“False Flag” director Oded Raz is set to direct “Jerusalem 67,” an epic period thriller retelling Israel’s unlikely victory during the Six Day War in 1967. The long-gestating project is getting ready to shoot on location in Jerusalem on Aug. 16 and is being produced by New York-based Joseph Schick, a U.S. lawyer who started developing it over a decade ago.
Yael Grobglas (“Supergirl”) is in advanced negotiations to play the lead role as a civilian haunted by a painful childhood who leaves her family to serve on the frontlines of war. Itzik Cohen, whose acting credits include “Fauda” and “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” is in advanced negotiations to join the cast.
The key crew includes cinematographer Daniel Miller, who won the Israel Film Academy’s Ophir Award for “Fig Tree” and production designer Yoram Shayer, who won Israel’s equivalent to the Oscars twice with “Ish HaHashmal” and “Turn Left at the End of the World...
Yael Grobglas (“Supergirl”) is in advanced negotiations to play the lead role as a civilian haunted by a painful childhood who leaves her family to serve on the frontlines of war. Itzik Cohen, whose acting credits include “Fauda” and “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” is in advanced negotiations to join the cast.
The key crew includes cinematographer Daniel Miller, who won the Israel Film Academy’s Ophir Award for “Fig Tree” and production designer Yoram Shayer, who won Israel’s equivalent to the Oscars twice with “Ish HaHashmal” and “Turn Left at the End of the World...
- 5/12/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
It’s a question integral to much of the current international immigration debate: When war breaks out, who gets to flee and who’s left with nowhere to run? As a child, writer-director Aalam-Warqe Davidian was among a majority of Ethiopian Jews who emigrated to Israel. In her loosely autobiographical feature debut, a teenager facing similar circumstances — an escape to safety amid the nation’s civl war — becomes frantic with worry over loved ones who may not have the option of flight.
Like the deceptive calm before a gathering storm, and with elements of lyricism and typical adolescent coming-of-age intrigue, “Fig Tree” is a fine drama whose seemingly casual progress only heightens its ultimate impact. The universal appeal of this Israeli and European co-production figures to earn it the kind of arthouse exposure too seldom enjoyed by African features.
Judaism has existed in what is now Ethiopia perhaps as far back as the fourth century,...
Like the deceptive calm before a gathering storm, and with elements of lyricism and typical adolescent coming-of-age intrigue, “Fig Tree” is a fine drama whose seemingly casual progress only heightens its ultimate impact. The universal appeal of this Israeli and European co-production figures to earn it the kind of arthouse exposure too seldom enjoyed by African features.
Judaism has existed in what is now Ethiopia perhaps as far back as the fourth century,...
- 1/18/2019
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Toronto Film Festival’s audience prize positions Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” in prime Oscar territory — five audience award winners have gone on to capture best picture, including “Slumdog Millionaire,” “12 Years a Slave,” “The King’s Speech,” “American Beauty” and “Chariots of Fire.” In 2016, the prize went to “La La Land,” while last year’s award went to “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” Both were nominated for best picture.
Peter Debruge wrote in his review of “Green Book” for Variety: “Featuring a pair of terrific performances by Viggo Mortensen as a goombah with a heart of gold and Mahershala Ali as multilingual composer-musician Don Shirley, the story may be unique, yet it goes pretty much exactly the way you might expect, with one huge twist: The credits read “Directed by Peter Farrelly” — which means this feel-good tour through American bigotry was made by one-half of the sibling duo responsible...
Peter Debruge wrote in his review of “Green Book” for Variety: “Featuring a pair of terrific performances by Viggo Mortensen as a goombah with a heart of gold and Mahershala Ali as multilingual composer-musician Don Shirley, the story may be unique, yet it goes pretty much exactly the way you might expect, with one huge twist: The credits read “Directed by Peter Farrelly” — which means this feel-good tour through American bigotry was made by one-half of the sibling duo responsible...
- 9/16/2018
- by Erin Nyren
- Variety Film + TV
Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” has won the Grolsch People’s Choice Award at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, Tiff announced at an awards ceremony on Sunday.
The film, which tells the true story of an Italian-American nightclub bouncer (Viggo Mortensen) who serves as the chauffeur for a black pianist on a tour through the Deep South in the early 1960s, opened at the festival on Tuesday and was an instant hit with audiences and critics, although Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” had been considered the likely winner of the People’s Choice Award.
Runners-up for the award were Barry Jenkins’ lyrical James Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk” and Alfonso Cuaron’s moving memory piece “Roma.”
