Israel competes at Cannes' 60th

A number of Israeli films will be competing at the 60th Cannes International Film Festival, which will run this year from May 16-27.

By HANNAH BROWN
canne film award 88 (photo credit: )
canne film award 88
(photo credit: )
A number of Israeli films will be competing at the 60th Cannes International Film Festival, which will run this year from May 16-27. In the main competition, Israel will be represented by Tehilim from French director Raphael Nadjari, a French/Israeli co-prodcution shot in Israel in Hebrew, which stars Michael Moshonov, Sasson Gabai, and Ronit Elkabetz. In the Camera d'Or category, which Israeli director Keren Yedaya won in 2004 with Or, Eran Kolirin's Orchestra Visit will compete. Orchestra Visit, which also stars Sasson Gabai and Ronit Elkabetz, tells the story of an Egyptian orchestra that comes to Israel in the late Nineties to perform at the dedication of a peace center and which, through a series of mistakes, ends up spending the night at a small village in the middle of nowhere. Cannes regular Amos Gitai and Nazareth-born Elia Suleiman (who won the Jury Prize in 2002 for Divine Intervention) will contribute short films to the Cannes 60th anniversary film, which will include shorts by over 25 directors, including Wim Wenders and Claude Lelouch. In the Cinefondation Category for student films, two Israeli films will take part: Efrat Corem of Sapir College's Your Younger Daughter Rachel, and Hagar Ben-Asher of Minshar School's Pathways. The festival will open with Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights, about a woman taking a journey across America, which stars singer Norah Jones, Jude Law and Israeli-born Natalie Portman. The main competition will also feature the latest film by the Coen brothers, about a hunter who stumbles on a stash of cash and heroin near the Rio Grande. Based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy, it stars Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson. Other celebrated directors taking part in the main competition include Quentin Tarantino with Death Proof (his half of the Grindhouse movie), Emir Kusturica with Promise Me This and Gus Van Sant with Paranoid Park.