The 37th Haifa International Film Festival, one of the most enjoyable film festivals in Israel, will run from September 19-28 at the Haifa Cinematheque and other theaters around the city and it will feature premieres of new films that are both thought-provoking and crowd-pleasing, as well as some classics.
It will be a traditional in-person film festival, although there is an online option for a selection of the films.
The festival, which features more than 100 films from dozens of countries around the world, will open with Stillwater, the latest film by Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), which stars Matt Damon as a working-class American whose daughter has been accused of a crime in Europe.
Among the programs this year is “A Salute to Ground-Breaking Cinema,” which will present a special preview of Avi Nesher’s upcoming film, Image of Victory, a fact-based anti-war movie about the War of Independence that follows the lives of both young Jews and Egyptians and shows how they intersect tragically in the Battle of Nitzanim. This preview will be followed by a panel discussion with Jewish and Arab intellectuals. Later in the week, Stanley Kubrick’s similarly themed 1957 Paths of Glory, to which Image of Victory has been compared by those who have seen it at previews, will be screened and Nesher will speak with critic Benjamin Tovias about the common threads between these two movies. Image of Victory is nominated for 15 Ophir Awards (the award of the Israeli Film Academy).
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street by Marilyn Agrelo is the inside story of Sesame Street, the revolutionary children’s television show that changed the way children learn and adults teach, and the screening will be followed by a special free event featuring the actors who voice the characters on the Israeli Sesame Street, Rehov Sumsum, along with some of the puppets.
Israeli television is increasingly popular around the world, and a special section of the festival will be devoted to screenings of new series. Hagai Levi, who created the acclaimed Israeli series BeTipul, will speak about his latest project, the HBO adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, with Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain.
THE ISRAELI Feature Film Competition is much anticipated and this year five films will be having their Israel premieres there. Among these will be Eran Kolirin’s latest film, Let It Be Morning, which tells the story of a Palestinian man attending a wedding in the village where he grew up, who gets stuck there. Based on a book by Sayed Kashua, it was shown at Cannes this year and is also nominated for 15 Ophir Awards. It stars Alex Bakri and Salim Dau (Avanti Popolo).
Roy Krispel’s Abu Omar tells the story of a man who wants to return to his West Bank village to bury a child who died.
Amir Manor’s The House on Fin Street, is about a young woman from a poor family who is lured into a life of prostitution.
Doron and Yoav Paz, the brothers who made JeruZalem (the zombies in the Old City horror movie) have a new film, Plan A, which stars Michael Aloni (Shtisel) in the story of a group of young Jewish Holocaust survivors who planned to poison the German water system in 1945.
Marat Parkhomovsky’s Tel Aviv is about a young couple whose world is shaken up by an unexpected event that forces them to make some tough choices.
THE ISRAELI Documentary Competition includes Between Walls, about a unit of border police in Jerusalem that includes Jews, Muslims and Christians, by actors Rotem Zisman Cohen and Moris Cohen; The Last Lapdance, a look at the closure of strip clubs in Tel Aviv from the point of view of the strippers by Isri Halpern; Back in Berlin by Bobby Lax, the story a suitcase of documents from Holocaust-era Berlin that reveals secrets; Disgraced: An Israeli Tale of Corruption by Avi Maor Marzuk, about a 70s case of government corruption; and Ido Glass and Yoav Kleinman’s Dead Sea Guardians, a look at how pollution is affecting the Dead Sea.
Out of the competition, Yael Reuveny’s Promised Lands looks at the generation of Israelis now turning 40.
A NUMBER of new high-profile films, some of which are by the biggest names in world cinema, will have their Israeli premieres in the Gala and Panorama sections. Lee Isaac Chung’s Oscar-winning Minari is a moving look at a Korean family that immigrates to Arkansas in the 1980s. It stars Steve Yeun, who was a fan favorite on The Walking Dead and who has since proved himself to be one of the most gifted and interesting actors of his generation.
Another television alumna, Elisabeth Moss, who played Peggy on Mad Men and starred in The Handmaid’s Tale, has received rave reviews for her role in Shirley, a biopic about the horror writer, Shirley Jackson.
Paul Schrader is best known for writing the screenplay for Taxi Driver, and his latest film as director, The Card Counter, stars Oscar Isaac as a former military investigator turned gambler who is haunted by the past.
Tony Stone’s Ted K is a drama about the life of Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, in Montana before his arrest.
Lost Illusions, by Xavier Giannoli, is an adaptation of Balzac’s classic story of a provincial young man trying to make it in Paris and it stars Benjamin Voisin, Cecile de France and Gerard Depardieu.
For those who missed it at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World is an unclassifiable blend of romance, comedy and drama about a young woman who cannot settle down in her life.
Nanni Moretti’s Three Floors is an adaptation of a novel by Israeli author Eshkol Nevo about three families living in the same apartment building.
Pedro Almodovar’s The Human Voice is a short film version of the Jean Cocteau monologue of an abandoned woman, performed by Tilda Swinton.
IN THE “Haifa’s Wildest Nights” section, Paul Verhoeven’s over-the-top Bendetta stars Virginie Efira and Charlotte Rampling in a story of lesbian nuns during the Renaissance, but be prepared for a fair amount of violence along with the sex.
“The Culinary Cinema” program has long been a popular feature of this festival and this year it features Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain by Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville, which looks at the life of the troubled but brilliant author and chef through interviews with Bourdain himself as well as those who knew him, home movies, clips from his appearances and quotes from his writings to celebrate his passion for life.
In addition to Paths of Glory, there are a number of other films being screened in the “Haifa Classics” section, among them Hal Ashby’s groundbreaking love story, Harold and Maude with Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon, and Alan J. Pakula’s Klute, which features one of the great screen performances of all time, by Jane Fonda as a call girl who fears she is being stalked.
The “Carmel Competition for International Films” will include Evolution, a movie by Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber, who made the Vanessa Kirby Netflix drama, Pieces of a Woman. Evolution looks at three generations of a Hungarian Jewish family. Other competitions include the “Golden Anchor” competition, which is for debut films.
The “Family Show” section features a selection of movies the entire family can enjoy together.
The longtime director of the festival, Pnina Blayer, retired recently has programmed a section called “A Personal Look,” which features recent films that have moved her. These include Ari Folman’s Where is Anne Frank?, which played at the Jerusalem Film Festival but which has not yet opened in theaters, and which is very much geared at bringing the story of the legendary teen diarist to young audiences. Also in this section are Casablanca Beats by Nabil Ayouch, which tells the story of a former rapper who teaches music to young people at a cultural center in a working-class neighborhood and had its premiere at Cannes. Stefan Arsenijević’s As Far as I Can Walk is a reimagining of a Serbian Medieval epic in which African migrants take the place of the traditional heroes.
Yaron Shamir is now the acting director of the festival.
For the full program with details of all the special events and to order tickets, go to the website at https://www.haifaff.co.il/eng