Also Read: 'Green Book' Film Review: Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali Take a Perilous Road Trip Through the Deep South
In the past, Toronto audience members voted by...
The film, which tells the true story of an Italian-American nightclub bouncer (Viggo Mortensen) who serves as the chauffeur for a black pianist on a tour through the Deep South in the early 1960s, opened at the festival on Tuesday and was an instant hit with audiences and critics, although Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” had been considered the likely winner of the People’s Choice Award.
Runners-up for the award were Barry Jenkins’ lyrical James Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk” and Alfonso Cuaron’s moving memory piece “Roma.”
Also Read: 'Green Book' Film Review: Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali Take a Perilous Road Trip Through the Deep South
In the past, Toronto audience members voted by...
- 9/16/2018
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Peter Farrelly’s Green Book is the winner of this year’s sometimes Oscar-predictive Grolsch People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Last year’s winner Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri went on to be nominated for Best Picture and won two acting awards, but the ultimate Oscar winner for Best Picture, The Shape Of Water did not even make Tiff’s list of the top three audience favorites.
This year’s first runner up is Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk which Annapurna will release on November 30 and was warmly received at its Tiff World Premiere last Sunday. Second runner up is Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma which Netflix will debut in December and which recently won the Golden Lion top prize at Venice and is expected to be a major awards player this season.
The trophy is considered a bellwether of sorts for the awards...
This year’s first runner up is Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk which Annapurna will release on November 30 and was warmly received at its Tiff World Premiere last Sunday. Second runner up is Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma which Netflix will debut in December and which recently won the Golden Lion top prize at Venice and is expected to be a major awards player this season.
The trophy is considered a bellwether of sorts for the awards...
- 9/16/2018
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
"Life here is hell, but we have to beat hell, don't we?" says a character in writer-director Aalam-Warqe Davidian's Addis Ababa-set drama Fig Tree. The year is 1989 and the Ethiopian Civil War is raging, though when we first see 16-year-old Mina (Betalehem Asmamawe), she is making her way through a gorgeously verdant section of the "Shula" (or "fig") neighborhood. Despite the paradisiacal lushness of the locale, nature is indifferent to the suffering of the people who stride through it. Mengistu Haile Mariam, the chairman of the military junta known as the Derg, is in ...
- 9/13/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
"Life here is hell, but we have to beat hell, don't we?" says a character in writer-director Aalam-Warqe Davidian's Addis Ababa-set drama Fig Tree. The year is 1989 and the Ethiopian Civil War is raging, though when we first see 16-year-old Mina (Betalehem Asmamawe), she is making her way through a gorgeously verdant section of the "Shula" (or "fig") neighborhood. Despite the paradisiacal lushness of the locale, nature is indifferent to the suffering of the people who stride through it. Mengistu Haile Mariam, the chairman of the military junta known as the Derg, is in ...
- 9/13/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The festival programme includes a tribute to director Agnès Varda.
Haifa International Film Festival has unveiled the opening and closing night films, as well as a series of other additions to the programme, for its 34th edition (September 22 - October 1).
The festival will open with The Other Story, directed by Ari Nesher and starring Sasson Gabai, Joy Rieger, Yuval Segal, Maya Dagan and Nathan Goshen.
Co-written by Nesher and psychologist Noam Shpancer, the film follows a young secular woman who decides to get engaged to a hedonistic musician now living as an ultra-Orthodox Jew. This causes her divorced parents and...
Haifa International Film Festival has unveiled the opening and closing night films, as well as a series of other additions to the programme, for its 34th edition (September 22 - October 1).
The festival will open with The Other Story, directed by Ari Nesher and starring Sasson Gabai, Joy Rieger, Yuval Segal, Maya Dagan and Nathan Goshen.
Co-written by Nesher and psychologist Noam Shpancer, the film follows a young secular woman who decides to get engaged to a hedonistic musician now living as an ultra-Orthodox Jew. This causes her divorced parents and...
- 9/7/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Kenyan filmmaker Ng’endo Mukii recently lamented what she observed as a shocking scarcity of contemporary African films in top film festival lineups, but the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival is a happy exception. This year, Tiff maintains its history of ensuring that African cinema is well represented among its selections with as many as 15 feature films representing the continent, compared to about six that tell specifically African-American stories. Ahead of Tiff’s September 6 kickoff, here are eight highlights that center on black lives.
