Israel’s Reshet 13 is attached to “Dust and Coal,” selected for Series Mania’s Forum Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.
The eight-episode thriller focuses on a Mossad assassin, Esther, whose world collapses when her father reveals to her that she is, in fact, a Syrian sleeper spy. Planted in Israel as a child, as part of a Kgb program, her activation time has come.
Produced by Ronen Ben Tal for Bental Productions Ltd and France’s Morgane Le Moine for First Love, the show was created by Ben Tal, Ron Ninio – who will also direct – Eleanor Sela and Ofer Seker, co-creator of “Uri and Ella”, now airing on HBO Max.
“It’s a dark, realistic psychological drama. The spy arena is just an excuse to explore complex family dynamics and our main character’s journey of emancipation,” says Ben Tal, also promising an insight into the “backstage” of spy missions in Israel.
The eight-episode thriller focuses on a Mossad assassin, Esther, whose world collapses when her father reveals to her that she is, in fact, a Syrian sleeper spy. Planted in Israel as a child, as part of a Kgb program, her activation time has come.
Produced by Ronen Ben Tal for Bental Productions Ltd and France’s Morgane Le Moine for First Love, the show was created by Ben Tal, Ron Ninio – who will also direct – Eleanor Sela and Ofer Seker, co-creator of “Uri and Ella”, now airing on HBO Max.
“It’s a dark, realistic psychological drama. The spy arena is just an excuse to explore complex family dynamics and our main character’s journey of emancipation,” says Ben Tal, also promising an insight into the “backstage” of spy missions in Israel.
- 3/15/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Berlin-based sales agency M-Appeal has closed the first deal for its erotic gay thriller “In Bed,” selling the rights for France to Optimale Distribution, ahead of the film’s international premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. M-Appeal boarded the film, Nitzan Gilady’s second feature, at script stage.
“In Bed” unfolds over the 24 hours after a shooting takes place at an LGBTQ pride parade in Tel Aviv. Best friends Guy, 28, and Joy, 31, retreat to the safety of Guy’s home, taking fellow pride parader Dan with them.
With an electric, pop aesthetic, and original soundtrack by Offer Nissim, the film is “an immersive and suspenseful journey into a night of erotic encounters, drugs and paranoia.” One of the main themes of the film is chemsex, a topic rarely represented in cinema, which Gilady explores head on.
Gilady said: “Rather than stigmatizing, I wanted to show this side of our culture in a truthful way.
“In Bed” unfolds over the 24 hours after a shooting takes place at an LGBTQ pride parade in Tel Aviv. Best friends Guy, 28, and Joy, 31, retreat to the safety of Guy’s home, taking fellow pride parader Dan with them.
With an electric, pop aesthetic, and original soundtrack by Offer Nissim, the film is “an immersive and suspenseful journey into a night of erotic encounters, drugs and paranoia.” One of the main themes of the film is chemsex, a topic rarely represented in cinema, which Gilady explores head on.
Gilady said: “Rather than stigmatizing, I wanted to show this side of our culture in a truthful way.
- 10/31/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Eight-part drama was among 15 projects pitched in Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.
Russian producer Alexander Rodnyansky and UK writer Matt Jones clinched the main €50,000 project prize at French TV festival and industry event Series Mania on Monday (August 30) for Lgbtqia+ period drama Red Rainbow.
It was among 15 drama projects pitched at Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, a key strand of the event’s industry-focused Forum programme, taking place within the framework of the TV festival unfolding in Lille from August 26 to September 2.
Inspired by true events in the late 1970s, the eight-part drama revolves around three gay activists...
Russian producer Alexander Rodnyansky and UK writer Matt Jones clinched the main €50,000 project prize at French TV festival and industry event Series Mania on Monday (August 30) for Lgbtqia+ period drama Red Rainbow.
It was among 15 drama projects pitched at Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, a key strand of the event’s industry-focused Forum programme, taking place within the framework of the TV festival unfolding in Lille from August 26 to September 2.
Inspired by true events in the late 1970s, the eight-part drama revolves around three gay activists...
