israeli films – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

LET IT BE MORNING – Review by Diane Carson

January 31, 2023February 5, 2023 Diane Carson Best Foreign Language Feature Film Oscar, Eran Kolirin, israeli films, Let It Be Morning, Sayed Kashua

Let It Be Morning finds Palestinian Arabs caught in a state of siege. True to his familial Palestinian responsibility, Jerusalem based IT employee Sami returns to his small Arab village near the West Bank to attend his younger brother’s wedding. What follows in the narrative of Let It Be Morning unnerves, frustrates, and angers the Palestinians, baring the political and psychological tension of Israeli-Palestinian relationships, within Sami’s family, and throughout the community.

Reviews

ALL EYES OFF ME – Review by Jennifer Green

January 11, 2023January 12, 2023 Jennifer Green All Eyes Off Me, Elisheva Weil, Hadar Katz, Hadas Ben Aroya, israeli films, Lieb Lev Levin, Meidan Arama

The Israeli feature All Eyes Off Me feels like a very personal film. It might even blur some lines between fiction and reality. Writer-director Hadas Ben Aroya and cinematographer Meidan Arama take us up extremely close on a handful of Tel Aviv twenty-somethings as they talk about their lives, make love and party. The film is also ostensibly about intimacy. However, it feels like a superficial intimacy based mostly on physical connection. We learn little about the characters’ lives, feelings and motivations. The endeavor leaves you a little empty as a result.

Reviews

GOD OF THE PIANO – Review by April Neale

September 10, 2020September 14, 2020 April Neale 0 Comments god of the piano, israeli films, itay tal, Naama Preis

True horror does not need prosthetic makeup. Nor does it need portentous music nor shadowy darkness. It can happen in broad daylight in sunny Israel, where one woman takes it upon herself to alter the fate of many people by her shocking clandestine actions, hoping to change the fate of her infant son.

Reviews

INCITEMENT – Review by Diane Carson

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020 Diane Carson 0 Comments incitement, israeli films, truth-based, Yaron Zilberman, Yigal Amir, Yitzhak Rabin

Israeli director/co-writer Yaron Zilberman begins his film Incitement with news footage of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat with U.S. President Bill Clinton in the White House rose garden announcing the 1993 Oslo I Accord. Addressing Israeli Palestinian relations and hopes for peace, this official Declaration of Principles was a monumental event provoking a distressing aftermath.

Reviews

TEL AVIV ON FIRE – Review by Diane Carson

August 7, 2019August 9, 2019 Diane Carson 0 Comments israeli films, Sameh Zoabi, tel aviv on fire

Comedy is always a finely tuned art form. Co-writer/director Zoabi uses it here with a delicate, albeit absurdist approach that deftly takes on this impossibly challenging world. The music helps enormously to establish the melodramatic ambiance, sufficiently distant from the real, embattled one to permit laughter. Technically, the acting, the pace, the compositions, and the flirting with farce—all these make me wish that, as here, the real world could be changed by a facetious fictional one.

Movie of the Week Reviews

MOVIE OF THE WEEK March 29, 2019: WORKING WOMAN

March 24, 2019March 25, 2019 Jennifer Merin 0 Comments betsy bozdech, Cate Marquis, israeli films, Liron Ben-Shlush, liz whittemore, loren king, Marilyn Ferdinand., michal aviad, motw, Movie of the Week, Pam Grady, Sheila Roberts, susan wloszczyna, working women

Timely and authentic, Michal Aviad’s drama “Working Woman” will resonate with any ambitious woman who’s ever found that success on the job is accompanied by unwanted sexual attention from a male supervisor/co-worker. So, you know, every ambitious woman.

Reviews

WORKING WOMAN – Review by Loren King

March 21, 2019March 24, 2019 Loren King 0 Comments israeli films, Liron Ben-Shlush, michal aviad, motw, Movie of the Week, working woman

This quiet, powerful drama about one woman’s experience with sexual harassment in the workplace eloquently details its insidiousness and why such behavior is so destructive to a woman’s career and self-esteem.

Reviews

WORKING WOMAN – Review by Susan Wloszczyna

March 20, 2019March 24, 2019 awfj-admin 0 Comments israeli films, Liron Ben-Shlush, michal aviad, motw, Movie of the Week, working woman

Working Woman is a far cry from the comedic and celebratory Working Girl from the ‘90s, with Melanie Griffith’s secretary

Reviews

WORKING WOMAN – Review by Cate Marquis

March 20, 2019March 24, 2019 Cate Marquis 0 Comments israeli films, Liron Ben-Shlush, michal aviad, motw, Movie of the Week, working woman

In the compelling drama Working Womana young Israeli woman’s joy at being offered a promising career opportunity changes when she learns that sexual harassment is part of the price.

Reviews

THE GOLEM – Review by Susan Granger

March 4, 2019 Susan Granger 0 Comments doron paz, horror, israeli films, the golem, yoav paz

Delving deep into Jewish folklore, this saga begins with a brief prologue in Prague, showing a young girl, Perla, watching a rabbi grappling with the monstrous golem he created. Then it’s 1673 in a Lithuanian shtetl, where Hanna ), whose only son Josef died seven years ago, regularly eavesdrops on rabbinical meetings and is secretly studying Kabbalah.

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