Smadar

18:45 THE OSLO DIARIES

(Israel, Canada) 97mins.

Dir: Mor Loushy, Daniel Sivan. English, Hebrew, Arabic (Hebrew and English subtitles).

A dramatic journey into the backstage of the Oslo Peace Accords.

Israeli Cinema Cinematheque 1

19:15 A PARIS EDUCATION

(France) Films du

Losange. 137mins.

Dir: Jean-Paul Civeyrac.

French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Moving to Paris to study film at the Sorbonne, Etienne meets other students who share his passion for cinema. They face heartbreak and moral dilemmas as they wander through the city, succumbing to their sexual desires.

International Competition Cinematheque 3

19:45

What starts out as a joke becomes an infiltration operation into the racist organisation.

Gala Cinematheque 1

OSCAR SHORTS (LIVE ACTION)

96mins. English.

The live-action short films nominated for the 2018 Academy Awards.

International Shorts Cinematheque 4

22:00 FORTUNA

(Norway, Germany, Sweden) Beta Cinema.

106mins. Dir: Iram Haq. Norwegian, Urdu (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Nisha tries to obey her Pakistani-émigré parents while leading the life of a normal teenager. When her father discovers her with a boyfriend, the two worlds collide, and Nisha is sent to Pakistan.

(Switzerland, Belgium) Loco Films. 106mins.

Dir: Germinal Roaux.

French, Amharic (English and Hebrew subtitles).

An Ethiopian girl who lost track with her parents since arriving in Europe, is temporarily placed in Switzerland along with other refugees while their legal status is sorted out.

She falls hopelessly in love with Kabir, until the day he disappears.

In the Spirit of Freedom Yes Planet 8

Panorama Cinematheque 2

WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY

20:00 MADEMOISELLE PARADIS

(Austria, Germany) Playtime. 97mins. Dir: Barbara Albert. German, French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

An award-winning period drama inspired by the life story of Maria Theresia von Paradis, a blind pianist in late 18th century Vienna. Treated by a ‘miracle’ healer, Maria soon discovers that all is not what it appears to be.

PITY

(Greece, Poland) New Europe Film Sales.

99mins. Dir: Babis Makridis. Greek (English and Hebrew subtitles).

A lawyer is consoled as his wife lays unconscious.

But when her condition improves, he slowly deteriorates.

Panorama Cinematheque 3

SKATE KITCHEN

60mins. English.

The animated short films nominated for the 2018 Academy Awards.

(US) Charades. 106mins.

Dir: Crystal Moselle.

English (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Shy Camille joins Skate Kitchen — a New York posse of girl skateboarders.

For the first time she feels like she belongs, making friends and facing new and exciting experiences.

International Shorts Cinematheque 4

Debuts Yes Planet 8

Masters Cinematheque 2

20:15 OSCAR SHORTS (ANIMATION)

21:30 BLACKKKLANSMAN

(US) Universal. 128mins.

Dir: Spike Lee. English (Hebrew subtitles).

In the early 1970s, an African-American police officer notices an ad for the Ku Klux Klan and contacts the advertisers.

SORRY ANGEL

(France) mk2. 132mins.

Dir: Christophe Honoré.

French (English and Hebrew subtitles).

Jacques, a French writer with Aids, falls in love with young Arthur.

Jerusalem Cinematheque, 11 Hebron Road, 91083 Editorial Editor Matt Mueller, matt. mueller@screendaily.com, +44 7880 526 547 Reporters Melanie Goodfellow, melanie.goodfellow@ btinternet.com, +44 7460 470 434 Tom Grater, tom.grater@ screendaily.com, +44 7436 096 420 Reviews editor and chief film critic Fionnuala Halligan, finn. halligan@screendaily.com Features editor Louise Tutt, tuttlouise@ gmail.com Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray, mark. mowbray@screendaily.com Group art director Peter Gingell Sub editors Willemijn Barker-Benfield, Paul Lindsell, Tim Mawdsley Advertising Publishing director Nadia Romdhani, nadia.romdhani@ screendaily.com Commercial director Scott Benfold, scott. benfold@screendaily.com International sales consultants Gunter Zerbich, gunter. zerbich@screendaily.com, +44 7540 100 254 Hettie Halden, hettie. halden@screendaily.com Ingrid Hammond, ingridhammond@mac. com President, North America Nigel Daly, nigeldalymail@ gmail.com Sales and business development executive, North America Nikki Tilmouth, nikki. screeninternational@ gmail.com Production manager Jonathon Cooke, jonathon. cooke@mb-insight.com, +44 7584 333 148 Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam Published by Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI) Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London, EC2A 4HJ United Kingdom Subscriptions help@subscribe. screendaily.com

Masters Lev Smadar

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