Director: Nir Bergman
Writers: Nir Bergman (script), David Grossman (novel)
Stars: Yehuda Almagor, Arie Eldar, Roee Elsberg
This hauntingly beautiful film is an adaptation to the acclaimed novel "The Book of Intimate Grammar" by David Grossman. A dysfunctional family and delayed puberty make life miserable for Aharon Kleinfeld. As time passes; Aharon's soul matures but his body refuses to grow. Perhaps one of his glands is dormant, or maybe he is afraid of growing up and ending up like his domineering mother or his anti-intellectual father. Perhaps, he is simply a late bloomer in need of a little more time. But nobody has the time to wait. Betrayed by his family, by his best friend and his beloved, lonely in his diminutive stature, but aware of his maturing soul, he realizes something must be done.
Friday May 10
18h - EYES WIDE OPEN (2008, 90min, drama)
Director: Haim Tabakman
Stars: Zohar Shtrauss, Ran Danker, Tinkerbell | See full cast and crew
A man who acknowledges a side of himself he's kept hidden for decades must decide between love, loyalty, and faith. Aaron is an orthodox Jew in his mid-thirties who helps run a kosher butcher shop. He is married to Rivka and they have four sons, but he often feels something is missing from his life. One day, a 19-year-old yeshiva student, Ezri, stops by the shop; when Aaron learns Ezri is homeless, he offers to make the youngster his apprentice and gives him a room. Aaron and Ezri strike up a fast friendship, but in time their feelings become deeper. Aaron finds himself torn between his loyalty to his family and his growing love for Ezri.
20h - FIVE HOURS FROM PARIS (2008, 90min, comedy)
Director: Leonid Prudovsky
Stars: Vladimir Freedman, Efim Gelman, Ohad Gil
On a 5-hours flight from Paris, in a working-class suburb of Tel Aviv, two people meet. He is a bred-and-born Israeli and she is a Russian immigrant. He is a taxi driver and she is a music teacher. He has no aspirations. She gave up hers long ago. He is afraid of flying and she is about to fly away. What are the odds of them ending up together?
Saturday May 11
18h - ELI & BEN (2008, 91 min, drama)
Director: Ori Ravid
Stars: Lior Ashkenazi, Yuval Shevach, Yael Hadar
The life of twelve years old Eli, which is mostly consisted of daring mischievous acts, turns upside down, when he finds out that his father, Ben, is accused of taking bribery while on duty as the architect of the Herzliya municipality. Eli sets out on a mission in order to prove his admired father's innocence. He tries to mislead the police but finds that his actions backfire, causing his father even more damage. He befriends with the police officer in charge of the investigation and receives some weird but efficient romantic advices. While Ben, held on house arrest is gradually weakening in front of Eli's eyes, Eli discovers new strength within himself.
20h - RESTORATION (Boker tov adon Fidelman) (2011, 102 min, drama)
Director: Yossi Madmoni
Stars: Henry David, Nevo Kimchi, Ruth Burenshtein
After his longtime business partner dies, Yakov Fidelman discovers that his antique furniture-restoration shop is in grave financial difficulty. He's forced to deal with his estranged son, Noah, a lawyer, who, seeing no hope for the failing store, proposes building apartments above it. One day Fidelman's new apprentice, Anton, finds a neglected piano: an 1882 Steinway that, given a new baseboard, would be worth enough to save the store. The stakes in this rivalry are raised higher when Anton starts an affair with Noah's wife, Hava. Eventually, it is Yaakov Fidelman who must make the crucial choice between Anton's piano project and Noah's real-estate deal – and in effect, which of them does he recognize as his true son.
Sunday May 12
18h - DOLPHIN BOY (2011, 72 min, documentary)
Directors: Dani Menkin, Yonatan Nir
Writers: Dani Menkin, Yonatan Nir
A father never gives up. When told by doctors that dolphin-assisted therapy is the last treatment option for his son, Morad, before the boy is committed to a psychiatric institution, he knows what he has to do. He leaves everything to move to Dolphin Reef on the Red Sea, vowing not to return unless the boy achieves full recovery. Morad had been kidnapped and brutally tortured by the relatives of a girl he was suspected of trying to seduce. So brutal was the attack, that Morad, suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, disconnected himself from the world around him. This is the tale of a parent's patient and tender love, and the friendship between a teenaged boy and the group of dolphins who helped him heal in a remarkable three-year journey of recovery.
20h - MY AUSTRALIA (2011, 96 min, drama)
Director: Ami Drozd
Stars: Gabriel Levin, David Mizrachi, Igor Obloza
Poland, the mid 1960s. A struggling family in an impoverished neighborhood. The mother, separated from her Polish husband, spends most of her time at work in order to provide the basic needs for her twelve and fifteen-year-old sons. The boys have joined a gang with strong neo-Nazi orientations. One day, the gang enters a Jewish neighborhood, vandalizing the premises and stabbing some youngsters, until they are arrested by the police. Due to this incident, their mother decides to tell them the truth - she is a Jew who survived the Holocaust and raised them in the Catholic faith. She informs them that they are going to immigrate to Australia, while in truth, they are moving to Israel. The film explores the struggles for self-identity as immigrants, while trying to build a new life in a foreign land.