FAU Presents Israel Film Week
Boca Raton, FL – Florida Atlantic’s Jewish Studies program in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters presents Israel Film Week from Tuesday, Jan. 30 through Tuesday, April 9. Films take place at the former Living Room Theatres movie theaters on FAU’s Boca Raton campus at 777 Glades Road. Entry is free but registration is required for each film at the links below.
- Tuesday, Jan. 30, 5 pm
Nini (1962)
Registration: Nini (1962) (google.com)
When a boy from Tel Aviv falls in love with a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, a non-Jewish girl from Jaffa, he has to decide whether he can give up his friends, his community and his playboy lifestyle. A special jazz soundtrack was written for the film. Banned by the sensors, officially for its risqué imagery – its lack of Zionist messaging may have been too much for the authorities in 1962. See this vintage film starring a young Arik Einstein, and hear about its surprising history with Professor Rachel Harris.
- Tuesday, Feb. 6, 5 pm
My Boss Charlie (2023)
Registration: My Boss Charlie (2023) (google.com)
When the head of a crime family in the middle of a gang war takes part in a reality tv show things get a little complicated.
- Tuesday, Feb. 13, 7 p.m.
1341 Images of Love and War (2023)
Registration: 1341 Images of Love and War (2023) (google.com)
For a year and a half, the acclaimed photo-journalist Micha Bar-Am allowed director Ran Tal to enter his vast archive of negatives. Composed entirely of images that Bar-Am took over more than 50 years, 1341 Frames of Love and War reveals the enormous price that comes along with documenting atrocities and wars. “The most horrible things are sometimes aesthetic,” says Bar-Am.
1341 Frames provides an intimate portrait of an artist and a meditation on memory, violence and identity. Beyond this narrative tribute, the film offers a unique cinematic, visual, and sensory experience that explores the relationship between sound and picture, and between movement and stillness. It explores how to imbue still photography with movement on the one hand, while freezing cinematic movement to distill meaning and emotion on the other. It is a complex love letter to the power, beauty and horror of photographic imagery.
- Tuesday, Feb. 20, 5 p.m.
Seven Blessings (2023)
Registration: Seven Blessings (2023) (google.com)
For the week after marriage a newlywed couple must dine with family as the past is slowly unearthed. Winner of 10 Israeli Academy Awards.
- Tuesday, Feb. 27, 5 p.m.
Cinema Sabaya (2022)
Registration: Cinema Sabaya (2022) (google.com)
A group of Palestinian and Israeli women attend a video workshop at a small town community center run by Rona (Dana Ivgy, Zero Motivation), a young filmmaker from Tel Aviv, who teaches them to document their lives. As each student shares footage from her home life with the others, their beliefs and preconceptions are challenged and barriers are broken down. The group comes together as mothers, daughters, wives, and women living in a world designed to keep them apart, forming an empowering and lasting bond as they learn more about each other… and themselves. Inspired by writer-director Orit Fouks Rotem’s own experiences as a teacher, Cinema Sabaya presents a deft and heartfelt portrait of art’s capacity to unite disparate communities, moving effortlessly between the gravity of their conversations and the genuine joy of this unlikely group of friends. Israel’s Official Submission to the 95th Academy Awards and winner of five Ophir Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress (Joanna Said).
- Tuesday, March 19, 5 p.m.
Happy Times (2019)
Registration: Happy Times (google.com)
A boorish Israeli-American couple plan a Sabbath dinner party for a group of fellow ex-pat friends and family in their Hollywood Hills mansion. What could possibly go wrong? Well, start with a deadly mix of alcohol, add inflated egos, some inappropriate lust and top with raging jealousy and the result is a cauldron of murderous mayhem. A shot gun, garden sheers, kitchen knives and even a garbage disposal are used as weapons of choice as these deranged guests turn on each other in director Michael (“Out in the Dark”) Mayer’s outrageous and bloody comedy. Think “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” meets “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
- Tuesday, April 2, 5 p.m.
Israeli Rom-Com: Kiss Me Kosher (2020)
Registration: Kiss Me Kosher (google.com)
A subversive love story between clashing cultures and families, Kiss Me Kosher is a romantic misadventure crossing all borders. When two generations of Israeli women fall for a German woman and a Palestinian man, chaos follows. What happens with lovers who don’t fit but do belong together?
- Tuesday, April 9, 5 p.m.
Hummus Full Trailer
Registration: HummusFullTrailer (google.com)
A satirical crime caper involving three smuggled trailers and an angry Russian thug. After an error at the port, Arabs, Orthodox Jews and two florists must join forces before disaster strikes.
Israel film week is sponsored by FAU’s Jewish Studies Program and the Arthur and Emalie Gutterman Family Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education, and funded by the High Ridge Country Club Foundation. For more information, visit Israel Film Week | Florida Atlantic University (fau.edu) or email Rachel Harris at harrisr@fau.edu.
