israel
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Rama Burshtein on Fill the Void
There are few more unlikely and inspiring filmmaking success stories than that of Rama Burshtein. The 46-year-old New York City-born, Israel-based writer/director of Fill the Void had previously made handful of films specifically aimed at Jewish Orthodox audiences, but had defined herself primarily as a mother and a wife. Now she has become the first Israeli Orthodox woman to direct a film intended for those outside the Orthodox community. After going through the Sundance Screenwriting Labs, Burshtein’s debut feature had a remarkable festival run last year, world premiering without much fanfare at the Jerusalem Film Festival but then going on to play at Venice (where […]
by Nick Dawson on May 23, 2013 -
Etgar Keret And Shira Geffen, Jellyfish
NICOLE LEIDMAN AND SARAH ADLER IN ETGAR KERET AND SHIRA GEFFEN’S JELLYFISH. COURTESY ZEITGEIST FILMS. After proving their mastery of the written word, Israel’s first couple of literature, Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen, have now turned their attention to film. Keret was born in 1967 in Tel Aviv, Israel, and started writing in 1992. He has since written graphic novels, plays and children’s books, but he is best known for his short stories, which have been collected in The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories (2004) and The Nimrod Flipout (2006). He has also written a […]
by Nick Dawson on Apr 4, 2008 -
BRICK BY BRICK
I was on the international jury this year at Toronto’s Hot Docs, and one of the best and most original docs I saw there, Simone Bittan’s Wall, is receiving its U.S. premiere this Friday at the Quad in New York. Paris-based Bittan, who is both an Israeli and French citizen, was born in Morocco and considers herself an Arab Jew. Employing her hybrid identity as something of a structuring device, Wall documents the construction of the “security fence” that is separating Israel from Palestine, creating a portrait not only of a region divided but of a world in which the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 22, 2005