- 8/31/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Expansive Paris-based media group Mediawan has picked up international sales rights to the Jerusalem-set ultra-orthodox drama “The Rabbi,” which participates in this year’s Series Mania Forum at its Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.
Abuses of power aren’t unique to any one nationality, gender, sexual orientation or religion. With “The Rabbi,” celebrated filmmaker Eytan Fox proposes a fictionalized drama inspired by a true story which shocked Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community that proves that such abuses can happen almost anywhere.
“The Rabbi” turns on a powerful and well-known university professor from Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox community who uses his position to influence his male students into physical relationships. Although the students are all in their 20s and the relationships consensual, there is uproar when the truth comes out, both regarding the Rabbi engaging in relationships with his subordinates and the fact that this superstar clergyman is a closeted gay man.
Stylistically and thematically,...
Abuses of power aren’t unique to any one nationality, gender, sexual orientation or religion. With “The Rabbi,” celebrated filmmaker Eytan Fox proposes a fictionalized drama inspired by a true story which shocked Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community that proves that such abuses can happen almost anywhere.
“The Rabbi” turns on a powerful and well-known university professor from Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox community who uses his position to influence his male students into physical relationships. Although the students are all in their 20s and the relationships consensual, there is uproar when the truth comes out, both regarding the Rabbi engaging in relationships with his subordinates and the fact that this superstar clergyman is a closeted gay man.
Stylistically and thematically,...
- 8/9/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
New Indie
Emma Seligman’s impressive “Shiva Baby” (Utopia) premieres on Blu-ray this month, and it’s a blisteringly funny, character-based comedy about a young Danielle (played by Rachel Sennott) whose rootless life when she attends a shiva with her parents (Fred Melamed and Polly Draper), only to encounter the boyfriend who’s financially supporting her, his wife — whom Danielle didn’t know existed — and Danielle’s ex-girlfriend. It’s a full buffet of misunderstandings, awkward encounters, and scene-stealing character actors, with a cast that also includes Jackie Hoffman, Dianna Agron, and Molly Gordon.
Also available: A jaded clickbait reporter has an unforgettable encounter in the indie comedy “15 Things You Didn’t Know About Bigfoot” (Kino Lorber); over-the-hill kung fu disciples rouse themselves from mid-life torpor to avenge the death of their master in the martial-arts comedy “The Paper Tigers” (Well Go USA Entertainment).
New Foreign
Eytan Fox’s cultural-generational...
Emma Seligman’s impressive “Shiva Baby” (Utopia) premieres on Blu-ray this month, and it’s a blisteringly funny, character-based comedy about a young Danielle (played by Rachel Sennott) whose rootless life when she attends a shiva with her parents (Fred Melamed and Polly Draper), only to encounter the boyfriend who’s financially supporting her, his wife — whom Danielle didn’t know existed — and Danielle’s ex-girlfriend. It’s a full buffet of misunderstandings, awkward encounters, and scene-stealing character actors, with a cast that also includes Jackie Hoffman, Dianna Agron, and Molly Gordon.
Also available: A jaded clickbait reporter has an unforgettable encounter in the indie comedy “15 Things You Didn’t Know About Bigfoot” (Kino Lorber); over-the-hill kung fu disciples rouse themselves from mid-life torpor to avenge the death of their master in the martial-arts comedy “The Paper Tigers” (Well Go USA Entertainment).
New Foreign
Eytan Fox’s cultural-generational...
- 7/8/2021
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
If you didn’t Meet The Blacks in 2016, they’re back this weekend in Deon Taylor’s second horror-comedy installment.
The first film was a send-up of The Purge. This one – The House Next Door: Meet The Blacks 2 — goes gothic. Star Mike Epps returns as Carl Black, about to face off with a neighbor from hell, Dr. Mamuwalde (Katt Williams). He’s a pimp who may or may not be a vampire and Carl’s got to figure out what he’s up to in the middle of the night before it’s too late for him and his family.
“In 2016, I made this little movie that cost $900,000. We put it out there ourselves, independently, cut our own trailers, did our own marketing,” Taylor told Deadline. It made $9.1 million. His credits since include Fatale and Black and Blue, “but everywhere I would go, people would say, “Are you going...
