A learning experience

One of the highlights of the film festival circuit in Israel is always the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, which will take place this year from May 31 to June 7 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.

While it’s billed as a student film festival, it’s become much more than that, as some of the top international directors will present their work and give classes to Israeli film students (as well as the general public). Celebrating its 16th year, the festival will show 250 films (mainly student productions) from 40 countries, and features three competitions: international films, Israeli films and Middle Eastern films.

Oscar-winning producer Steve Tisch, who made Forrest Gump as well as dozens of other movies, including American History X and The Pursuit of Happyness, will serve as the festival president this year.

The opening-night film is the latest movie by Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Two Days, One Night, which is currently playing at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the main competition.

The festive opening-night ceremony will take place at Gan Hapisga in Jaffa.

Two Days, One Night stars Marion Cotillard as a woman who has just 48 hours to convince her coworkers to forgo their bonuses so that she can keep her job – in keeping with their usual theme of looking at casualties of capitalism. They have won the Palme d’Or, the top prize at Cannes, twice – with The Child (2005) and Rosetta (1999) – as well as dozens of other major awards.

It’s worth noting that the Dardenne brothers, who are very much part of the European Left, have never chosen to boycott Israel, and have been here a number of times, including as g u e s t s of the Jerusalem and Haifa film festivals. They go their own way, which often leads them here and into lively discussions with Israeli film students.

French director Leos Carax will be in Tel Aviv to present a retrospective of his work. He is known for making films on people on the margins of society, like the Dardenne brothers, and films about the tougher side of life tend to be a great inspiration to student filmmakers. Carax is best known for the films Bad Blood (1986) and The Lovers on the Bridge (1991); his most recent film i s Holy Motors, about a day in the life of a mysterious man.

The South Korean director Kim Jee-woon makes gory psychological thrillers that have become cult classics.

Israeli directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, who recently made the extremely successful Big Bad Wolves, have acknowledged that Jee-woon’s work was an important influence on them. One of his bestloved movies, I Saw the Devil, will be screened, and Jee-woon will participate in a panel afterwards. He will also give a workshop on directing that will be open to the public.

Molly Marlene Stensgaard, a film editor who has worked on several Lars von Trier films, among them his latest movie, Nymphomaniac, will attend the festival. She will be present at a panel following a screening of the 2000 von Trier film Dancer in the Dark, and will present an editing workshop based on von Trier’s films. Von Trier, who was kicked out of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 for saying at a press conference that he admired Adolf Hitler, may or may not see the irony in the fact that several of his films will be screened at an Israeli film festival.

Georgian director Otar Iosseliani will give a directing workshop and will attend screenings of several of his films, among them Farewell, Home Sweet Home (1999).

One of the leaders in the Romanian New Wave, Radu Montean, will attend a screening of his movie, Tuesday After Christmas (2010), and will take part in a panel following the film. There will also be screenings of some of his most popular films, Boogie (2008) and The Paper Will Be Blue (2006).

Chilean director Sebastian Silva, who won the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013 with his film, Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus and 2012, will attend a gala screening of this film at the festival, and will also give a directing workshop.

For more information and to order tickets, go to the festival website: www.taufilmfest.com

Masters and students will make magic at the 16th Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival.