Screen Jerusalem Issue 2

2 IS SU E

FRIDAY JULY 10 – SATURDAY JULY 11, 2015

AT JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL www.ScreenDaily.com

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TODAY

SCREENINGS

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FRIDAY JULY 10 — SATURDAY JULY 11, 2015

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Davidoff preps news-crew farce

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

Israeli director Oded Davidoff is gearing up to shoot his first English-language feature Live From Jerusalem, a farcical comedy revolving around the international media community in the city.

The tale of a UK correspondent based in Jerusalem who concocts a hair-brained scheme with his Palestinian cameraman to get out of an assignment to Sudan will go into pre-production after the summer. The English-speaking lead is yet to be cast.

Gurfinkel to be honoured with Child screening

Screenwriter Roy Iddan based the narrative on his own experiences working in the now defunct Fink’s bar — an institution in the city frequented by politicians and journalists for 70 years until it closed in 2005. “A lot of the patrons were foreign journalists,” said Iddan, who was a student at the time. “It was around the time of the Second Intifada, a bad time in Jerusalem. I got to know this strange subculture and carried this idea around for years.”

Live From Jerusalem will be

Oded Davidoff

Iddan’s feature debut after co-creating TV series including Bobby & Me, which aired on Keshet, and YES’s Lost In Asia!, winner of the 2013 Israeli TV Academy Award.

Nimrod Weislib

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

John Turturro is in Jerusalem with his latest feature, Nanni Moretti’s My Mother, which opened the festival last night in an open-air screening at Sultan’s Pool. Speaking during a tour of the Old City with his wife and son, the actor told Screen : “I’ve always wanted to come to Jerusalem, it’s one of the most fascinating places you could visit.”

Celebrating Aviva Meirom Known throughout her 25 years of work as “Aviva from Jerusalem Cinematheque”, Aviva Meirom was a respected and beloved member of staff in her capacity as office manager. She passed away in November 2014 after a long battle with cancer. “For many years she was the face of the Cinematheque

Laszlo Nemes, page 8

SPOTLIGHT Talent factory Sam Spiegel International Film Lab is making global waves » Page 5

INTERVIEW Laszlo Nemes Son Of Saul’s director on Cannes success and pulling jury duty » Page 8

REVIEW Trainwreck Judd Apatow’s new comedy is an effervescent, spiky delight » Page 10

SCREENINGS Today’s film line-up here at Jerusalem Film Festival » Page 12

Abecassis dons producer’s hat for Sam Spiegel lab projects

BY TOM GRATER

A special screening of Three Days And A Child, Uri Zohar’s 1967 adaptation of the AB Yehoshua short story, will be presented on a digitally restored copy from Jerusalem Cinematheque’s archives to honour cinematographer David Gurfinkel.

“We are very proud that we’ve managed to restore one of the most important Israeli films,” said festival director Noa Regev. “It’s a tribute to Gurfinkel, the greatest Israeli cinematographer.”

The event, which takes place on July 14, will celebrate Gurfinkel’s illustrious 50-year career, during which he worked on more than 80 titles and won four Israeli Film Academy Awards. Earlier this year, he was awarded the Israel Prize, presented by the government to recognise his lifetime achievement and contribution to Israeli culture.

Gurfinkel will attend the screening with special guests including Jerusalem Cinematheque archive manager Meir Russo, Jerusalem Film Fund director Yoram Honig, Israel Film Fund executive director Katriel Schory, Vanessa Lapa of Realworks Production, who collaborated on the restoration, and three of the film’s actors: Oded Kotler, Judith Solé and Germaine Unikovsky.

Davidoff is the creator-director of the Golan Heights-set mystery drama Pillars Of Smoke (Timrot Ashan), which NBC picked up for remake rights. His feature credits include the 2006 drama Someone To Run With.

David Mandil of Tel Aviv-based Movieplus Productions is lead producer, with Steve Hudson of Germany’s Gringo Films on board as a co-producer. Iddan will present Live From Jerusalem at the Pitch Point event on Monday at Mishkenot Sha’ananim.

TODAY

alongside Lia van Leer,” said Navot Barnea, monthly programme editor for the Cinematheque. “She was fundamental to this place.” Tribute screenings of The Tales Of Hoffmann will take place on July 13 and 17, with the second followed by a talk with members of Meirom’s family and the festival.

Tom Grater

Actress Yael Abecassis, whose credits range from Amos Gitai’s Kadosh to last year’s opening film A Borrowed Identity (formerly Dancing Arabs), hits Jerusalem Film Festival today but not on the big screen. Abecassis will attend the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab’s pitching event to present two feature projects: Aya and Zuzik, which she is producing with Hillel Roseman through their Tel Aviv-based production company Cassis Films.

“It was a natural progression to go into production. It’s another angle of the same art,” said Abecassis, who cited French producer Marie Masmonteil and Israeli actress-filmmaker Ronit Elkabetz as inspirations. “It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be,” she

added. “But I want to fight for new voices and talents.”

Launched in 2011, Cassis Films has focused mainly on shorts including Aya, which was nominated for an Academy Award this year. Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun have just completed a new feature-length screenplay, extending the story arc of Aya. The second project, Zuzik, revolves around an Ethiopian man who tries to reconnect with his son, a street prostitute. It will be the second film for director Shalom Hager following his awardwinning 2010 drama Shrouds.

Abecassis has not turned her back on acting. She plays a journalist in Gitai’s upcoming Rabin’s Last Day, about the murder of Yitzhak Rabin.

Assassin’s Hou plots his next move

BY MATT MUELLER

Fresh from his best director triumph at Cannes with The Assassin, which is set in 9th-century China and marks the Taiwanese master’s first foray into the wuxia martialarts genre, Hou Hsiao-Hsien is planning to return to the modern world with his next, as-yet-untitled, feature.

“I will come back to modernday Taipei, but also mix in scenes

of the city during the Japanese occupation,” the director, who is interested in recreating Taipei’s pre-war look, told Screen. “During that time, there were ditches throughout the city for irrigation.

They still exist but now they are under our roads.”

The Assassin screens today here at Jerusalem Film Festival, with additional showings on July 15 and July 18.

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SAM SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL FILM LAB SPOTLIGHT

S

am Spiegel International Film Lab is basking in the glory of its first A-list festival accolade following the Cannes grand prix win for Laszlo Nemes’ Son Of Saul.

The triumph comes less than four years after the lab’s launch in November 2011, originally under the name of the Jerusalem International Film Lab. Since then, it has welcomed a dozen or so projects per edition, split 50:50 between international and Israeli film-makers.

Hungary-based Nemes participated in the lab’s second edition in 2012. He and co-writer Clara Royer developed the screenplay under the guidance of script editor Koby Gal-Raday, a respected Israeli film and TV executive.

Nemes says the lab helped him with “breaking down the plot and sub-plots and seeing how the engineering was working. I felt our script doctor perceived the kind of film we wanted to make and didn’t want to be too technical. He was very respectful of [our] approach.”

Set in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Son Of Saul is about a Hungarian inmate who is forced to work in the camp’s gas chambers. Inspired by the experiences of Nemes’ own family during the Holocaust, Son Of Saul was one of the standout films at Cannes this year and has already been selected by Hungary as its submission to the best foreign-language film category at next year’s Oscars.

Finished product Renen Schorr, founding director of the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School, who spearheaded the lab, welcomes Son Of Saul’s success but emphasises the lab’s goal is to actually get films made.

“We don’t want to be just a development lab,” he explains. “Eight of the projects in the first edition have been completed and it’s looking good for the next editions.”

Further completed Sam Spiegel projects include Alvaro Brechner’s Uruguayan comedy M r. Ka p l a n , which was the country’s Oscar submission in 2014, Philippe Lacote’s political drama Run, from Ivory Coast, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2014, Nadav Lapid’s thoughtful drama The Kindergarten Teacher, which debuted in Critics’ Week at Cannes last year, and Run Burhan Qurbani’s We Are

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Film Lab 2015. Standing from left to right Keren Ben Rafael, Adriano Valerio, Paul Negoescu, Oren Adaf, Oded Binnun, Mihal Brezis, Tom Graber, Shalom Hager, Ferit Karahan, Gulistan Acet Sitting from left to right Radu Stancu, Paolo Marinou-Blanco, Idan Hubel, Itamar Alcalay, Vidur Nauriyal

Talent factory The Jerusalem-based Sam Spiegel International Film Lab is making waves globally only four years after it was launched. By Melanie Goodfellow

The Kindergarten Teacher debuted at Cannes

Young, We Are Strong Strong, which was unveiled at Tribeca Film Festival in April.

The seven-month programme brings the participants to Jerusalem three times from December to July. They come twice for intensive two-week script development sessions with mentors and for a final event at Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF) where projects are pitched to potential sales agents and co-producers from across the globe.

