Cinema of Israel
Encyclopedia

Cinema of Israel refers to movie production in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 since its founding in 1948. Most Israeli films are produced in Hebrew. Israel has been nominated for more Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

 than any other country in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

.

History

Movies were made in Palestine from the beginning of the silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 era although the development of the local film industry accelerated after the establishment of the state. Early films were mainly documentary or news roundups, shown in Israeli cinemas before the movie started.
One of the pioneers of cinema in Israel was Baruch Agadati
Baruch Agadati
Baruch Agadati was a Russian-Israeli classical ballet dancer, choreographer, painter, and film producer and director. He is considered a legendary figure in Israeli culture.-Biography:...

. Agadati purchased cinematographer Yaakov Ben Dov's film archives in 1934 when Ben Dov retired from filmmaking and together with his brother Yitzhak established the AGA
AGA
-Medicine:* Adequate, Appropriate or Average for Gestational Age, referring to prenatal growth rate* Anti-gliadin antibodies* Androgenetic alopecia* Aspartylglucosaminidase-Business:* AGA , Autogen Gasaccumulator AG, 1920's German car company...

 Newsreel. He directed the early Zionist film entitled This is the Land (1935).

The first film studios were established in Herzliya
Herzliya
Herzliya is a city in the central coast of Israel, at the western part of the Tel Aviv District. It has a population of 87,000 residents. Named after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, Herzliya covers an area of 26 km²...

 in the 1950s, among them Geva Films (סרטי גבע) and Israeli Film Studios (אולפני ההסרטה בישראל). In 1954, the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

 passed the Law for the Encouragement of Israeli Films (החוק לעידוד הסרט הישראלי). Leading filmmakers in the 1960s were Menahem Golan
Menahem Golan
Menahem Golan is an Israeli director and producer. He has produced movies for such stars as Sean Connery, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Charles Bronson, and was known for a period as a producer of comic book-style movies like Masters of the Universe, Superman IV:...

, Ephraim Kishon
Ephraim Kishon
' was an Israeli author, dramatist, screenwriter, and film director. He is one of the most widely-read contemporary satirists in the world.- Early life and World War II :...

, and Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar is a former Israeli film director, actor, and comedian who left the entertainment world to become a rabbi.-Biography:Zohar was born in Tel Aviv in 1934. In 1952, he graduated high school and did his military service in an army entertainment troupe. His first marriage ended in divorce.By...

.

The first Bourekas film was Sallah Shabati
Sallah Shabati
Sallah Shabati is a 1964 Israeli comedy film about the chaos of Israeli immigration and resettlement. This social satire placed the director Ephraim Kishon and producer Menahem Golan among the first Israeli filmmakers to achieve international success...

, produced by Ephraim Kishon in 1964. In 1965 Uri Zohar produced the film Hole in the Moon
Hole in the Moon
Hole in the Moon is an Israeli avant-garde- satiric movie, published in 1964.Amos Kenan wrote its script and Uri Zohar directed it and was its star. The costar was Avraham Heffner. The guest actors were Dahn Ben-Amotz and Shaike Ophir. Many other actors performed in the film a few short roles each...

, influenced by French New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...

 films. During the 1970s, many Bourekas films were made. They were big successes at the box office but panned by the critics. They included comedy films such as Charlie Ve'hetzi
Charlie Ve'hetzi
Charlie Ve'hetzi is a 1974 Israeli comedy and cult movie. The movie was directed byBoaz Davidson and stars Israeli comedians Yehuda Barkan and Ze'ev Revach.- Cast :...

and Hagiga B'Snuker
Hagiga B'Snuker
Hagiga BaSnuker is a 1975 Israeli cult movie. The movie was directed by Boaz Davidson and stars Israeli comedians Ze'ev Revach, Yehuda Barkan and Yosef Shiloah.- Cast :...

and sentimental melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...

s such as Nurit. The main subject in most of the Bourekas films was the conflict between various classes and denominations, particularly due to romantic intentions. Prominent filmmakers in this genre during this period include Boaz Davidson
Boaz Davidson
Boaz Davidson is an Israeli film director, producer and screenwriter. He was born in Tel Aviv, British Mandate of Palestine and studied film in London....

, Ze'ev Revach
Ze'ev Revach
Ze'ev Revach is an Israeli comedian, movie actor, and director. He is a star of the Israeli movie genre known as bourekas films.-Biography:...

