Top 10 Israeli MoviesIsraeli cinema has a lot to offer. Here’s our small selection of best Israeli movies. Not only can watching movies in Hebrew be a great way to practice the Hebrew language, it can also help understand the motives and individual lives of people in a struggle that is mostly portrayed in an impersonal way in Western media.
Jellyfish [Meduzot] (2007)A light and funny slightly melancholic film about Tel Aviv citizens struggling with underpaid jobs, a failed honeymoon and over ambitious parents.
Campfire [Medurat HaShevet] (2004)A beautiful little story about growing up, finding love and letting go of past losses, effortlessly and almost invisibly entwined within the context of Israeli settlements and youth group movements.
Footnote [Hearat Shulayim] (2011)Brilliant film by acclaimed Joseph Cedar about two academic Talmud scholars who not only have vey different opinions but are also father and son.
For My Father (2008)This German-Israeli coproduction lets us take a look at the personal background of an Arab Muslim from Tulkarem who enters Tel Aviv strapped with dynamite. Due to a broken fuse he gets in close contact with Israelis and their life stories. What could be a pretentious movie is actually a very good film due to brilliant cinematography, solid casting and the refusal to relativize its subject matter.
Ajami (2009)Imagine Pulp Fiction set in the Middle East, a story consisting of multiple characters which is retold from different perspectives with bristling action and cultural tension. This equally beautiful and distressing masterpiece was co-directed by an Israeli Jew and an Israeli Christian Arab, the actors are all local non-actors.
Beaufort (2007)Stunning war movie about the last days of Israeli soldiers in the ancient site of “Beaufort” in Lebanon. The pictures are compressed with the complex psychology of the soldiers and their relation to each other and their life outside the army, the tension is palpable and this movie will leave you haunted long after finishing it.
Zero Motivation (2014)This film is a quirky Israeli comedy about young women stationed in a remote army base. It is a deep glimpse into female friendships and won Best Narrative Film at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014.
A Borrowed Identity (2015)
This movie is based on Sayed Kashua’s book, “Dancing Arabs,” which is a coming of age story based on his childhood as an Israeli Arab and being sent to a private school where he was the only Arab student. Eyad, the main character, tries to fit in with his Jewish classmates and Israeli society–the story follows his friendship with a boy with muscular dystrophy and his first love.
House on Chelouche Street [Ha-Bayit Berechov Chelouche] (1973) This is the story of a boy from a Sephardic family from Egypt who struggles under the weight of replacing his deceased father and providing for his mother and siblings. Torn between worker unions, the occupation of the British, his first love and the advice of neighbors and family, this boy has to make decisions which go far beyond his age and experience.
Big Bad Wolves 2013. A series of brutal murders puts the lives of three men on a collision course: The father of the latest victim now out for revenge, a vigilante police detective operating outside the boundaries of law, and the main suspect in the killings - a religious studies teacher arrested and released due to a police blunder.
A Borrowed Identity (2015)This movie is based on Sayed Kashua’s book, “Dancing Arabs,” which is a coming of age story based on his childhood as an Israeli Arab and being sent to a private school where he was the only Arab student. Eyad, the main character, tries to fit in with his Jewish classmates and Israeli society–the story follows his friendship with a boy with muscular dystrophy and his first love.