An international jury metes out $70,000 in prize money, provided by the Beracha Foundation, to three of the projects. Ethiopia-born, Israeli film-maker Alamork Marsha took the top prize last year for Fig Tree.

The Cannes success of Son Of Saul appears to be attracting more interna-

tional decision-makers to JFF this year.

Industry professionals set to attend the pitching event include sales agent Adeline Fontan Tessaur of Elle Driver, producer Cedomir Kolar of ASAP Films and Michael Weber at The Match Factory.

Nemes himself is back as a jury member for today’s pitching event at which the fourth-edition film-makers are presenting their projects. Fellow jurors include ARTE France Cinema general director Olivier Pere and Kirsten Niehuus, general director of the Medienboard BerlinBrandenburg film fund.

The projects to be pitched include The Boyfriend, the second feature by India’s Ashim Ahluwalia, about a forbidden love affair; Portuguese-American writerdirector Paolo Marinou-Blanco’s dark

comedy Candido, set against the backdrop of Brazil’s preparations for the 2016 Olympic Games, and Italian director Adriano Valerio’s feature debut Banat, a drama about a 30-something couple from Bari who head to Romania in search of work and a better life.

The Israeli film-makers include Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun who are presenting Aya, a feature-length version of their Oscar-nominated short about a girl who pretends to be the assigned driver of a visiting pianist, and Idan Hubel, whose second feature is a psychological murder-mystery called A Great Light.

‘Creating an exchange’ Oren Adaf ’s Darwin, about a naturedocumentary maker living in Africa, coming to terms with rejection by his Orthodox family, is produced by former lab participant Lacote with Eitan Mansuri of Tel Aviv-based Spiro Films. Lacote connected with the up-and-coming Adaf when Lacote was a participant in the first edition of the lab in 2011-12 and Adaf was a student at the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School.

“It’s important for me, everywhere I go for work, to create an exchange,” says Lacote. He first supported Adaf ’s short In Praise Of The Day and brought on board Paris-based Banshee Films as a co-producer. Lacote then hired the short’s student cinematographer Daniel Miller to lens his own feature, Run, which shot in Ivory Coast. Completing the circle, Miller is now attached to Adaf ’s Darwin.

Lacote credits the lab with taking Run to a higher level. The film explores Ivory Coast’s real-life political turmoil through the fictional story of a young man who shoots the country’s prime minister. The lab teamed Lacote with respected Italian scriptwriter Gino Ventriglia.

“Attending the lab gave the screenplay an international dimension it wouldn’t have had otherwise,” says Lacote. “Gino was a perfect fit for my project because he’s very narrative-driven.”

Alongside supporting the pitch for Darwin, Lacote will also attend Jerusalem Film Festival’s screening of Run on Sunday. It is one of two lab participants in the programme this year alongside Qurnabi’s s We Are Young, We Are Strong. ■

July 10-11, 2015 Screen International at Jerusalem 5

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JERUSALEM FILM & TV FUND SPOTLIGHT

to a ceiling of $2.6m (ILS10m). Previously, this was capped at around $370,000 (ILS1.4m).

To qualify for the revamped incentive, a production has to spend at least $2.1m (ILS8m) of its production budget in Israel, be based for at least 50% of its Israeli shooting days in Jerusalem, and devote at least 25%, or no less than $530,000 (ILS2m), of its Israeli budget to the city.

International productions due to tap into the rebate this year include crime-thriller series Jerusalem, co-produced by Israel’s Inosan Productions, France’s Haut et Court TV and Germany’s Nadcon Film. Cedar’s Oppenheimer Strategies, which received an initial $422,000 (ILS1.6m) from the fund, may also qualify for the rebate.

JeruZalem

Jerusalem up close Jerusalem Film & TV Fund’s drive to make its home city a production hub is gaining traction, with several projects shooting in the capital. Melanie Goodfellow reports

T

he upscale Germany Colony neighbourhood in Jerusalem will become a film set this autumn when Avi Nesher’s much-anticipated English-language feature Past Tense shoots there.

UK actress Ruth Wilson is reportedly in talks to star as a visiting US psychologist who becomes embroiled in a child custody case involving a friend who has joined a cult. Produced by Anthony Bregman, Past Tense would be the latest high-profile production to shoot in Jerusalem in the past 18 months.

The city has recently been home to Natalie Portman’s A Tale Of Love And Darkness, which chronicles novelist Amos Oz’s childhood in 1940s Jerusalem, and Joseph Cedar’s New York-set Oppenheimer Strategies, starring Richard Gere as a man whose life is changed by a chance meeting with a politician.

The big draw One of the draws for these productions was the support of Jerusalem Film & Television Fund, set up seven years ago to kick-start an audio-visual sector in the city. All three projects received support from the fund.

“Our aims are as much industrial as cultural,” says Yoram Honig, director of Jerusalem Film & Television Fund and a driving force behind the city’s bid to attract the film and television business.

“We want to generate jobs and to retain and attract young talent and creative people

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‘We want to generate jobs and to retain and attract young talent and creative people to Jerusalem’ Yoram Honig, Jerusalem Film & Television Fund

to Jerusalem. Three of the country’s top film schools are based in the city but their students traditionally head to Tel Aviv for work once they’ve graduated. We want to create work for them here,” he says.

The fund’s efforts have received a welcome boost after proposals to reinforce its international cash rebate, raising the maximum rebate ceiling, were officially approved at the beginning of July. “The rebate is the only Israeli incentive for international productions,” says Honig.

Under the revised system, international productions will be eligible for a cash refund of 60% on the budget spent in Jerusalem up

Local boost Alongside its incentives for international productions, the fund also backs local productions set and shooting in the city, investing up to $264,000 (ILS1m). In return the production must spend 1.3 shekels in the city for every 1 shekel invested by the fund.

As the Ministry of Finance backs the fund rather than the Israel Film Council, it can be combined with grants from the other big state-backed supports, including the Israel Film Fund and the Rabinovich Foundation’s Cinema Project. “That’s why everyone loves us,” says Honig. “We’re not competing with anyone. We’re extra money for Israeli cinema as well as big films on the international side.”

To date, the fund has invested in more than 40 Israeli features including Cedar’s Footnote, Yuval Adler’s Bethlehem and Eran Riklis’s A Borrowed Identity (originally titled Dancing Arabs).

A handful of grantees will be screening here at Jerusalem Film Festival including Competition titles such as Tova Ascher’s identity swap drama A.K.A. Nadia, Avishai Sivan’s Tikkun, about a promising ultraOrthodox religious scholar who undergoes a character change after being brought back from the brink of death, and Yoav and Doron Paz’s Old City zombie caper JeruZalem, which is receiving a work-in-progress s screening. ■

DRAWING SUPPORT Jerusalem Film & Television Fund runs a special incentive for animation work, offering a 35% rebate on every dollar spent, which has already attracted several highprofile projects including a new Disney TV series, the details of which are under wraps, Albert Hanan Kaminski’s Being Being Solomon Solomon and Los Angeles-

based The Operating Room’s Polarizers. “These three projects alone will generate $5m in investment in the city,” says Yoram Honig, director of Jerusalem Film & Television Fund. The fund has also supported five Israeli animated projects to date and backed a new animation studio, a branch of the respected PitchiPoy Animation Productions in Tel Aviv, to the tune of $132,000 (ILS500,000).

July 10-11, 2015 Screen International at Jerusalem 7

Interview Laszlo Nemes

Man of the moment Fresh from the Cannes success of Son Of Saul, the feature debut he developed at the Sam Spiegel lab, Laszlo Nemes is back in Jerusalem as a juror. He tells Geoffrey Macnab how the lab nurtured his vision

A

s a young Hungarian filmmaker born long after the Second World War ended, Laszlo Nemes knew he was taking a huge risk when he embarked on his debut feature Son Of Saul. The film, developed at the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab, was about a ‘sonderkommando’ in AuschwitzBirkenau — an inmate tasked with disposing of the corpses.

When Nemes brought his script to the Sam Spiegel lab, he was immediately encouraged by the response he encountered. “I think they chose the subject because it was daring,” the writer-director recalls. “The approach was daring — a first film dealing with the heart of the extermination machine.”

This was no chamber piece. The film, which is being sold by Films Distribution, unfolds in eight languages including Yiddish; it features huge numbers of extras, immensely complex camera moves and sound design, and an intense

‘The approach was daring — a first film dealing with the heart of the extermination machine’ Laszlo Nemes

have these very intense two, three or four-minute sequences. We took all the risks and it was very intense.”

On the one hand, this was an oppressive and extremely gruelling production. On the other, for the crew pushing themselves to the limit, it was “also very joyful”.

The original intention was to structure Son Of Saul as a co-production. In the event, potential financiers were wary.

“I am talking about the lack of risktaking in European film financing,” Nemes sighs, recalling the number of European funders and broadcasters that turned down the project. There was a sense among potential backers that, as Nemes puts it, “a first-time director should do a different kind of film”.

