In many ways September is the beginning of a new year. School starts up again after a long summer break; film studios begin releasing the films they consider possible Academy Award contenders; and DVD companies gear up for the big Christmas season and begin releasing their summer blockbusters for home consumption.
September is also the beginning of a new film festival season in Toronto. Every year close to one hundred film festivals enliven the Toronto landscape and the grand daddy of them all got underway last week.
Yes, it is time for the Toronto International Film Festival, probably the biggest and certainly one of the most important film festivals in the world. This year promises to be a special festival. Not only will TIFF be screening over 300 feature films, documentaries and shorts, it will be premiering some of the biggest films of the year.
This year the Festival has been is facing a bit of a controversy.
This year, TIFF is inaugurating a new program. Its City To City program will concentrate on one specific city each year. This year, because the city of Tel Aviv is celebrating its 100th anniversary, TIFF decided to put the spotlight on that city and will be presenting 10 films that focus on Tel Aviv. These 10 films attempt to show a realistic picture of the city and of the country. They show its problems and its accomplishments, warts and all.
But a small group of left-wing agitators have decided to protest this program. John Greyson, a filmmaker and film professor at York University, withdrew his short film from the Festival in protest of the program focusing on Tel Aviv. He was joined by a group of like-minded people, inside and outside the film industry, who take advantage of every opportunity they can to defame and slander Israel. In their books, Israel can never do anything right and is always wrong.
So let’s take a look at the films that these self proclaimed sensors would like to keep us from seeing.
These films include several classic films, such as
The Big Dig, a comedy released in Israel in 1969, written and directed by one of Israel’s leading satirists,
Ephraim Kishon. and
Life According to Agfa, a film made in 1992 by Israeli screenwriter, director and actor,
Assi Dayan, which looks at some of the issues confronting a wide range of Israeli society at that time in Israel’s history. Both of these films deal with the problems facing people living in Israel’s biggest city, and they deal with these problems in an open and unashamed way, something few Arab countries would have ever allowed.
Other films in this series includes,
Bena, a new film by first time feature film director,
Niv Klainer, about a father and his attempts to keep his schizophrenic teenaged son out of an institution.
Big Eyes was produced in 1974 and was directed by Israeli film icon,
Uri Zohar. It deals with a group of people who strive for happiness through their relations with each other and is a more personal film than many other films of that time period. It is also a mirror of one aspect of Israeli society at the time.
The Bubble shows off Tel Aviv’s free thinking society as it deals with gay relationships, including one between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian. It created quite a reaction when first shown by TIFF in 2006 and when it was shown by the Toronto Jewish Film Festival a short time later. Try to make that film in Mecca or Damascus, Mr. Greyson!
A History of Israeli Cinema Part 1 and
Part 2 is exactly what the title suggests. It gives a careful and very detailed history of Israeli cinema and shows how the film industry in Israel has grown from very modest beginnings until today, when it is producing films that are recognized and acclaimed around the world and films that are critical of the Israeli government. Yet, the Israeli government still funds these films.
Jaffa is set in the ancient port city which contains a mixed population of Muslims, Jews and Christians. Although the city is now a part of the greater city of Tel Aviv, Jaffa retains many interesting areas that go back many years and which the local inhabitants wish to preserve. Other groups in the city are trying to modernize and gentrify these areas and this is making it difficult for the older communities to remain where they are and to retain the ancient characteristics of the city which have made it a charming area to live in. This film tells the Romeo & Juliet story of an Israeli woman and Arab man who fall in love and carry on a secret romance.
Kirot delves into the world of prostitution and assassination in the back streets of Tel Aviv, while
Phobidilia deals with a protagonist who has taken refuge from the world in his apartment and refuses to leave.
In addition to the films on Tel Aviv, the Toronto International Film Festival will also be screening an additional number of the latest releases by the Israeli film industry. These include
Carmel, the latest work of director
Amos Gitai; Eyes Wide Open, a film about a religious young man in Jerusalem and the temptations of the modern world; Five Hours From Paris, a romantic story of new love;
Google Baby, film about surrogate motherhood; and
Lebanon, a film set during the first Lebanon War in 1982 and the dilemma of a small group of Israeli soldiers trying to decide whether to kill or be killed.
There are hundreds of other films playing at TIFF, this year, most of which have nothing to do with Israel or the Israeli-Palestinian situation. I’ll report on some of the exciting films in my next report. In the meantime, if you can make your way to the Toronto International Film Festival, you will be able to see some of these wonderful films for yourself.