, Yehuda Barkan
Yehuda Barkan
Yehuda Barkan is an Israeli actor, film producer, film director and screenwriter.- Early life :Barkan was born in Netanya and was initially named Yehuda Ezekiel Berkowitz. In his childhood Barkan studied at the Bialik and ORT in schools in Netanya...

 and George Obadiah.

The "New sensitivity" (הרגישות החדשה) movement produced social artistic films such as But Where Is Daniel Wax? by Avraham Heffner
Avraham Heffner
Avraham Heffner is an Israeli movie director, screenwriter, writer, and Professor Emeritus at the Tel-Aviv University. He is a recipient of the Ophir Award for lifetime achievements....

. The Policeman Azoulay
The Policeman
The Policeman is the international release title of a 1971 Israeli feature film, written and directed by satirist Ephraim Kishon. Its Hebrew title is HaShoter Azoulay . The title character is played by Shaike Ophir The Policeman is the international release title of a 1971 Israeli feature film,...

(Ephraim Kishon
Ephraim Kishon
' was an Israeli author, dramatist, screenwriter, and film director. He is one of the most widely-read contemporary satirists in the world.- Early life and World War II :...

), I Love You Rosa
I Love You Rosa
I Love You Rosa is a 1972 Israeli film directed by Moshé Mizrahi. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It was also entered into the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Zivi Avramson - Esther* Naomi Bachar - Luna...

and The House on Chelouche Street
The House on Chelouche Street
The House on Chelouche Street is a 1973 film by veteran Israeli director Moshe Mizrahi, filmed in Hebrew, Egyptian Arabic, and Judeo-Spanish...

by Moshé Mizrahi
Moshé Mizrahi
Moshé Mizrahi is an Israeli film director.He has directed 14 films in both Israel and France. Three of his films were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, I Love You Rosa, The House on Chelouche Street and Madame Rosa, with the latter winning the award...

 were candidates for a Oscar Award in the foreign film category.

During the 1980s, notable films included: Beyond the Walls
Beyond the Walls
Beyond the Walls is a 1984 Israeli film directed by Uri Barbash co-wrote with Eran Preis. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.-Plot:...

(Uri Barbash
Uri Barbash
Uri Barbash is an Israeli film director. His film co-wrote with Eran Preis, Beyond the Walls was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film...

), Summer of Aviya
Summer of Aviya
Summer of Aviya is a Hebrew language book that became a bestseller. The 1985 autobiographical novel by theater actress Gila Almagor was made into a film released in 1989. The 96-minute film acts as a memoir of Almagor's childhood and provides insights into Israeli society in the early post-state...

(Gila Almagor
Gila Almagor
Gila Almagor is an Israeli actress, film star, and author.-Biography:Gila Almagor was born four months after the death of her father, Max Alexandrowitz, a Jewish immigrant from Germany who was killed by an Arab sniper while working as a policeman in Haifa...

), Avanti Popolo (Rafi Bukai), Late Summer Blues
Late Summer Blues
Late Summer Blues is a 1987 Israeli film directed by Renen Schorr. It is a story about a group of Israeli teens in their last summer before army service. They all experience different conflicts about joining the army. One of them cannot join the army because he is diabetic. One of them does not...

(Renen Schorr
Renen Schorr
Renen Schorr is a film director, screenwriter, film producer. In 1989, he became head of Israel’s first independent, national school for film and television. He then founded the Sam Spiegel Film & TV School – Jerusalem, and has served as its director since that time.-Background:Son of a physician,...

), Noa Bat 17 (Yitzhak Yeshurun), Hamsin (Danny Waxman), Shtei Etzbaot Mi'Tzidon (Eli Cohen
Eli Cohen (actor)
Eli Cohen is an Israeli actor and film director. In 1989, his film Summer of Aviya won the Silver Bear Award from the 39th Berlin International Film Festival...

) and Burning Land (Serge Ankri
Serge Ankri
Serge Ankri was born in 1949 in Tunis, lived and studied in France, starts and received Bachelor of Arts degree in Nice. He immigrated to Israel in 1973. He is graduate of the Film & Televsision Department, Tel Aviv University...

).

In the 1990s, there was an emergence of films about anti-heroes at the margins of society, such as Amazing Grace by Amos Gutman, which dealt with AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 patients. Notable films of this period were Life According to Agfa
Life According to Agfa
Life According to Agfa is a 1993 Israeli drama film directed by Assi Dayan. It was entered into the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival where it won an Honourable Mention.-Cast:* Gila Almagor as Daliah* Akram Tillawi as Samir...