“Sew the Winter to My Skin” (South Africa)
South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka returns with his third feature, which was also a 2017 Cannes L’Atelier selection. The film is inspired by the life and times of John Kepe, a Robin Hood-esque rebel who lived in a mountain cave while stealing from colonist white farmers to give to the indigenous poor, eluding capture for years...
“Sew the Winter to My Skin” (South Africa)
South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka returns with his third feature, which was also a 2017 Cannes L’Atelier selection. The film is inspired by the life and times of John Kepe, a Robin Hood-esque rebel who lived in a mountain cave while stealing from colonist white farmers to give to the indigenous poor, eluding capture for years...
- 9/5/2018
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Israeli title Fig Tree among selection.
The Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 11-18) has revealed its line-up of Work in Progress titles set to participate at the event’s industry strand CineLink.
The 10 titles include Balkan projects, as well as several from further afield, such as Alamork Davidian’s Fig Tree, which recently won an award at Jerusalem Film Festival’s Pitch Point competition, and Reem Saleh’s Lebanon-Egypt doc What Comes Around.
The projects will be presented to around 40 industry delegates, and a jury consisting of Paolo Bertolin (Venice Film Festival), Paz Lazaro (Berlin International Film Festival), Hedi Zardi (LuxBox), Petra Gobel (The Post Republic) and Serkan Yildirim (Trt) will award three prizes: the Post Republic Award (€50,000 in kind), the CineLink Restart Award (€20,000 in kind), and the Turkish National Radio Television Award (€30,000 in cash).
Sarajevo’s head of industry Jovan Marjanovic commented: “The CineLink Work in Progress strand has proved to be incredibly effective for both the...
The Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 11-18) has revealed its line-up of Work in Progress titles set to participate at the event’s industry strand CineLink.
The 10 titles include Balkan projects, as well as several from further afield, such as Alamork Davidian’s Fig Tree, which recently won an award at Jerusalem Film Festival’s Pitch Point competition, and Reem Saleh’s Lebanon-Egypt doc What Comes Around.
The projects will be presented to around 40 industry delegates, and a jury consisting of Paolo Bertolin (Venice Film Festival), Paz Lazaro (Berlin International Film Festival), Hedi Zardi (LuxBox), Petra Gobel (The Post Republic) and Serkan Yildirim (Trt) will award three prizes: the Post Republic Award (€50,000 in kind), the CineLink Restart Award (€20,000 in kind), and the Turkish National Radio Television Award (€30,000 in cash).
Sarajevo’s head of industry Jovan Marjanovic commented: “The CineLink Work in Progress strand has proved to be incredibly effective for both the...
- 7/26/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Wise Hassan, Asia take top prizes.
The winners from the 12th edition of Jerusalem Pitch Point have been unveiled at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
The initiative’s top prize, dubbed the Van Leer Award and worth $5,500 (20,000 Nis), went to Palestinian filmmaker Tawfik Abu Wael’s Wise Hassan.
A Tel Aviv-set thriller, the film marks the director’s third feature after Thirst (Atash), which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2004, and Last Days In Jerusalem.
It is being produced by Baher Agbariya at Haifa-based Majdal Films, who presented the project alongside Abu Wael at the Jerusalem Pitch Point event on Sunday (July 16).
The Db & Opus Award, which comes with post-production services in the value of $15,000 (55,000 Nis), was presented to Ruthy Pribar’s Asia.
The project was presented by Yoav Roeh and Aurit Zamir of Tel-Aviv based Gum Films. It is currently completing financing ahead of production. The story will follow a 35-year-old mother who must face the death...
The winners from the 12th edition of Jerusalem Pitch Point have been unveiled at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
The initiative’s top prize, dubbed the Van Leer Award and worth $5,500 (20,000 Nis), went to Palestinian filmmaker Tawfik Abu Wael’s Wise Hassan.
A Tel Aviv-set thriller, the film marks the director’s third feature after Thirst (Atash), which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2004, and Last Days In Jerusalem.
It is being produced by Baher Agbariya at Haifa-based Majdal Films, who presented the project alongside Abu Wael at the Jerusalem Pitch Point event on Sunday (July 16).
The Db & Opus Award, which comes with post-production services in the value of $15,000 (55,000 Nis), was presented to Ruthy Pribar’s Asia.
The project was presented by Yoav Roeh and Aurit Zamir of Tel-Aviv based Gum Films. It is currently completing financing ahead of production. The story will follow a 35-year-old mother who must face the death...
- 7/17/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
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