“Whenever a film-maker wants to strike a different chord or approach different subjects, it is really hard to make things happen,” he suggests.

‘I really think that Hungary and the rest of Europe hasn’t come to terms with the destruction of the European Jews’ Laszlo Nemes

Son Of Saul

8 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10-11, 2015

and embroiled plot. Making the film, the 38-year-old Nemes admits that sometimes he felt he was perched “on the edge of the abyss” and that the project was an “all or nothing” undertaking.

The storyline is very dark. Saul (Geza Röhrig) spots what he thinks is his own son among the piles of corpses and goes to extreme lengths to give the boy a traditional burial. The film is shot in subjective fashion, from the point of view of the desperate father as he searches for a rabbi to conduct the funeral.

Nemes describes making the film as a “coming of age” for him as a director. “It was a very, very difficult experience,” he says. “I didn’t make tremendous coverage of the film. We cut in camera. You

Film fund support The Hungarian Film Fund supported Nemes from the outset. There was a certain irony here. Some within Hungarian film circles complained the fund, under its head Andrew Vajna (producer of The Terminator), had no appetite for risk-taking or auteur-driven filmmaking. Renowned Hungarian director Bela Tarr (for whom Nemes worked as an assistant on 2007’s The Man From London) has been especially critical of the fund.

“The Hungarian Film Fund is actually functioning on a very democratic level,” Nemes counters. “There are five people on the committee. They vote. They are not politically driven and they have no consideration, it seems, other than professional considerations.”

Son Of Saul went on to enjoy a triumphant reception in Cannes’ Competition,

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where it won the grand prix. It also received the blessing of Claude Lanzmann, director of the extraordinary 10-hour interview-driven Holocaust documentary Shoah (1985).

Acknowledging the influence of Shoah on Son Of Saul — “I watched it a lot, with my co-writer [Clara Royer] and DoP [Matyas Erdely]” — Nemes recalls Lanzmann’s reaction to his film. “He was very positive,” says the director. “He was very touched and very reassured, but very moved.”

Another important influence on Nemes, albeit a less direct one, was Imre Kertesz, the Nobel Prize-winning author of the autobiographical novel Fatelessness, a closely focused account of a teenage boy’s experiences in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Nemes receives his Cannes grand prix from actor Mads Mikkelsen “The angle of the book is very specific and reduced,” Nemes notes. He was “There has been no real facing of the year, has provoked intense debate. “I delighted that Kertesz came to the Hungarian premiere of Son Of Saul. past,” he continues. “The Hungarians really think that Hungary and the rest In Hungary, anti-Semitism has unforstill don’t seem to know what took place. of Europe has not come to terms with tunately been on the rise and the HunI made this film to show people that the the destruction of the European Jews,” Nemes states, describing the garian release of the film, which has camp is not just some kind of historical Holocaust in a sense as “a European coalready been selected as the country’s event or dramatic event. It is something foreign-language Oscar contender next production”. much more shaking the soul of humanScreen 218x150 German Films_Artwork_Artwork 23.06.15 17:15 Seite 1

ity. I tried to convey that through cinematic means.”

Nemes is back in Jerusalem as a juror on the lab. To his disappointment, Son Of Saul is not screening at the festival. “I regret that because I wanted this film to be at Jerusalem Film Festival,” he says, pointing out that the Israeli release is not until later in the year and so screenings have been held back. “I couldn’t force that.”

Come the autumn, the “big ride” for the film will begin as it is released in territories all over the world and as its US distributor Sony Pictures Classics mounts what is likely to be a major Oscar campaign.

The director is already preparing his next project, Sunset, which will be set in Hungary in 1910. “It’s a coming-of-age story, also a thriller, the story of a young woman in Budapest,” says Nemes. “It takes place in a very important moment, before the First World War and before civilisation starts going into the darkness.”

After Son Of Saul, one prediction can safely be made. This time round, Nemes will not face a struggle to find co-producs tion partners. n

GERMAN FILMS & INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTIONS IN Debuts

JERUSALEM 2015

THE PROJECT OF THE CENTURY by Carlos Machado Quintela (CU/AR/DE) SIVAS by Kaan Müjdeci (TR/DE) Spirit of Freedom Competition

SONG OF MY MOTHER by Erol Mintas (TR/FR/DE) THREE WINDOWS AND A HANGING by Isa Qosja (XK/DE) WE ARE YOUNG. WE ARE STRONG. by Burhan Qurbani Masters

CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (TH/GB/DE/FR/MY) THE PRESIDENT by Mohsen Makhmalbaf (GB/DE/GE/FR) Roy Andersson’s Trilogy

Panorama

JAUJA by Lisandro Alonso (AR/US/NL/FR/MX/DK/DE) VICTORIA by Sebastian Schipper JFF Classics

THE MEMORY OF JUSTICE by Marcel Ophüls (GB/DE/US/FR) Munich in Jerusalem

ALKY ALKY by Axel Ranisch HEIL by Dietrich Brüggemann MY FRIEND RAFFI by Arend Agthe (also screening in JFF Kids) THE MEASURE by Alexander Costea TRENKER AND RIEFENSTAHL – A FINE LINE BETWEEN TRUTH AND GUILT by Wolgang Murnberger (DE/AT)

A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE

Docs

SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR by Roy Andersson (SE/FR/DE/DK) YOU, THE LIVING by Roy Andersson (SE/DE/FR/DK/NO/JP)

Cinemania

by Roy Andersson (SE/DE/FR/NO)

Intersections: Dreams Rewired

DREAMS REWIRED

by Martin Reinhardt, Thomas Tode & Manu Luksch (AT/DE)

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IRAQI ODYSSEY by Samir (CH/DE) FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER by Rüdiger Suchsland International Shorts

THE CHICKEN by Una Gunjak (DE/HR) PRIDE by Pavel G. Vesnakov (DE/BG)

July 10-11, 2015 Screen International at Jerusalem 9

Reviews Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com

The Lobster Reviewed by Lee Marshall

Trainwreck Reviewed by Tim Grierson Director Judd Apatow’s films often focus on men who have to learn to grow up, but with Trainwreck, it’s a lady’s turn. This very enjoyable romantic comedy is written by and stars Amy Schumer, a rising stand-up whose sharp Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer has made her one of the smartest new voices in comedy. Trainwreck will only add to her acclaim, casting her as a flailing, boozy serial dater who is quite comfortable avoiding a serious boyfriend until, predictably, she meets the perfect guy.

Before it loses steam in its third act, Trainwreck is a deft blend of laughs, romance and poignancy — not to mention one of Apatow’s most polished, mature works.

New York magazine writer Amy (Schumer) has learned from the divorce of her ailing father (Colin Quinn) when she was a girl that monogamy doesn’t work, setting her on a course of random hook-ups and dispassionate, fleeting relationships. But her no-attachments policy is challenged by Aaron (Bill Hader), a kindly sports physician she is supposed to be profiling.

Trainwreck features a few intriguing twists on the typical Apatow film. For the first time, he is not directing from his own script — and the action takes place in New York rather than Los Angeles. Those two distinctions might seem minor, but they invigorate the director, who has created a film that’s less flabby and self-indulgent than his most recent outing, This Is 40 (2012).

Perhaps most surprising, though, is what a strong performer Schumer proves to be. On her Comedy Central show, she is quite funny in short sketches, but here she gets the chance to play a multi-dimensional character.

The film’s first two acts are such an effervescent, spiky delight as Amy and Aaron begin their courtship that it’s disheartening to watch Trainwreck list somewhat in the final stretches. Apatow’s tight rein on the material starts to slip, as the characters behave oddly or meander down uninteresting digressions that stall the comedic momentum. It’s both a testament to and a criticism of Trainwreck that the film ends satisfactorily more because of how much we like the main characters than what Apatow and Schumer dream up for the overblown conclusion.

10 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10-11, 2015

Gala US. 2015. 125mins Director Judd Apatow Production company Apatow Productions Worldwide distribution Universal Pictures, www. universalpictures.com Producers Judd Apatow, Barry Mendel Executive producer David Householter Screenplay Amy Schumer Cinematography Jody Lee Lipes Production design Kevin Thompson Editors William Kerr, Paul Zucker Music Jon Brion Main cast Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, John Cena, Vanessa Bayer, Mike Birbiglia, Ezra Miller, Dave Attell, Tilda Swinton, LeBron James

After Dogtooth and Alps, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos and his regular screenwriter, Efthymis Filippou, continue to mine an absurdist seam of black comedy-drama in their first English-language outing. The budget boost and allstar cast has done nothing to dilute the trademark weirdness of the Hellenic duo, nor their penchant for stilted dialogue. What lifts The Lobster beyond such avant-garde theatrical mannerisms, most of the time, is the pathos that seeps through the film’s unsentimental facade and its sheer belief in the dystopian world it delivers, a world in which single people are changed into an animal of their choice if they fail to find a partner within 45 days.