(Asi Dayan), Over the Ocean (Yaacov Goldwasser), Zohar
Zohar
The Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on Mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology...

(Eran Riklis
Eran Riklis
Eran Riklis is an Israeli filmmaker. His films include Cup Final , The Syrian Bride , and Lemon Tree . He was born in 1954 and he studied at the National Film and Television School in England. He is married to Dina Riklis and they have two children, a daughter, Tammy, and a son, Jonathan...

), Song of the Siren (Eytan Fox
Eytan Fox
-Biography:Fox was born in New York City and moved with his family to Israel when he was two. His father, Seymour Fox, was a Conservative rabbi and a leading professor of Jewish education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His mother, Sara Kaminker-Fox, was the head of the Jerusalem city...

), Lovesick on Nana Street (Savi Gavison), Leylasede (Shemi Zarhin), Afula Express (Julie Shles), Yana's Friends
Yana's Friends
Yana's Friends , directed by Arik Kaplun, is an Israeli movie awarded the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 1999....

(Arik Kaplun) and Strangers in the Night (Serge Ankri
Serge Ankri
Serge Ankri was born in 1949 in Tunis, lived and studied in France, starts and received Bachelor of Arts degree in Nice. He immigrated to Israel in 1973. He is graduate of the Film & Televsision Department, Tel Aviv University...

).

In the first decade of the 21st century, several Israeli films won awards in film festivals around the world. Prominent films of this period include: Late Marriage (Dover Koshashvili), Broken Wings
Broken Wings (film)
Broken Wings is a 2002 Israeli film directed by Nir Bergman and starring Orly Silbersatz Banai, Maya Maron, and Nitai Gaviratz.- Plot :The unexpected death of the family patriarch throws every member of the Ullmann clan off course. Widow Dafna takes to bed for three months and when she finally...

(Nir Bergman), Walk on Water
Walk on Water (film)
Walk on Water is an Israeli film released in 2004. It stars Lior Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, and Caroline Peters. It was directed by New York-born Israeli director Eytan Fox. The screenplay was written by Gal Uchovsky...

and Yossi & Jagger
Yossi & Jagger
Yossi & Jagger is a 2002 Israeli romantic drama film directed by Eytan Fox about soldiers at the Israel – Lebanon border who try to find some peace and solace from the daily routine of war.-Plot:...

(Eytan Fox
Eytan Fox
-Biography:Fox was born in New York City and moved with his family to Israel when he was two. His father, Seymour Fox, was a Conservative rabbi and a leading professor of Jewish education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His mother, Sara Kaminker-Fox, was the head of the Jerusalem city...

), Nina's Tragedies
Nina's Tragedies
Nina’s Tragedies is a 2003 Israeli dramedy film directed by Savi Gavison and starring Ayelet Zurer, Yoram Hattab, Alon Abutbul, Shmil Ben Ari, and Anat Waxman. It won 11 Ophir Awards.-Plot summary:...

(Savi Gavison), Campfire
Campfire (film)
Campfire is an Israeli movie released in 2004, written and directed by Joseph Cedar.- Synopsis :The story of a young widow , mother of two beautiful teenage daughters, who wants to join the founding group of a new settlement of religious Jews in the West Bank, but first must convince the...

and Beaufort
Beaufort (film)
Beaufort is a 2007 Israeli war film. The film was directed by Joseph Cedar and was co-written by Cedar and Ron Leshem, based on Leshem's If there's a Heaven...

(Joseph Cedar
Joseph Cedar
Yossef Cedar is an Israeli film director and screenwriter. He has won a Silver Bear and an Ophir Award for Best Director, and an Ophir Award for writing a Best Screenplay. He also won the best screenplay award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. for his film Footnote .-Biography:Cedar was born in...

), Or (My Treasure)
Or (My Treasure)
Or is a 2004 drama film starring Dana Ivgy in the title role of Or, a teenager who struggles to be responsible for her prostitute mother Ruthie, played by Ronit Elkabetz...

(Keren Yedaya
Keren Yedaya
Keren Yedaya is an Israeli filmmaker. She was born in the United States, but her family moved to Israel in 1975 when she was just three. She trained at the Camera Obscura School of Art in Tel Aviv....