The first film was a send-up of The Purge. This one – The House Next Door: Meet The Blacks 2 — goes gothic. Star Mike Epps returns as Carl Black, about to face off with a neighbor from hell, Dr. Mamuwalde (Katt Williams). He’s a pimp who may or may not be a vampire and Carl’s got to figure out what he’s up to in the middle of the night before it’s too late for him and his family.
“In 2016, I made this little movie that cost $900,000. We put it out there ourselves, independently, cut our own trailers, did our own marketing,” Taylor told Deadline. It made $9.1 million. His credits since include Fatale and Black and Blue, “but everywhere I would go, people would say, “Are you going...
- 6/11/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
A middle-aged gay American travel writer rents an apartment in Tel Aviv from a laid-back film student in Eytan Fox’s formulaic audience-pleaser, “Sublet.” Venturing ever so discreetly into the kind of darker ruminations that marked his best-known films, . With two screenwriters (including the director) and three script editors credited, it may be a classic “too many cooks” situation, as the whole structure is as risk-free and standardized as a TV film, though newcomer Niv Nissem provides a freshness that papers over the conventionality of it all. Fox’s name recognition and the easy way the film goes down made it a festival success whose popularity will increase once streaming begins.
The first glimpse of Michael (John Benjamin Hickey) arriving in Israel tells everything about the guy: late 50s, blue Oxford shirt, white undershirt, “travel ready” cream-colored jacket. His conservative wardrobe doesn’t change, reflecting his rigidity. This is the...
The first glimpse of Michael (John Benjamin Hickey) arriving in Israel tells everything about the guy: late 50s, blue Oxford shirt, white undershirt, “travel ready” cream-colored jacket. His conservative wardrobe doesn’t change, reflecting his rigidity. This is the...
- 6/10/2021
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
June, when it’s not “bustin’ out all over” is vacation time, so break out of your rut and fly away to exotic places. Or maybe just watch someone else do that at the ole’ multiplex. Yes, that “someone”, the story’s main character, truly needs to “shake things up”. He’s a middle-aged American writer who’s dealing with a “rough patch’ in his relationship. And since he writes travel articles, what better excuse for a “change of scenery”. Could he be bound for a pacific island, sipping one of those umbrella drinks as the sand squishes between his toes?. Or even south of the border, at a swanky resort. You’re not even close. His preferred sand is over in Israel. And rather than indulging in a fancy five-star hotel, he’s brokered a sweet deal on a Sublet.
We first meet fifty-something writer Michael (John Benjamin Hickey...
We first meet fifty-something writer Michael (John Benjamin Hickey...
- 6/10/2021
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Sublet Greenwich Entertainment Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Eytan Fox Writer: Eytan Fox, Itay Segal Cast: John Benjamin Hickey, Niv Nissim Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/27/21 Opens: June 11 in theaters. July 9 on demand. There is something to be said for staying at George V […]
The post Sublet Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Sublet Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 6/6/2021
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
After earning acclaim with Yossi & Jagger, Walk on Water, The Bubble, and more, Israeli director Eytan Fox is returning to feature filmmaking for the first time in nearly a decade with Sublet. A selection at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, the film will now arrive next month and the first trailer has landed.
Starring Tony Award-winning and Emmy-nominated John Benjamin Hickey and featuring the debut of Niv Nissim, Sublet focuses on a New York Times writer (Hickey) who visits Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy. The city’s energy and his relationship with a younger man he meets there (Nissim) bring him back to life.
“With rich, nuanced work by both lead actors, subtle writing and an unhurried pace, as the two men get to know one another they each make an indelible impression on the other,” said The Queer Review‘s James Kleinmann. “Along the way, Michael...
Starring Tony Award-winning and Emmy-nominated John Benjamin Hickey and featuring the debut of Niv Nissim, Sublet focuses on a New York Times writer (Hickey) who visits Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy. The city’s energy and his relationship with a younger man he meets there (Nissim) bring him back to life.