Three recognisable but other-worldly settings are deployed in the course of the film: a hotel, a forest and a city. None are heaven or even quite hell, but it’s the hotel that comes closest to purgatory: presided over by a stern manageress (Olivia Colman), this is a last-chance saloon in the form of a fusty country-house resort on a rugged sea coast. We first see Colin Farrell’s sadsack David — with his moustache, round glasses and bouffant hairdo, he’s reminiscent of Ned Flanders, in appearance at least — checking in and leaving his personal possessions.

This is a world, perhaps a distorted mirror of our own increasingly superficial click-culture, in which people are known by their main traits. So Ben Whishaw plays a recently widowed man with a limp, John C Reilly a guy with a (hardly detectable) lisp, Jessica Barden a girl who suffers from nosebleeds and Ashley Jensen a needy woman, attracted to David, who likes butter biscuits.

The camera’s ironic detachment and the film’s sombre palette match the script’s gelid emotional tone. A soundtrack of brittle classical music brings the film’s edgy menace to the fore. But the most spot-on musical moment is when the hotel manageress and her portly partner croon a cheesy version of Gene Pitney’s Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart. It’s a song that celebrates the emotional catharsis of true love: an enduring myth that The Lobster puts under the magnifying glass — in the sun, until it starts to burn.

Gala Ire-UK-Fr-Greece-Neth.

2015. 118mins Director Yorgos Lanthimos Screenplay Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou Production companies Element Pictures, Scarlet Films, Faliro House, Lemming Film International sales Protagonist Pictures, vanessa@ protagonistpictures.com Producers Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Ceci Dempsey, Yorgos Lanthimos Cinematography Thimios Bakatakis Editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis Main cast Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Angeliki Papoulia, John C Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Michael Smiley, Ben Whishaw

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Screenings, page 12

Victoria

Panorama

Reviewed by Lee Marshall

Krisha Reviewed by Tim Grierson How do you solve a problem like Krisha? A jittery character drama that mixes tones and influences, the feature debut of writer-director-editor Trey Edward Shults does a very good job of finding fresh emotional terrain in what is a very familiar set-up: a Thanksgiving meal tormented by the family black sheep. Krisha is a little bit of Terrence Malick by way of John Cassavetes, with a dash of psychological horror thrown in for spice, but even when the film-making falters, Krisha Fairchild’s unsettlingly intense lead performance dominates the movie, leaving us feeling as captive as the character’s wary kin.

Featuring no stars and shot in a little over a week, Krisha is centred around the arrival of Krisha (Krisha Fairchild) at the house of her sister Robyn (Robyn Fairchild) for a Thanksgiving feast that will feature several generations of her family. The occasion isn’t entirely festive, though. Unspecified personal demons have plagued Krisha in the past, and now she is hoping to make amends. But there’s a palpable apprehension within the group, especially from her estranged son Trey (Shults).

Krisha is about a family in turmoil, and Shults (expanding on his 2014 short) has drawn inspiration from events in his own family. Further blurring the line between fact and fiction, his own aunt plays Krisha, and his mother portrays Robyn. Not surprisingly, then, the film can sometimes be hampered by a self-indulgent streak, as the expository dialogue between characters begins to resemble therapy sessions.

But Krisha’s occasional navel-gazing is mitigated by Krisha Fairchild’s raw performance. Recalling the strippedbare work of Gena Rowlands in her husband Cassavetes’ films, Fairchild constructs the character out of hints and dark asides. Eventually, we learn alcoholism forms part of Krisha’s problems, but the actress suggests unchecked mental and emotional issues could be factors, too. Krisha grumbles to herself, veers between sweetness and rancour, and sometimes slips into a melancholy funk. Brian McOmber’s anxious electronic score seems to be responding to Krisha’s fluctuating moods, which only complements the skittish, unpredictable performance.

www.screendaily.com

Debuts US. 2015. 81mins Director-screenwritereditor Trey Edward Shults Production company Hoody Boy Productions International sales Visit Films, info@visitfilms.com Producers Justin R Chan, Trey Edward Shults, Wilson Smith, Chase Joliet Cinematography Drew Daniels Music Brian McOmber Main cast Krisha Fairchild, Robyn Fairchild, Bill Wise, Chris Doubek, Olivia Grace Applegate, Alex Dobrenko, Chase Joliet, Trey Edward Shults

Looking for the editor credit? German director Sebastian Schipper’s fourth feature doesn’t have one: it was shot in a single take.

This story of a young Spanish girl getting more than she bargained for when she hooks up with four Berlin lads after a night spent clubbing has moments of real adrenalin and an engaging, if somewhat sentimental, view of proletarian male camaraderie — not to mention the buzz of a tender love story that (no mean feat) traces a reasonably satisfying dramatic arc in a little over two hours of real time.

It’s just a shame the story itself, once you clear away the one-take smokescreen, also feels like it was made up in a single session after a night spent clubbing. Particularly after the midway dramatic turning point, it stretches character credibility, and resorts too much to criminalunderworld cliché and the driving pace of its own perpetual motion, which curiously does nothing to paper over the longueurs in certain over-stretched sequences.

You come out on a high of sorts — but it soon fades.

Young Spanish talent Laia Costa puts in a livewire performance as Victoria, a vivacious twenty-something (though she looks younger) who meets four drunken lads, not the kind a girl alone might normally hook up with — but Victoria has a fearless streak. She also speaks no German, so they all converse in more or less broken English, with Victoria left out of the friends’ Berliner slang exchanges — a cause of tension when skinhead Boxer (Franz Rogowski) is asked to do a favour for a gangland boss straight from central casting, in return for the protection he enjoyed while in prison.

You have to admire the stamina of Norwegian cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grovlen, who gamely climbs stairs, gives chase and dives into cars as the action unfolds. But some of the best scenes are the quieter ones — such as the one set on an apartment rooftop where the four friends used to hang out, as young male group dynamics are subtly exposed by the intrusion of this smart and pretty girl.

Ger. 2015. 139mins Director Sebastian Schipper Production company MonkeyBoy, Deutschfilm, RadicalMedia, WDR, Arte International sales The Match Factory, info@ match-factory.de Producers Jan Dressler, Sebastian Schipper, Anatol Nitschke, Catherine Baikousis, David Keitsch Screenplay Sebastian Schipper, Olivia Neergaard-Holm Cinematography Sturla Brandth Grovlen Production designer Uli Friedrichs Music Nils Frahm Main cast Laia Costa, Frederik Lau, Franz Rogowski, Burak Yigit, Max Mauff

July 10-11, 2015 Screen International at Jerusalem 11

Screenings » Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press

94mins. Dir: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer.

This strikingly original documentary is a tribute to two women, past queens of society, who withdrew from the world to their decaying East Hampton mansion. A poetic, often comic evocation of two women who never stopped being themselves.

FRIDAY JULY 10 09:30 Out of Nature

(Norway) NDM. 80mins.

Dir: Ole Giaever, Marte Vold. Key cast: Ole Giaever, Marte Magnusdotter Solem, Sivert Giaever Solem, Rebekka Nystadbakk.

Thirty-year-old Martin feels stifled by life and decides to commune with nature. Over the course of one weekend on a lone hiking trip, he is forced to confront his lifestyle.

Winner of the Europa Cinemas Label award at Berlin Film Festival.

Albert Maysles Tribute Cinematheque 4

Friday 14:45 From Caligari to Hitler

Panorama Cinematheque 1

Friday 10:00 Lucifer

(Belgium/Mexico) NDM. 108mins. Dir: Gust Van Den Berghe. Key cast: Gabino Rodriguez, Norma Pablo, Maria Toral Acosta, Jeronimo Soto Bravo, Sergio Lazaro Cortez.

Lucifer passes through a small Mexican village and decides to toy with the life of a local family.

The first film to be shot in Tondoscope — a circular format developed by the director.

Panorama Cinematheque 3

Yolanda and the Thief

(US) Hollywood Classics.

108mins. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. Key cast: Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer, Frank Morgan.

Classic 1945 movie in which conman Johnny (Fred Astaire) poses as a guardian angel to steal the inheritance of Yolanda (Lucille Bremer), an innocent girl raised in a monastery and destined to inherit millions.

JFF Classics Cinematheque 2

Friday 10:15 Every Face has a Name

(Sweden) Rise and Shine.

76mins. Dir: Magnus Gertten.

On April 28, 1945, ferries carrying concentrationcamp survivors arrived

FRIDAY July 10 14:00 Mussa

(Israel) Drucker & Goren Media. 60mins.

Dir: Anat Goren.

Mussa, the son of African refugees, lives in the worst area of the city

in Malmo, Sweden. As the survivors took their first steps on shore, they were filmed by local news agencies. Seventy years later, they discover the images for the first time.