), Turn Left at the End of the World (Avi Nesher
Avi Nesher
Avi Nesher is an Israeli film producer, film director, screenwriter and actor.- Biography :Avi Nesher was born and raised in Ramat Gan, Israel. The child of a Romanian-born diplomat, and a mother who came from Russia. In 1965, he moved with his family to the United States...

), The Band's Visit
The Band's Visit
The Band's Visit is an acclaimed 2007 Israeli film directed by Eran Kolirin.The Band's Visit was Israel's original Foreign Language Film submission for the 80th Academy Awards, but was rejected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences because it contained over 50% English dialogue...

(Eran Kolirin
Eran Kolirin
Eran Kolirin is an Israeli screenwriter and film director.His directorial debut and as of 2008 his only feature-length film is The Band's Visit . The film was a critical success, winning eight Awards of the Israeli Film Academy and prizes at several international film festivals...

) Waltz With Bashir
Waltz with Bashir
Waltz with Bashir is a 2008 Israeli animated documentary film written and directed by Ari Folman. It depicts Folman in search of his lost memories from the 1982 Lebanon War....

(Ari Folman
Ari Folman
Ari Folman is an Israeli film director, screenwriter and film score composer.-Biography:Ari Folman was born in Haifa to Holocaust survivors. His wife is also a film director...

), Ajami (Scandar Kobti and Yaron Sheni) and more. In 2011, Strangers No More won the Oscar for best Short Documentary.

Bourekas films

Bourekas films (סרטי בורקס) were a film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

 popular in the 1960s and 1970s. A central theme was the conflict between Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...

 and Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...

. The hero was usually a Mizrahi Jew, almost always poor, canny and with street smarts, who comes into conflict with the institutions of the state or figures of Ashkenazi origin - mostly portrayed as rich, conceited, arrogant, cold-hearted and alienated
Social alienation
The term social alienation has many discipline-specific uses; Roberts notes how even within the social sciences, it “is used to refer both to a personal psychological state and to a type of social relationship”...

. The term was supposedly coined by the Israeli film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 Boaz Davidson
Boaz Davidson
Boaz Davidson is an Israeli film director, producer and screenwriter. He was born in Tel Aviv, British Mandate of Palestine and studied film in London....

, the creator of several such films, as a play-on-words, after "Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...

:" just as the Western sub-genre was named after a notable dish of its country of filming, so the Israeli genre was named after the notable Israeli dish
Israeli cuisine
Israeli cuisine comprises local dishes by Jews native to Israel and dishes brought to Israel by Jews from the Diaspora. Since before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and particularly since the late 1970s, an Israeli Jewish fusion cuisine has developed.Israeli cuisine has adopted,...

, Bourekas. Bourekas films are further characterized by accent imitations (particularly of Jewish people originating from Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

, Persia, and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

); a combination of melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...

, comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 and slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...

; and alternate identities.

New sensitivity films

The "New sensitivity films" (סרטי הרגישות החדשה) is a movement which started during the 1960s and lasted until the end of the 1970s. The movement sought to create a cinema in modernist cinema with artistic and esthetic values, in the style of the new wave films
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...

 of the French cinema. One of the most important creators in this genre is Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar is a former Israeli film director, actor, and comedian who left the entertainment world to become a rabbi.-Biography:Zohar was born in Tel Aviv in 1934. In 1952, he graduated high school and did his military service in an army entertainment troupe. His first marriage ended in divorce.By...

, who directed the films Hor B'Levana (Hole In The Moon) and Shlosha Yamim Veyeled (Three Days and a Child).

Docudrama

Different events occur in Israel which are perceived in the eyes of its residents and many people abroad as events of historical importance. It is relatively easy to shoot movies about these events, because there is a lot of written material about them in Hebrew which could be used as a basis for a script, and because it is relatively easy to cast an Israeli crew which would have a lot of knowledge about these historical events from personal experience. In a long enough historical event, like the First Lebanon War
1982 Lebanon War
The 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later known in Israel as the Lebanon War and First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...

, it is possible to film Docudrama movies about the place and time in which it occurred.

Musicals

Many Israeli films include songs performed by the actors. However, very few of the films contain both singing and dancing.

Military movies

Many different Israeli films such as drama, Docudrama and comedy films engage in the IDF
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...

 and in the military way of life. These are often composed of two genres, macho propaganda of fighting men, or "shooting & crying" films.