“With rich, nuanced work by both lead actors, subtle writing and an unhurried pace, as the two men get to know one another they each make an indelible impression on the other,” said The Queer Review‘s James Kleinmann. “Along the way, Michael...
- 5/17/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
“The Bubble,” “Walk on Water,” and “Yossi and Jagger” director Eytan Fox returns to the terrain of gay introspective dramas with the new film “Sublet,” which opens on June 11 in theaters from Greenwich Entertainment. It will also be available on demand on July 9. The film offers a sort of Israeli spin on “Weekend,” with a writer arriving in Tel Aviv to reflect on life and love with a younger man. John Benjamin Hickey and Niv Nissim star. Watch the trailer below.
Michael (Hickey), a travel columnist for The New York Times , goes to Tel Aviv to write an article after suffering a tragedy. He is still grieving and the loss has caused problems between him and his husband. He just wants to do his research and go home. But when he sublets an apartment from Tomer (Nissim), a young film student, he finds himself drawn into the life of the city.
Michael (Hickey), a travel columnist for The New York Times , goes to Tel Aviv to write an article after suffering a tragedy. He is still grieving and the loss has caused problems between him and his husband. He just wants to do his research and go home. But when he sublets an apartment from Tomer (Nissim), a young film student, he finds himself drawn into the life of the city.
- 5/15/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
"Don't think it's too late for you." Greenwich Entertainment has released the first official trailer for an indie drama titled Sublet, from Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox. This originally premiered last year at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival & Vancouver Jewish Film Festival, and it also stopped by BFI Flare, after originally being set to premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. In Sublet, a NY Times travel writer comes to Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy, and he meets a young man who becomes his local tour guide. The energy of the city and his relationship with Tomer bring him back to life. The film features two stellar performances – from the Tony award winner John Benjamin Hickey and a breakout role from Niv Nissim as Tomer. The small cast includes Lihi Kornowski, Miki Kam, Peter Spears, and Tamir Ginsburg. This looks like a heartfelt, authentic look at the charm & beauty ...
- 5/13/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox returns with a new look at the LGBTQ+ experience. “Sublet” showcases how one person’s personal tragedies can transform their entire world; it also serves as a tale balanced by the constructs of generational perceptions. The film premiered as part of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. Since then, the project played at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival, Vancouver Jewish Film Festival, BFI Flare London LGBTQ+ Film Festival, and Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival.
Summer 2021
Preview: Over 50 Movies To Watch
Fox established himself among the international film community thanks to titles that cover both societal and personal perspectives.
Continue reading ‘Sublet’ Trailer: John Benjamin Hickey Stars In Eytan Fox’s Latest Look At The LGBTQ+ Experience at The Playlist.
Summer 2021
Preview: Over 50 Movies To Watch
Fox established himself among the international film community thanks to titles that cover both societal and personal perspectives.
Continue reading ‘Sublet’ Trailer: John Benjamin Hickey Stars In Eytan Fox’s Latest Look At The LGBTQ+ Experience at The Playlist.
- 5/13/2021
- by Valerie Thompson
- The Playlist
Lgbtiq+ film festival comprises 26 features and four world premieres.
BFI Flare: London Lgbtiq+ Film Festival has revealed the programme for its 35th edition, which will take place virtually from March 17-28.
The festival has selected 26 features, which include four world premieres, six international premieres and one European premiere.
Scroll down for full list of titles
Receiving their world premieres are Peeter Rebane’s Firebird, a love story set in the Soviet Air Force during the Cold War; Daniel Sánchez López’s German feature Boy Meets Boy, about two young men who fall for each other over the course of a...
BFI Flare: London Lgbtiq+ Film Festival has revealed the programme for its 35th edition, which will take place virtually from March 17-28.
The festival has selected 26 features, which include four world premieres, six international premieres and one European premiere.
Scroll down for full list of titles
Receiving their world premieres are Peeter Rebane’s Firebird, a love story set in the Soviet Air Force during the Cold War; Daniel Sánchez López’s German feature Boy Meets Boy, about two young men who fall for each other over the course of a...