Jewish Experience Cinematheque 4

Friday 11:00 Return to Ithaca

(France, Belgium) Funny Balloons. 95mins. Dir: Laurent Cantet. Key cast: Sabel Santos, Jorge Perugorria, Fernando Hechevarria, Nestor Jimenez, Pedro Julio Diaz Ferran.

The latest film by Laurent Cantet (The Class) takes us to a balcony overlooking Havana, where a group of friends reunite for the first time in 16 years. This smart and poignant piece received the Venice Days award at Venice Film Festival.

Masters Lev Smadar

12 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10-11, 2015

but goes to school with wealthy kids. He speaks Hebrew but refuses to talk. His classmates and teachers have never heard his voice.

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 3

Friday 11:15 My Mother

(Italy, France) Films Distribution. 106mins.

Dir: Nanni Moretti. Key cast: Margherita Buy, John Turturro, Giulia Lazzarini, Nanni Moretti.

A famous Italian director tries to put up with an actor’s problematic temperament while at the same time her mother reaches the end of her life.

Gala Cinematheque 1

Friday 12:15 Cemetery of Splendour

(Malaysia/Thailand/ France/Germany/UK) Match Factory. 122mins.

Dir: Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Key cast: Jenjira Pongpas Widner, Jarinpattra Rueangram.

A volunteer arrives at a temporary clinic to take care of a soldier suffering from a mysterious sleeping sickness, and befriends

a young medium who uses her psychic powers to help her loved ones communicate with the comatose men.

Masters Cinematheque 2

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet

(US/France/Canada/ Lebanon/Qatar) Wild Bunch. 84mins. Dir: Roger Allers, Gaetan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Joan Gratz, Mohammed Saeed Harib, Tomm Moore, Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Joann Sfar, Michal Socha.

Key cast: Liam Neeson, Salma Hayek Pinault, John Krasinski, Frank Langella, Alfred Molina, John Rhys-Davies.

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet is brought to life in an amazing animated feature, the joint effort of 10 leading animators from across the world who have turned these classic texts into a thrilling adventure.

JFF Kids Cinematheque 3

Friday 13:00 Heil

(Germany) Beta Cinema.

104mins. Dir: Dietrich Bruggemann. Key cast: Benno Fürmann, Liv Lisa Fries, Jerry Hoffmann,

Jacob Matschenz, Daniel Zillmann, Oliver Bröcker.

Heil takes us to the fictional town of Prittwitz, where acclaimed AfricanGerman author Sebastian Klein is on tour promoting his latest book. After taking a blow to his head from the local neo-Nazis, Klein loses his memory and is brainwashed.

Munich in Jerusalem Lev Smadar

Friday 14:00 Mussa See box, above left

Tikkun

(Israel) Plan B Productions. 120mins.

Dir: Avishai Sivan. Key cast: Aharon Traitel, Khalifa Natour, Riki Blich, Gur Sheinberg.

A yeshiva student collapses and loses consciousness.

The paramedics announce his death but his father continues to administer CPR. Unexpectedly, the young man comes back to life. Seeing him changed, the father fears he crossed God’s will when he revived his son.

Israeli Features Cinematheque 1

Friday 14:15 Grey Gardens

(US) Maysles Films.

(Germany) Wide.

113mins. Dir: Rudiger Suchsland.

A spellbinding montage of segments from prominent films produced in the Weimar Republic brings to life Siegfried Kracauer’s 1947 thesis that German cinema of the two decades before the Second World War predicted the Nazi rise to power.

Cinemania Cinematheque 2

Friday 15:15 Listen Up Philip

(US) Match Factory.

108mins. Dir: Alex Ross Perry. Key cast: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Krysten Ritter, Josephine De La Baume.

Philip is awaiting the publication of his second novel. He is tired of the big city and his deteriorating relationship. When a successful writer offers the use of his summer home, Philip hopes to find the peace and quiet he requires. A witty comedy drama starring Jason Schwartzman and Elisabeth Moss.

Gala Lev Smadar

Friday 15:30 Victoria

(Germany) Match Factory. 140mins. Dir: Sebastian Schipper.

Key cast: Laia Costa, Eike Frederick Schulz, Frederik Lau, Burak Yigit, Franz Rogowski, Max Mauff.

In this stirring drama by www.screendaily.com

Further JFF coverage, see screendaily.com

to documentary filmmaking with a piercing yet humorous work about people, basements, and what people get up to in their basements.

Masters Cinematheque 3

Israeli Features Cinematheque 1

Friday 20:00

Friday July 10 14:00 We are young. We are strong.

(Germany) Beta Cinema. 116mins. Dir: Burhan Qurbani. Key cast: Devid Striesow, Jonas Nay, Trang Le Hong, Joel Basman, Saskia Rosendahl, Thorsten Merten.

Friday 17:30

Three characters provide three different perspectives on the violent riots that took place in the German city of Rostock in 1992 — the most violent xenophobic events witnessed in Germany since the war.

Gala Lev Smadar

The Duchess of Warsaw

Jeruzalem

(Israel) Paz Films.

89mins. Dir: Doron Paz, Yoav Paz. Key cast: Yael Grobglas, Yon Tumarkin, Tom Graziani, Danielle Jadelyn.

Two American girls follow a mysterious and handsome student to Jerusalem. The party is

Debuts Cinematheque 1

Paul Sharits

Masters Lev Smadar

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 2

(Canada) Francois Miron.

85mins. Dir: Francois Miron.

A documentary on the life and work of legendary avant-garde artist Paul Sharits (1943-93), who revolutionised the art world and experimental cinema through his innovative, complex film installations, which continue to provoke and inspire to this day.

www.screendaily.com

(Bulgaria/Greece) Wide.

107mins. Dir: Petar Valchanov, Kristina Grozeva. Key cast: Margita Gosheva, Ivan Burnev, Ivan Savov, Deya Todorova, Stefan Denolyubov.

A decent, hardworking schoolteacher finds herself in terrible economic trouble and has to go to great lengths to survive.

This realistic piece, inspired by the Dardenne brothers, won the newdirector award at San Sebastian Film Festival.

See box, below

Panorama Cinematheque 3

Krisha

The Lesson

The Assassin

winner of the SXSW grand jury award and was screened at Cannes Film Festival.

(US) Visit Films.

83mins. Dir: Trey Edward Shults. Key cast: Krisha Fairchild, Robyn Fairchild, Bill Wise, Chris Doubek, Olivia Grace Applegate, Alex Dobrenko, Trey Edward Shults.

After years of absence, Krisha is reunited with her relatives on Thanksgiving.

This is her opportunity to prove that she has changed. But things soon go awry. Krisha was the

Grandma

(US) Sony. 80mins. Dir: Paul Weitz. Key cast: Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden, Judy Greer.

A renowned and sharptongued woman sets out to help her granddaughter raise $600 for an abortion. The search for cash stirs up old secrets.

This moving comedy features a brilliant performance by Lily Tomlin.

(Hong Kong/France/ China/Taiwan) Wild Bunch. 105mins. Dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Key cast: Shu Qi, Cheng Chang, Tsumabuki Satoshi.

In ninth-century China, a skilled assassin must choose whether to sacrifice her past lover or abandon her life as a mercenary.

The latest film by Chinese master Hou Hsiao-Hsien is a spectacularly beautiful epic that garnered rave reviews and the best director award at Cannes.

Sebastian Schipper, shot in a single long take, a young woman from Madrid joins four guys for a night out in Berlin. What starts out as a fun outing quickly gets out of control. Winner of Berlin’s Silver Bear.

Friday 16:30

Friday 18:30

JFF Docs Cinematheque 4

Friday 17:15 We are young. We are strong.

See box, above

In the Basement

(Austria) Coproduction Office. 81mins. Dir: Ulrich Seidl.

After completing his exemplary Paradise trilogy, Austrian master Ulrich Seidl returns

cut short when the trio are caught in the middle of a biblical apocalypse.

Trapped between the ancient walls of the Holy City, they must find a way out.

Debuts Cinematheque 2

Friday 20:30 This is Orson Welles

(France) Poorhouse International. 53mins.

Dir: Clara Kuperberg, Julia Kuperberg.

This new documentary, screened as part of the »

Friday 18:15 In the Shadow of Women

(France) Wild Bunch.

73mins. Dir: Philippe Garrel. Key cast: Clotilde Courau, Stanislas Merhar, Lena Paugam.

Film great Philippe Garrel proves that the New Wave is still alive and kicking in this witty comic drama about a love triangle in Paris. An investigation into the demise and death of relationships and the mysterious ways of passion.

Masters Cinematheque 1

Friday July 10 18:30 The Duchess of Warsaw

(France) Caravan Pass. 86mins.

Dir: Joseph Morder. Key cast: Alexandra Stewart, Andy Gillet.

