Hats off to Israel

In the 2005 film festival, Israel had a good representation. They seem to have become seasoned players in film making and are turning into big daddies of story telling, acting, writing etc. Presently they are into more pure and conservative form of cinema. What I mean is that they have not yet started indulging into heavy computer graphics, like ‘Lord of the Rings’. Their films are full of real people with real problems and real good ideas. I noticed they are very liberal about showing sex or nudity on screen in most natural way. No one gets uncomfortable or offended by it.
In ‘Colombian Love’ by director ‘Shay Kanot’, men and women run naked on a beach. At one point the leading man turns around and gives you the frontal exposure. Front or back, I tell you it does not make you look away. Another film called ‘Syrian Bride’ tackled a ticklish problems of ownership of Golan Heights. Does it belong to Israel or someone else? A just married bride has to have her visa stamped to enter Syria as her husband and party wait for her beyond the border fence. A lot of comedy laced with irony is revealed, while the tense characters run up and down to tackle the confusions in the visa office. The location shoot and performances were extraordinary.
It was such fun watching ‘Desperado Square’, by Beni Torati. This film was scripted around that fact that Indian cinema has been very popular in Israel. Few characters in the movie are shown to be fond of Hindi film songs, especially from Raj Kapoor films. One of the comical characters has a tape-player fitted on his mobike. And as he rides along, the tape plays some of famous songs by Mukesh. I was happy to be reminded of a lesser heard one, ‘Yeh to kaho kaun ho tum’. The story line reveals that Raj Kapoor movies have had a deep impact on people there. Biggest hit of them all was ‘Sangam’; just like in India too. It was hard to believe but even the climax of ‘Desperado Square’ was knitted entirely around the scenes from ‘Sangam’ including its songs. Over all this was a very interesting, original and a very commercial film.
Director '‘Doron Eran’' was here to represent his 2 films; ‘God’s Sandbox’ and ’A Wedding Film’. ‘God’s Sandbox’ is the first feature film made on the shocking practice of ‘circumcising women’ in some Islamic countries. It is a very strong film with an important message. ‘A Wedding Film’ is fun in the purest form, but it certainly does well to detail the psychological profile of every character. Audience was given an opportunity for an Q&A session after the movie. I too got some clarifications from him. I exchanged visiting cards with a very impressive young director Doron Eran, through his V-PYT assistant Billi.