Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
bourekas comedies of the 1970s. The “unauthentic” Heli also has no emotional connection
with her autistic daughter, who bursts into frantic screams when she tries to approach her.
Her husband is far away (his voice is heard only on the telephone), and she hardly ever smiles.
This approach is a direct product of cultural and political upheavals in Israeli society since
the early 1990s: the massive immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union and the rise of
Shas, a Mizrahi Orthodox political party whose voters are mainly Jews of North African origin.
These fi lms acknowledge Israel as a diverse society.
Contemporary Israeli cinema has enjoyed both domestic and international success. Etgar
Keret, a popular and startlingly original comic writer, and Shira Geffen co-directed
Jellyfi sh
,
which won the Camera d'Or award at Cannes in 2007; Sasson Gabai won the European Film
Award for Best Actor in 2007 for his portrayal of the chief of the Egyptian Ceremonial Police
Orchestra in
The Band's Visit
(Eran Kolirin, 2007); and Joseph Cedar's
Beaufort
won the Silver
Bear for Best Direction at Berlin in 2007.
Beaufort
, about Israeli soldiers during the last days
before the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, was also nominated in 2008 for an Acad-
emy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Poster for the Israeli anima-
tion documentary
Waltz with
Bashir
(2008), directed by Ari
Folman. The fi lm was winner
of the Golden Globe Award
for Best Foreign Language
Film and an Academy Award
nominee. (Getty Images / Im-
age Bank.)