Valentin, a young painter, meets up with his grandmother Nina, who refuses

to reveal her painful past. Together, they wander the streets of a fantasy version of Paris. Once Nina is able to let go, Valentin reconnects with his artistic inspiration.

Jewish Experience Cinematheque 4

July 10-11, 2015 Screen International at Jerusalem 13

Screenings

decides to commune with nature. Over the course of one weekend on a lone hiking trip, he is forced to confront his lifestyle.

A sharp comic drama, winner of the Europa Cinemas Label award at Berlin Film Festival.

Panorama Lev Smadar

SATURDAY 12:00 600 Miles

Friday July 10 21:45 Fassbinder — to Love Without Demands

(Denmark) Kollektiv Film. 105mins.

Dir: Christian Braad Thomsen.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was one of the most influential and fascinating European

Orson Welles centennial celebration at Cannes, includes a rare interview with the legendary director and challenges the idea that his post-Citizen Kane career headed downwards.

Cinemania Cinematheque 4

Friday 20:45 The Lobster

(France/UK/ Netherlands/Ireland/ Greece) Protagonist Pictures. 118mins. Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos. Key cast: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Lea Seydoux, John C Reilly, Ben Whishaw, Jessica Barden.

Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos delivers an English-language film, starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz, which won the jury prize at Cannes.

The plot revolves around a man who is forced to stay at a special hotel and try to find a suitable match,

directors until his premature death at the age of 37. This documentary reveals a newly discovered series of interviews with Fassbinder and provides an emotional portrait of the man and his work.

Cinemania Cinematheque 4

lest he be turned into a lobster.

Panorama Cinematheque 3

Friday 21:45 Fassbinder — to Love Without Demands See box, above

The Second Mother

(Brazil) Match Factory.

114mins. Dir: Anna Muylaert. Key cast: Regina Casé, Michel Joelsas, Camila Mardila, Karine Teles.

Val works as a housekeeper for a wealthy family. When her daughter comes for a visit, the rigid and unspoken equilibrium between master and servant becomes unbalanced.

Winner of the special jury prize at Sundance and the audience award at Berlin’s Panorama.

Panorama Lev Smadar

14 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10-11, 2015

Friday 22:15 Court

(India) Memento Films.

116mins. Dir: Chaitanya Tamhane. Key cast: Vira Sathidar, Vivek Gomber, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Pradeep Joshi, Usha Bane, Shirish Pawar.

An ageing singer is accused of inciting a sewage worker to commit suicide. This false allegation unfolds in the courtroom. A brilliant first feature that won two awards at Venice.

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 2

Trainwreck

94mins. Dir: Jeremy Saulnier. Key cast: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner.

The new film by Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin) traps four members of a punk-rock band in an isolated venue after witnessing an atrocious act of violence. They must fight for their lives against a gang of Neo-Nazis determined to leave no witnesses.

113mins. Dir: Rudiger Suchsland.

A spellbinding montage of segments from prominent films produced in the Weimar Republic brings to life Siegfried Kracauer’s 1947 thesis that German cinema of the two decades before the Second World War predicted the Nazi rise to power.

Into the Night Cinematheque 3

(Canada) Maysles Films.

56mins. Dir: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin.

The Maysles brothers follow artists Christo and Jean-Claude as they overcame local resistance to realise their ‘Surrounded Islands’ dream — a grandiose project that surrounded 11 islands with floating pink fabric woven from polypropylene.

Saturday July 11

(US) Globus Max. 122mins. Dir: Judd Apatow. Key cast: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, Vanessa Bayer, Tilda Swinton.

A thirty-something writer, who is sure monogamy is impractical and who leads a life free from commitment, has to deal with relationship anxiety when she meets a new man. Amy Schumer stars in this comedy by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up).

(France, UK) Forum Film. 85mins. Dir: Mark Burton, Richard Starzak.

When Shaun decides to take the day off, he gets a little more than he bargained for. A terrible mistake brings him and his flock to the city, as they attempt to save the farmer and bring him home.

A delightful animated masterpiece by the creators of Wallace and Gromit.

Gala Cinematheque 1

JFF Kids Cinematheque 1

Friday 23:00

10:00 Shaun the Sheep Movie

SATURDAY 10:30

Green Room

From Caligari to Hitler

(US) WestEnd Films.

(Germany) Wide.

Cinemania Cinematheque 3

SATURDAY 11:00 Islands

Albert Maysles Tribute Cinematheque 4

Out of Nature

(Norway) NDM. 80mins.

Dir: Ole Giaever, Marte Vold. Key cast: Ole Giaever, Marte Magnusdotter Solem, Sivert Giaever Solem, Rebekka Nystadbakk.

Thirty-year-old Martin feels stifled by his life and

(US/Mexico) NDM. 85mins. Dir: Gabriel Ripstein. Key cast: Tim Roth, Kristyan Ferrer, Harrison Thomas, Noé Hernendez, Monica del Carmen, Armando Hernandez.

Tim Roth stars as an ATF agent tracking a young Mexican gun smuggler from Arizona to Mexico.

One fatal mistake puts him and the smuggler in the midst of Mexico’s dangerous and complex underworld.

Debuts Cinematheque 1

SATURDAY 12:30 The Pearl Button

(France/Spain/Chile) Pyramide International.

82mins. Dir: Patricio Guzman.

Patricio Guzman, one of the great documentary film-makers of his generation, deals with one of the most difficult and painful chapters in Chilean history through a key natural resource of his homeland — water.

Winner of best script prize at the Berlinale.

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 2

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

(US) PBS. 240mins.

Dir: Ken Burns.

Ken Burns (The War) presents a new documentary series on Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt — three members of the most prominent and influential family in US political history. Screening of episodes one and five.

JFF Docs Cinematheque 4

SATURDAY 12:45 The Diary of a Teenage Girl

(US) K5 International. www.screendaily.com

102mins. Dir: Marielle Heller. Key cast: Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgard, Christopher Meloni, Kristen Wiig.

In 1970s San Francisco, an artistic teenage girl finds herself involved in a passionate affair with her mother’s partner.

This award-winning film combines live action and animation.

The new film from acclaimed Chinese director Jia Zhangke (A Touch Of Sin, Still Life) spans 25 years and two continents, recounting the story of two families whose lives are thrown into a spin by modern China’s economic boom.

Gala Lev Smadar

Tikkun

SATURDAY 13:00 Land and Shade

(France/Brazil/ Netherlands/Chile/ Colombia) Pyramide International. 97mins.

Dir: Cesar Acevedo.

Key cast: Haimer Leal, Hilda Ruiz, Edison Raigosa, Marleyda Soto, José Felipe Cardenas.

After a 17-year-absence, Alfonso returns to the place where the woman who was once his wife still lives, along with his son, daughter-in-law and grandson. A beautiful first feature that won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes Film Festival.

Debuts Cinematheque 3

SATURDAY 14:15 Ulrich Seidl — A Director at Work

(Austria/Germany) Navigator Film. 52mins.

Dir: Constantin Wulff.

A new documentary presenting acclaimed Austrian director Ulrich Seidl behind the scenes.

It follows the shooting of his new film In The Basement (also screening here at the festival).

Interviews and excerpts are interwoven to paint a portrait of a fascinating and exceptional artist.

Cinemania Cinematheque 2

SATURDAY 14:30 A Pigeon sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence See box, above right

SATURDAY 15:00 Mountains May Depart

(Japan/France/China) MK2. 120mins. Dir: Jia Zhangke. Key cast: Zhao Tao, Zhang Yi, Liang Jin Dong, Dong Zijian, Sylvia Chang, Han Sanming. www.screendaily.com

Masters Lev Smadar

(Israel) Plan B Productions. 120mins.

Dir: Avishai Sivan. Key cast: Aharon Traitel, Khalifa Natour, Riki Blich, Gur Sheinberg.

A yeshiva student collapses and loses consciousness.

The paramedics announce his death but his father continues to administer CPR. Unexpectedly, the young man comes back to life. Seeing him changed, the father fears he crossed God’s will when he revived his son.

Israeli Features Cinematheque 3

SATURDAY 16:00 The Forbidden Room

(Canada) Mongrel.

128mins. Dir: Guy Maddin. Key cast: Roy Dupuis, Clara Furey, Louis Negin, Celine Bonnier, Karine Vanasse, Caroline Dhavernas, Paul Ahmarani, Mathieu Amalric, Udo Kier, Charlotte Rampling, Geraldine Chaplin.

An ode to the films of the silent era and an erotic, kaleidoscopic symphony that takes us sky-high, down to the depths and around the world, creating a unique, multilayered viewing experience.

SATURDAY July 11 14:30 A Pigeon sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

(France/Germany/ Sweden/Norway) Coproduction Office.

100mins. Dir: Roy Andersson. Key cast: Holger Andersson, Nils Westblom, Charlotta Larsson, Viktor Gyllenberg , Lotti Törnros, Jonas Gerholm.

