70 Years of Israeli Cinema Film Festival at Curzon Cinema Soho Lgbtq+ |Women |Immigration |Tradition in Society 25 - 28 October 2018

70 YEARS OF ISRAELI CINEMA FILM FESTIVAL AT CURZON CINEMA SOHO LGBTQ+ |WOMEN |IMMIGRATION |TRADITION IN SOCIETY 25 - 28 OCTOBER 2018

A four-day film festival celebrating 70 years of Israeli Cinema will take place at Curzon Soho from Thursday 25th– Sunday 28th October 2018. The festival will showcase critically-acclaimed Israeli films as well as exciting emerging talent. The festival requires registration only, and will host eight films over four days, including the UK premiere of director Eliran Malka’s The Unorthodox (2018).

From eye-opening, subversive feminist and queer documentaries to internationally successful comedies, the festival will be a rare opportunity to be introduced to the vanguards and veterans of Israeli cinema on the big screen. Each night of the festival will show films themed by LGBTQ+, Women, Immigration and Tradition in Society, in order to shine a light on complex issues which are both pertinent to Israeli society and universally relevant.

The festival will host two feature films from critically-acclaimed female director, Rama Burshstein, who is the first Orthodox Jewish woman to find commercial success as a film director while continuing to have the support of the Orthodox community. Each screening will be followed by a Q&A with prolific London-based director and veteran of Israeli cinema, Asher Tlalim, who is a cherished contributor to the vitality and innovation of Israeli film. Two special Q&A sessions will be with Burshstein in person.

70 Years of Israeli Cinema will host directors from the New Wave movement who offer fresh artistic approaches and pioneering styles of filmmaking which have gained recognition in the international film festival circuit. The screenings will offer audiences the chance to discover moving portraits of the lives of Israelis and Palestinians.

All films will be in Hebrew or Arabic with English subtitles. Tickets are available to reserve from the 70 Years of Israeli Cinema website here: www.70yrsisraelicinema.com Each screening has over 100 tickets available and will be followed by a Q&A discussion about the film. Further detail on each of the films and the themes of the festival are below.

For press screenings, interviews and further information, please contact Olivia Neilson at Midas PR on [email protected] or call 020 7361 7879

70 YEARS OF ISRAELI CINEMA: DIRECTOR Q&As

Rama Burshtein Rama Burshtein is the first Israeli Orthodox woman to direct a film for international distribution and is available for interview. She is a director and writer, known for Fill the Void (2012), Through the Wall (2016) and Venice 70: Future Reloaded (2013). Born in New York in 1967, Rama was raised in Israel and studied film in Jerusalem. During this period, Rama became deeply religious and wrote, directed and produced films for the orthodox community, some of them only for women. Burshstein’s 7 Israeli Academy Award winning debut, Fill the Void (2012) entered competition at Venice, Sundance and Toronto. Her leading lady,

Hadas Yaron won Best Actress at Venice Film Festival and the film received rave reviews across the board.

Asher Tlalim London-based expert on Israeli cinema, Asher Tlalim is available for interview. Asher is a major figure in Israeli cinema and a highly honoured contributor to its vitality and innovation. Asher is an Israeli Academy Award winner (Don’t Touch my Holocaust, 1994) and has made over 50 features which have screened at international film festivals including Berlin, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Montreal and Sheffield. In London, he lectures at the National Film and Television school and runs FilmLab, a workshop for emerging filmmakers which supports their first steps in the UK Film Industry. He will be hosting talks and Q&A’s after each screening at Curzon.

70 YEARS OF ISRAELI CINEMA: FILM SELECTION

WOMEN – THURSDAY 25TH OCTOBER

Zero Motivation (Talya Lavie, 2013). This hugely successful debut by female director Talya Lavie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, Manhattan, a festival which showcases diverse independent films. The film picked up the top juried award at the festival, Best Narrative Feature, and the Nora Ephron prize which is awarded to female directors. Based on Lavie’s own experiences, the film is set in a remote military desert base where female Israeli soldiers spend their time pushing paper. In this mundane environment, Lavie infuses an offbeat humour as well as tragedy, and aptly captures an earphone- sharing kind of female friendship.

