New Israeli movies that will be coming to a theater near you – eventually

It’s not only art-house films that are awaiting release.

By HANNAH BROWN
A SCENE from ‘Asia.’ (photo credit: DANIELLA NOWITZ)
A SCENE from ‘Asia.’
(photo credit: DANIELLA NOWITZ)
If and when movie theaters reopen – the proposed date has been pushed back to early July, and the details of the reopening plan are not clear – a whole slate of new Israeli films that have been sitting on the shelf will finally start to be released.
Since the releases of the spring/summer blockbusters – such as No Time to Die, the latest James Bond film and Wonder Woman 1984, starring Gal Gadot – have been delayed until at least the fall due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Israeli filmmakers are hoping their latest films will get the attention they deserve from a public starved for the big-screen movie experience. An industry source stressed there is no way of knowing right now which films will be released and when. The summer release season, especially for popular, mainstream movies and teen flicks, would normally have already begun, so there is some question as to whether these types of films will be released in July or will be held for next year’s summer season.
Another question preoccupying the Israeli film industry is which new film will be the opening movie at the Jerusalem Film Festival, which was delayed to August 20 from its planned July dates.
The opening-night film at a festival is usually a crowd-pleaser, meant to make the opening into an enjoyable event – and many in the film industry are betting Talya Lavie’s Honeymood, which has been described as a kind of rom-com with black humor, will fit the bill. It stars Ran Danker (Eyes Wide Open) and Avigail Harari (The Other Story) as bickering newlyweds in a honeymoon suite. The fact that it takes place in Jerusalem may give it a slight edge, since the festival likes to program movies set in the capital for the opening slot whenever possible. The film was set to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, which was held online at the start of the pandemic, but only movies in certain sections were shown (and these were shown only to juries and critics, not to audiences) and Honeymood was not included. Lavie’s previous film, Zero Motivation, about very unmotivated female IDF soldiers, was one of the biggest hits in the past decade and took the top prize for international features at Tribeca in 2014, as well as the Nora Ephron Prize for Lavie.
Two other Israeli films that were shown in competition in Tribeca were well-reviewed, Ruthy Pribar’s Asia and Eytan Fox’s Sublet. Asia tells the story of a complex relationship between a mother and a daughter of Russian descent, and how their unconventional bond leads them in unexpected directions. Its director, Pribar, became the second Israeli to win the Nora Ephron Award, and its star, Shira Haas, won the best actress award, and it also won for best cinematography.
Fox’s Sublet, which is almost entirely in English (full disclosure: I was a script editor on the film) tells the story of a gay New York Times travel writer who comes to Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy and how the energy of the city and his relationship with a younger man who becomes his tour guide bring him back to life. The writer is portrayed by Tony-Award winning actor John Benjamin Hickey, who played Neil Gross on The Good Wife.
The Cannes Film Festival, which had been planned for May, was canceled but released what would have been its lineup on Wednesday, and two Israeli films were among the 56 chosen. Nir Bergman’s fifth film, Here We Are, is the story of a man who plans to put his autistic son into an institution and at the last minute goes on an unplanned journey with him. It stars Shai Avivi and Noam Imber, Smadar Wolfman and Efrat Ben-Zur. Bergman’s films, Broken Wings and Intimate Grammar, both won the Grand Prix at the Tokyo International Film Festival but this is his first film at Cannes. The second Israeli Cannes film will be Dani Rosenberg’s film, The Death of Cinema and My Father Too. It is a highly personal story of his relationship with his father, their love of cinema and his father’s illness. It stars Marek Rozenbaum, one of Israel’s most accomplished movie producers, as the father and journalist/actor Roni Kuban as the son.
It’s not only art-house films that are awaiting release. Full Speed, the sequel to last summer’s hit teen motorcycle movie, Full Gas by Kobi Machat, has finished shooting and likely would have been one of the big local hits this summer.
Freeing Shuli, a new film by the popular comedy trio, Mah Kashur, should also be hitting theaters in the coming year.
New stars are waiting to emerge from this period. The distinctive young actress Haas has been giving critically acclaimed performances in Israeli films and television for years, in such movies as Foxtrot and shows including Shtisel. But in April, when she was named best actress at the Tribeca Film Festival for her performance in the movie Asia, she had already become internationally known from the hit Netflix miniseries, Unorthodox. Lihi Kornowski is another young actress who, until now, has been known mainly for her performances in television series, such as the second season of False Flag and Queens. But she has a small, but show-stopping role in Sublet and stars in Yossi Atia and David Ofek’s Born in Jerusalem and Still Alive. If these two films were released, her career would certainly soar, especially since she costars with veteran actress Ayelet Zurer in the new HOT series, Losing Alice, which was one of two new Israeli works selected by the Jerusalem Film Festival to represent Israel in the We Are One Global Film Festival on YouTube last week. Niv Nissim, who co-stars in Sublet, got the demanding role, which requires him to be sexy, funny and soulful right out of acting school, and audiences who saw the film in previews felt that a star had been born. But Haas, Kornowski, Nissim and other young stars have had to put their careers on hold for the last few months.
Some more established actors have given wonderful performances in films waiting to be released. One of these is Evgeny Ruman’s Golden Voices, the story of a Russian couple who were voiceover stars in the Soviet Union and have to adjust to a new life and new struggles in Israel. It stars Vladimir Feldman and Maria Belkin, two of Israel’s top Russian-born actors.
While there are more questions than answers about the future of moviegoing, it’s clear that there will be some homegrown hits lighting up the big screen when the outbreak is all over.


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Israeli cinema