The third film in Roy Andersson’s trilogy on human existence is a masterpiece centred on two salesmen who take a surreal and kaleidoscopic voyage. Winner of the Golden Lion at the most recent Venice Film Festival.

Andersson Trilogy Cinematheque 1

this year with this highly praised film.

Masters Cinematheque 1

SATURDAY 17:30 Love and Mercy

(US) United King.

120mins. Dir: Bill Pohlad.

Key cast: John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Giamatti.

Brian Wilson was the legendary musician behind one of the most successful bands of all time, The Beach Boys. A fascinating portrait of a musical genius and the suffering behind his work. John Cusack and Paul Dano star as Wilson.

Gala Lev Smadar

Pennies

(Israel) Badran Badran.

50mins. Dir: Badran Badran.

Instead of going to school, two kids from Tul-Karem have no alternative but to work in Israel as street beggars. While Hamam tries to avoid hard work and instead just wants to play, his elder brother

Yichia is dreaming about a better life.

Israeli Docs Cinematheque 3

SATURDAY 18:30 Song of My Mother

(France/Germany/ Turkey) Pascale Ramonda. 103mins.

Dir: Erol Mintas. Key cast: Feyyaz Duman,

»

Masters Cinematheque 2

SATURDAY 17:00 Invasion See box, right

My Golden Years

(France) Wild Bunch.

123mins. Dir: Arnaud Desplechin. Key cast: Quentin Dolmaire, Lou Roy-Lecollinet, Mathieu Amalric.

Paul (Mathieu Amalric) returns to Paris after years in Tajikistan. Arnaud Desplechin (A Christmas Tale) returned to Cannes

SATURDAY July 11 17:00 Invasion

(Argentina/Panama) Cinephil.

93mins. Dir: Abner Benaim.

The 1989 US invasion of Panama

is the point of departure for this documentary, which seeks to examine the way people remember, change, and forget their own past in order to redefine their

identity. Invasion was the winner of the grand jury award at Miami Film Festival.

JFF Docs Cinematheque 4

July 10-11, 2015 Screen International at Jerusalem 15

Screenings

Saturday July 11 Zubeyde Ronahi, Nesrin Cavadzade, Aziz Capkurt.

When gentrification drives Ali and his mother out of their Kurdish neighbourhood in Istanbul, they move to the city’s outskirts. The mother yearns for her village and sets out in search of it every morning. Winner of the grand prix at Sarajevo Film Festival.

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 2

SATURDAY 19:00 Ixcanul Volcano

(France/Guatemala) Film Factory. 91mins.

Dir: Jayro Bustamante.

Key cast: Maria Mercedes Croy, Maria Telon, Manuel Antun, Justo Lorenzo.

Maria, a Mayan girl, lives on the slopes of a volcano and dreams of discovering the big world beyond.

Unexpected circumstances will lead her to the big city. This spectacular and moving piece won the Silver Bear at Berlin Film Festival.

Debuts Cinematheque 3

SATURDAY 19:15 Gimme Shelter

(US) Maysles Films.

91mins. Dir: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin.

21:45 Amy

(UK) Lev Films.

128mins. Dir: Asif Kapadia.

This new documentary offers a close look at the life, success and tragic death, at 27, of UK soul singer Amy

In 1969, the Maysles brothers followed the Rolling Stones on tour, when a fan was stabbed to death by a member of the Hells Angels. If Woodstock represented the period’s utopia, this film represents its darker side and the event that heralded its end.

Albert Maysles Tribute Cinematheque 4

SATURDAY 19:45 Sand Dollars

(Argentina/Mexico/ Dominican Republic) FiGa Films. 85mins. Dir: Laura Amelia Guzman, Israel Cardenas. Key cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Yanet Mojica, Ricardo Ariel Toribio.

A wealthy European woman living by the breathtaking beaches of the Dominican Republic falls in love with a local girl. This moving drama, starring Geraldine Chaplin, premiered at

16 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10-11, 2015

Winehouse. Interviews and previously unseen archival footage expose the unique personality of this rare musician, who collapsed under the eyes of her millions of fans and invasive media.

Gala Cinematheque 1

Toronto International Film Festival.

Panorama Lev Smadar

SATURDAY 20:30 Iris

(US) Magnolia Pictures.

80mins. Dir: Albert Maysles.

The last film presented by Albert Maysles prior to his death follows Iris Apfel, the flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has enjoyed imperial status in the New York fashion scene for decades.

Albert Maysles Tribute Cinematheque 2

SATURDAY 21:00 Of Men and War

(France/Switzerland) CAT&Docs. 142mins.

Dir: Laurent BecueRenard.

Years after coming home, soldiers still struggle with trauma from the Iraqi battlefield. Will a

unique therapy succeed in putting an end to their torment? A documentary masterpiece that won the first prize at IDFA documentary festival.

JFF Docs Cinematheque 4

SATURDAY 21:30 Thru You Princess

(Israel) First Hand Films.

78mins. Dir: Ido Haar.

Thru You Princess follows composer and video artist Kutiman and some musicians from around the world, who are not aware that Kutiman is creating his new music from their musical web clips. Everyone hails from a different background, culture and country but all share a mutual musical vision.

Israeli Docs Cinematheque 3

SATURDAY 21:45 Amy See box, above

I Smile Back

(US) Visit Films. 85mins.

Dir: Adam Salky. Key cast: Sarah Silverman, Josh Charles, Thomas Sadoski, Mia Barron, Terry Kinney, Chris Sarandon.

A suburban housewife struggles to keep her family together as

her secret life of drugs, alcohol and infidelity spirals out of control.

Comic Sarah Silverman reinvents herself as a dramatic actress in this career-defining, intensely layered and heartbreaking role.

Gala Lev Smadar

SATURDAY 22:15 The Club

The mother of 10-yearold twins returns to their secluded family house following plastic surgery.

The bandages covering her head and her distant behaviour lead the children to suspect that she is not their real mother. A brilliant horror film.

Into the Night Cinematheque 3

Sunday July 12

(Chile) Funny Balloons.

97mins. Dir: Pablo Larrain. Key cast: Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farias, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell, Alejandro Goic, Alejandro Sieveking, Marcelo Alonso, Jose Soza, Francisco Reyes.

Four priests sent to live in isolation face the arrival of a special church adviser, who brings along the past they thought they had left behind. Winner of Berlin Film Festival’s grand jury prize.

(US/France) Doc & Film.

174mins. Dir: Frederick Wiseman.

Documentary legend Frederick Wiseman takes us behind the scenes of London’s National Gallery, in a journey to the heart of a museum filled with masterpieces of western art. A fascinating mosaic of one of the world’s most significant art venues.

Panorama Cinematheque 2

Masters Cinematheque 2

SATURDAY 23:15

10:15 National Gallery

Sunday 11:00

Goodnight Mommy

Thru You Princess

(Austria) Films Distribution. 99mins.

Dir: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala. Key cast: Susanne Wuest, Lukas Schwarz, Elias Schwarz, Hans Escher, Elfriede Schatz.

(Israel) First Hand Films.

78mins. Dir: Ido Haar.

Israeli Docs Cinematheque 3

When Marnie Was There

(Japan) Wild Bunch.

103mins. Dir: Hiromasa www.screendaily.com

Yonebayashi. Key cast: Sara Takatsuki, Kasumi Arimura, Nanako Matsushima, Susumu Terajima.

The latest animated film from the renowned Studio Ghibli tells the story of a young girl sent to the coast to improve her health. There she meets a mysterious blonde girl and the two form a deep friendship, unravelling each other’s pasts.

JFF Kids Lev Smadar

Sunday 12:45 Dreams Rewired

(Austria/Germany/UK) Amour Fou. 85mins. Dir: Manu Luksch, Martin Reinhart, Thomas Tode.

Dreams Rewired traces the desires and anxieties of today’s hyper-connected world back to the days when the telephone, film and television were still new and exciting inventions. Rare archival materials and a brilliant text narrated by Tilda Swinton are interwoven into a fascinating cinematic essay.

Intersections Cinematheque 3

We are young. We are strong.

(Germany) Beta Cinema.

116mins. Dir: Burhan Qurbani. Key cast: Devid Striesow, Jonas Nay, Trang Le Hong, Joel Basman, Saskia Rosendahl, Thorsten Merten.

Three characters provide three different perspectives on the violent riots that took place in the German city of Rostock in 1992 — the most violent xenophobic events witnessed by Germany since the end of the Second World War. This fascinating feature was developed in the Jerusalem International Film Lab.

Umrika, winner of the Sundance Audience Award, is a captivating comedy drama about a young man from a remote Indian village whose brother left home for the US. After several years he starts to suspect his brother’s letters are not coming from the US after all.