Holocaust films

Many films about the lives of Holocaust survivors
Sh'erit ha-Pletah
Sh'erit ha-Pletah is a biblical term used by Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust to refer to themselves and the communities they formed following their liberation in the spring of 1945....

 have been made in Israel.

History of Israeli movie theaters

In the early 1900s, silent movies were screened in sheds, cafes and other temporary structures. In 1905, Cafe Lorenz opened on Jaffa Road in the new Jewish neighborhood of Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa. For years, the neighborhood prospered as Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, grew up around it...

. From 1909, the Lorenz family began screening movies at the cafe. In 1925, the Kessem Cinema was housed there for a short time.

In 1966, 2.6 million Israelis went to the cinema over 50 million times. From 1968, when television broadcasting
Israel Broadcasting Authority
Israel Broadcasting Authority is Israel's state broadcasting network.It grew out of the radio station Kol Yisrael, which made its first broadcast as an independent station on . The name of the organisation operating Kol Yisrael was changed to Israel Broadcasting Service in 1951...

 began, theaters began to close down, first in the periphery, then in major cities. 330 standalone theaters were torn down or redesigned as multiplex theaters.

Eden Cinema, Tel Aviv

The Eden Cinema (Kolnoa Eden) was built in 1914 despite objections by the residents of Ahuzat Bayit, the neighborhood that became Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

. The owners, Moshe Abarbanel and Mordechai Wieser received a 13-year franchise. During World War I, the theater was shut down by order of the Ottoman government on the pretext that its generator could be used to send messages to enemy submarines off shore. It reopened to the public during the British Mandate
British Mandate
British Mandate may refer to:*British Mandate for Palestine*British Mandate of Mesopotamia...

 and became a hub of cultural and social activity. It closed down in 1974.

Mograbi Cinema, Tel Aviv

The Mograbi Cinema (Kolnoa Mograbi) opened in 1930. It was designed in an art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 style that was popular in cinemas worldwide. The building was roofless for the first few years and was eventually topped with a sliding roof. People gathered in front of the theater to dance in the streets when the UN General Assembly voted in favor of the Partition Plan in November 1947. After a fire in the summer of 1986 due to an electric short-circuit, the building was demolished.

Cinema festivals

  • Jerusalem Film Festival
    Jerusalem Film Festival
    The Jerusalem Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in Jerusalem, Israel. The festival was the brainchild of Lia van Leer, who inaugurated it on May 17, 1984...

  • Haifa International Film Festival
    Haifa International Film Festival
    The Haifa International Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place every fall, during the week-long holiday of Sukkot, in Haifa, Israel. The festival was inaugurated in 1983, and was the first of its kind in Israel...


See also

  • List of Israeli films
  • Cinema of the world
  • Culture of Israel
    Culture of Israel
    The culture of Israel developed long before the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 and combines the heritage of secular and religious lives. Much of the diversity in Israel's culture comes from the diversity of its population...


Further reading

  • Israel Studies 4.1, Spring 1999 - Special Section: Films in Israeli Society(pp96-187)
  • Kamal Abdel-Malek, The Rhetoric of Violence: Arab-Jewish Encounters in Contemporary Palestinian Literature and Film, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
  • Amy Kronish, World cinema: Israel, Trowbridge, Wiltshire : Flicks Books [etc.], 1996
  • Amy Kronish and Costel Safirman, Israeli film : a reference guide, Westport, Conn. [etc.] : Praeger, 2003
  • Gilad Padva. Israel, Filmmaking. In Gestner, David Ed.), Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual Contemporary Cultures (pp. 312-313). New York and London: Routledge, 2005
  • Gilad Padva. Discursive Identities in the (R)evolution of the New Israeli Queer Cinema. In Talmon, Miri and Peleg, Yaron (Eds.), Israeli Cinema: Identities in Motion (pp. 313-325). Austin, TX: Texas University Press, 2011
  • Ray Privett, Amos Gitai: Exile and Atonement, New York: Cinema Purgatorio, 2008.
  • Raz Ysef, Beyond flesh : queer masculinities and nationalism in Israeli cinema, New Brunswick, NJ [etc.] : Rutgers Univ. Press, 2004
  • Ella Shohat, Israeli cinema : East West and the politics of representation, Austin : Univ. of Texas Pr., 1989 ( an updated new edition will be published by I B Tauris & Co Ltd in 2010)

External links

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