This Year’s Festival Shines the Spotlight on Israel!

The Rehoboth Beach Film Society will be celebrating its tenth anniversary and Israel is turning 60! Israel’s film industry is blossoming and the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival strives to screen quality, international films. Makes perfect sense to screen not only Israeli films at this year’s Festival, but also Israeli gay and lesbian films. Two of which are:

The Bubble (Ha-Buah)

From the maker of Yossi & Jagger and Walk on Water comes this powerful Tel Aviv-set drama in which an apolitical Israeli’s sheltered existence is challenged when he begins a relationship with a Palestinian. Noam (Ohad Knoller, star of Yossi & Jagger) and his roommates are far removed from the realities of Israel’s perpetual conflicts until Noam meets a Palestinian boy, Ashraf (Yousef Sweid), at a checkpoint. Ashraf attempts to juggle his newfound sexual freedom with Noam and his familial obligations, but the artificial bubble the star-crossed lovers have constructed to protect them from harsh reality can’t last long. [Dir. Eytan Fox, 2007, Israel, 35mm, 117 mins. In Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles.]

Tied Hands (Yadayim Kshurot)

Dan Wolman’s impressive drama sensitively, but unsentimentally, focuses on the determined efforts of a mother to care for her dying adult son. When Uzi, whose once-lithe dancer’s body is now ravaged by AIDS, runs out of marijuana, his mother, Pnina, ventures into the streets of Tel Aviv to find him enough to ease his suffering through the night. Her search does not go smoothly, veering from the darkly comic to the unexpectedly dangerous, but along the way, she confronts old truths that may bring her closer to Uzi. Gila Almagor shines as the complex Pnina, while Tadmor Ido impresses in the difficult role of Uzi. [Dir, Dan Wolman, 2006, Israel, video, 90 mins. In Hebrew with English subtitles.]

If you add the above mentioned films to your list, you may also want to consider two other Israeli films that will be at the Festival, Dear Mr. Waldman and JellyFish.

The Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival is Nov. 7-11. For information call 302-645-9095 or visit www.rehobothfilm.com.