Gala Lev Smadar

Sunday 13:45 Pennies

(Israel) Badran Badran.

50mins. Dir: Badran Badran.

Instead of going to school, two kids from Tul-Karem have no alternative but to work in Israel as street beggars. While Hamam tries to avoid hard work and instead just wants to play, his elder brother Yichia is dreaming about a better life.

Israeli Docs Cinematheque 3

Sunday 15:00 Corpo Celeste

(Italy) Rai. 100mins.

Dir: Alice Rohrwacher.

Key cast: Yile Vianello, Salvatore Cantalupo, Pasqualina Scuncia, Anita Caprioli, Renato Carpentieri.

Thirteen-year-old Marta and her family move back to Italy. She finds it hard to acclimatise and challenges the indifference of grown-ups and the hypocrisy of the church.

This is a special screening in the presence of the film’s director, Alice Rohrwacher.

Panorama Cinematheque 3

Sunday 15:15 Alky Alky See box, below

Trenker and Riefenstahl — A Fine Line Between Truth and Guilt

(Austria/Germany) Beta

SUnday July 12 15:15 Alky Alky

(Germany) 102mins.

Dir: Axel Ranisch. Key cast: Heiko Pinkowski, Peter Trabner, Christina Grosse, Thorsten Merten, Robert Gwisdek.

Tobias and Flasche live like two teenagers —

partying, boozing and self-destructing. The problem is that Tobias is already in his mid-40s with a wife and children.

He understands this friendship is no longer good for him, but it may be too late…

Munich in Jerusalem Cinematheque 2

Cinema. 89mins. Dir: Wolfgang Murnberger.

Key cast: Tobias Moretti, Brigitte Hobmeier, Anatole Taubman, Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey, Barbara Romaner.

The true story of two artists in service of the Nazis. It examines mountaineer, director and screen idol Luis Trenker and director Leni Riefenstahl, from their brief romance, through ruthless competition, to their backing by Hitler and Goebbels.

Munich in Jerusalem Lev Smadar

Sunday 15:30 Greenery Will Bloom Again

(Italy) Rai. 80mins. Dir: Ermanno Olmi. Key cast: Claudio Santamaria, Alessandro Sperduti, Francesco Formichetti, Andrea Di Maria.

The new film from Italian master Ermanno Olmi (The Tree Of Wooden Clogs) is a poetic piece about the futility of war, depicting one night in the life of a group of soldiers stationed at the front lines on the Italian Alps during the First World War. Masters Cinematheque 1

Sunday 17:30 Imperial Dreams

(US) CAA. 87mins.

Dir: Malik Vitthal. Key cast: John Boyega, Glenn Plummer, Rotimi Akinosho, De’aundre Bonds, Anika Noni Rose.

A 21-year-old’s family and future are tested when he is released from prison.

He returns to the crimeinfested streets of Los Angeles and gets back in touch with the gang that led to his incarceration.

An award-winning feature developed in the Jerusalem Film Lab. Panorama Lev Smadar No Hebrew subtitles

The President

(France/Germany/UK/ Georgia) BAC Films.

105mins. Dir: Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Key cast: Misha Gomiashvili, Dachi Orvelashvili.

When a tyrannical president is overthrown by a sudden uprising, the dictator is turned into a fugitive. He and his grandson escape disguised as commoners and witness all of the suffering and hardship caused by their regime.

Masters Cinematheque 1

Vita Activa, The Spirit of Hannah Arendt

(Israel/Canada) Go2Films. 125mins.

Dir: Ada Ushpiz.

A personal spiritual

biography of the Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt. The movie tracks the connections between her life story and her thinking, through rare archives demonstrating the banality of evil. Her ideas on the nature of evil, pluralism and freedom are relevant today more than ever.

Israeli Docs Cinematheque 3

Sunday 17:45 The Measure

(Germany) 93mins.

Dir: Alexander Costea.

Key cast: Max Wagner, Aljoscha Stadelmann, Anna Grisebach, Thomas Limpinsel, Gerhard Jilka.

Police detective Roland Prengler goes undercover in the small town of Ahndorf to investigate a murder case that has baffled local officials for some time.

Munich in Jerusalem Cinematheque 2

Sunday 19:45 Run

(France, Ivory Coast) BAC Films. 100mins.

Dir: Philippe Lacote.

Key cast: Abdoul Karim Konaté, Isaach De Bankolé, Abdoul Bah, Reine Sali Coulibaly.

Run is running away.

He has just killed his country’s prime minister.

His life returns to him »

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 1

Sunday 13:15 Umrika

(India) New Cinema.

100mins. Dir: Prashant Nair. Key cast: Suraj Sharma, Tony Revolori, Smita Tambe, Adil Hussain, Rajesh Tailang, Prateik Babbar. www.screendaily.com

July 10-11, 2015 Screen International at Jerusalem 17

Screenings

Jerusalem Cinemateque, 11 Hebron Rd, Jerusalem, 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 7921 711 108 Production editor Mark Mowbray, mark. mowbray@screendaily.com, +44 7710 124 065 Sub editors Jon Lysons, Richard Young

Sunday July 12 20:00 A.K.A. Nadia

(Israel, UK) 2-Team Productions. 115mins.

Dir: Tova Ascher. Key cast: Neta Shpigelman, Oded Leopold, Ali Suliman, Eli KerenAssaf, Ruba Blal-Asfour, Naama Amit, John Hurt.

More than 20 years

in flashes: his childhood with master Tourou, when he dreamed of becoming a rainmaker, his adventures with Greedy Gladys, and his past during the Ivory Coast’s military conflict.

Panorama Lev Smadar

Sunday 20:00 A.K.A. Nadia See box, above

The Experimental Cinema and Video Art Competition

(Israel) Intersections Cinematheque 2

Ingrid Bergman — In Her Own Words

(Sweden) TrustNordisk.

114mins. Dir: Stig Björkman.

Never-before-seen personal materials such as photographs, notes, letters, private footage, diaries and interviews

after leaving behind her Arab identity, Maya’s past awakens. Now she is about to find out if, in a society that can’t forgive outsiders for their otherness, there is room for the life she has built herself.

Israeli Features Cinematheque 1

with her children create this personal and daring cinematic portrait of Ingrid Bergman.

Sunday 22:00 A Corner of Heaven

(China/France) Pascale Ramonda. 94mins. Dir: Miaoyan Zhang. Key cast: Guo Xinjiang, Huo Xuehui, Bai Haonan.

A young boy sets out to find his mother and ends up on a long journey through modern-day China’s apocalyptic polluted landscapes, modern slavery and gangs. Chinese director Zhang Miaoyan presents

a spectacular and poetic film with a strong social message.

Spirit of Freedom Cinematheque 2

Eden

(France) Kinology.

131mins. Dir: Mia Hansen-Love. Key cast: Felix De Givry, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne, Greta Gerwig, Golshifteh Farahani, Laura Smet.

In 1990s Paris, a young man forms an electronic

music ensemble and is sucked deep into the euphoria offered by fame, which turns out to be shorter-lived than expected.

This is acclaimed director Mia Hansen-Love’s treatment of her brother’s true story, told against the backgdrop of the French house-music scene.

Panorama Lev Smadar

Sunday 22:30

Gunter Zerbich, gunter. zerbich@screendaily.com, +44 7540 100 254 Commercial director Nadia Romdhani, nadia. romdhani@screendaily.com, +44 20 8102 0881 Sales manager Scott Benfold, scott.benfold@ screendaily.com, +44 20 8102 0813 Production manager Jonathon Cooke, jonathon. cooke@mb-insight.com,

Magical Girl

18 Screen International at Jerusalem July 10-11, 2015

consultant

See box, below

Sunday 21:45

Panorama Cinematheque 3

International sales

Ned Rifle

Cinemania Cinematheque 3

(France/Spain) Films Distribution. 127mins.

Dir: Carlos Vermut.

Key cast: Jose Sacristan, Barbara Lennie, Luis Bermejo, Israel Elejalde, Lucia Pollan, Elisabet Gelabert.

Luis will do anything to fulfil the last wish of his daughter, who has leukaemia. He is about to cross paths with an unstable woman and a retired teacher who cannot escape his past.

This complex piece won the Golden Shell and best director prizes at San Sebastian Film Festival.

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SUNDAY JULY 12 22:30 Ned Rifle

(US) Possible Films.

85mins. Dir: Hal Hartley. Key cast: Liam Aiken, Martin Donovan,

service

Aubrey Plaza, Parker Posey, Thomas Jay Ryan, James Urbaniak.

In the final chapter in independent film maestro Hal Hartley’s tragicomic

trilogy, Ned sets out to find and kill his father for destroying his mother’s life.

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Masters Cinematheque 1

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THE ISRAEL FILM FUND CONGRATULATES THE 32ND JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL

ISRAEL FILM FUND www.filmfund.org.il

Ministry of Culture and Sport