Through the Wall (Rama Burshstein, 2016): Nominated for the 2016 Best Film Venice Horizons Award, acclaimed Israeli writer-director Rama Burshtein (Fill the Void) brings us an unconventional romantic comedy which deals with matters of love and marriage in the Hasidic community. After years of dating, Michal (Noa Koler) is finally due to be married. Everything is booked but there is just one problem - at the last minute, her groom has had a change of heart. Believing it to be a small task for God to find her a groom, Michal refuses to cancel the wedding and instead embarks on a hilarious journey to find herself a groom. Through the Wall is bold, unconventional and utterly charming - a humorous and heartwarming romantic comedy on matters of love and marriage in the Hasidic community.

LGBTQ+ – FRIDAY 26TH OCTOBER

Who’s Gonna Love me Now (Barak Heymann and Tomer Heymann, 2016) picked up the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Berlin Film Festival. The Heymann brothers are celebrated documentary-makers. This eye-opening feature centres on a gay, HIV-positive, London-based Israeli expat who returns home for the first time after having come out as gay and having been disowned by his family. The film contrasts the sense of community he finds in the London Gay Men’s Chorus with the difficulties of finding acceptance in Israel.

The Invisible Men (Yariv Mozer, 2012) Celebrated in queer film circles, this daring film won the Documentary Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2012. Mozer was inspired by the brave stories of gay Palestinian men illegally hiding in Tel-Aviv and documents their life on the run from the Israeli police, Palestinian authorities as well as family members. The documentary shines a light on the taboo subject of homosexuality in Palestine, and the inadequacies of the Israeli government who fail to protect Palestinian LGBTQ+ refugees. This gripping documentary is a rare insight into the invisible men of Tel Aviv.

IMMIGRATION - SATURDAY 27TH OCTOBER

Personal Affairs (Maha Haj, 2016): This Cannes Film Festival nominee is the exquisite feature debut of female Palestinian director, Maha Haj, who was inspired by experiences of growing up in Israel. The film paints tender and witty portraits of relationships on either side of the border. Between check-points and dreams, frivolity and politics, some want to leave, others want to stay but all have personal affairs to resolve.

Dimona Twist (Michal Aviad, 2016): This explosive documentary by award winning, feminist female director Aviad, whose latest feature is currently playing at Toronto International Film Festival, tracks the experiences of seven women who are uprooted from North Africa and Eastern Poland and move to the newly established desert town of Dimona in Israel. Told through a mixture of first person narratives and fascinating archival footage and photographs, the film looks at the thrills and traumas of moving to a promised utopia, through interviews with women reflecting on their move to Israel. The film won the Van Leer award for Best Israeli Documentary Film at the Jerusalem International Film Festival in 2016.

TRADITION IN SOCIETY – SUNDAY 28TH OCTOBER

The Unorthodox (Eliran Malka, 2018) opened the Jerusalem Film Festival earlier this year and will hold its UK premiere in London at the festival. Set in 1980s Jerusalem, this fast-paced, quirky comedy drama is an against all odds story, which tracks the historical rise of Shas, the ultra-orthodox political party made of Sephardi Jews. Inspired by the Black Panthers in the U.S, a printing press owner, Yaakov Cohen decides to form his own party after his daughter is expelled from school for ethnic reasons. However, Yaakov’s revolutionary spirit will be met with resistance and conflict both inside and out of his circles. The director ingeniously mixes humour with moments of poignancy in this heart-warming film which reverberates across cultures.

Fill the Void (Rama Burshstein, 2012) This impressive debut won seven Israeli Academy Awards, and screened at the Venice, Sundance, New York and Toronto film festivals. Fill the Void is a spellbinding comedy drama set within an orthodox Hasidic community in Israel. In Rama Burshtein's fascinating, gripping exploration of life within an ultra-orthodox Jewish community, a young Hasidic woman is pressured by her family to cancel her upcoming arranged marriage to a promising young man whom she likes, and instead marry the widower of her recently deceased sister.

70 YEARS OF ISRAELI CINEMA: TICKET INFORMATION

Dates: Thursday 25th Sunday 28th October Address: 99 Shaftesbury Ave, Soho, London W1D Timings: Screening 1: 7.30pm, Screening 2: 9pm 5DY Festival Location: Curzon Cinema Soho Tickets: Tickets are free. A maximum of 2 tickets are available per person

Restrictions: Box office closes 24 hours before each Festival website: www.70yrsisraelicinema.com screening – tickets are not available on the day, but can be bought on the following day