- 2/23/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: The 34th Israel Film Festival Los Angeles has confirmed its line-up for this year’s edition, which will be held entirely online for the first time.
Running December 13 – 27, the fest will screen 23 features, including two U.S. premieres, Israel’s Oscar submission this year, Asia, as well as a number of past Ophir award winners. The event will also host Q&As after each film with talent.
Asia opens the festival having recently won Best Film at this year’s Ophir Awards, Israel’s top film awards, which automatically makes it the Oscar contender for 2021. The film also won Ophirs for Best Actress, Supporting Actress and Cinematography.
The festival will present its 2020 Iff Lifetime Achievement Award to Meir Feningstein, the event’s founder and executive director. It will also screen concert documentary Poogy / Kaveret 2013 Reunion Concert, centered on the band for which Feningstein is the drummer.
“As the world faces enormous disruption and loss,...
Running December 13 – 27, the fest will screen 23 features, including two U.S. premieres, Israel’s Oscar submission this year, Asia, as well as a number of past Ophir award winners. The event will also host Q&As after each film with talent.
Asia opens the festival having recently won Best Film at this year’s Ophir Awards, Israel’s top film awards, which automatically makes it the Oscar contender for 2021. The film also won Ophirs for Best Actress, Supporting Actress and Cinematography.
The festival will present its 2020 Iff Lifetime Achievement Award to Meir Feningstein, the event’s founder and executive director. It will also screen concert documentary Poogy / Kaveret 2013 Reunion Concert, centered on the band for which Feningstein is the drummer.
“As the world faces enormous disruption and loss,...
- 11/30/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
After being postponed twice, the 37th edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival will take place Dec. 10-20. Due to the pandemic, the festival will be held mostly virtually, with the intent of hosting some physical screenings in compliance with the health guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and local authorities.
The fest will kick off with Eytan Fox’s “Sublet,” which had its world premiere at Tribeca, and will wrap with Emmanuel Mouret’s “Love Affair(s),” which was part of Cannes 2020’s Official Selection.
This year’s edition will showcase more than 80 films and will hold six competitive sections. The virtual screenings will be held in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72.
“We believe there is no substitute for the actual encounters (…). However, due to this year’s unique conditions, and out of a deep commitment to our audience and filmmakers in Israel and abroad, we decided to...
The fest will kick off with Eytan Fox’s “Sublet,” which had its world premiere at Tribeca, and will wrap with Emmanuel Mouret’s “Love Affair(s),” which was part of Cannes 2020’s Official Selection.
This year’s edition will showcase more than 80 films and will hold six competitive sections. The virtual screenings will be held in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72.
“We believe there is no substitute for the actual encounters (…). However, due to this year’s unique conditions, and out of a deep commitment to our audience and filmmakers in Israel and abroad, we decided to...
- 11/11/2020
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The 32nd annual NewFest, New York’s LGBTQ Film Festival is bringing queer cinema to audience’s homes this year in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The diverse offerings at this year’s virtual festival should delight LGBTQ cinephiles of many tastes. The queer film fest will offer screenings through October 27, and the following five movies are some of the best on display.
“Ammonite”
NewFest 2020 is not completely devoid of in-person events, thanks to a select few drive-in screenings. The first of which was “Ammonite,” the highest profile awards contender of the lineup. The film by Francis Lee depicts the real life relationship between paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and a young woman (Saorise Ronan) in the 1840s. Those in attendance at the Queen’s Drive-In were lucky enough not only to experience the sweeping period romance, but also witnessed Winslet virtually present the inaugural World Queer Visionary Award to director Francis Lee.
“Ammonite”
NewFest 2020 is not completely devoid of in-person events, thanks to a select few drive-in screenings. The first of which was “Ammonite,” the highest profile awards contender of the lineup. The film by Francis Lee depicts the real life relationship between paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and a young woman (Saorise Ronan) in the 1840s. Those in attendance at the Queen’s Drive-In were lucky enough not only to experience the sweeping period romance, but also witnessed Winslet virtually present the inaugural World Queer Visionary Award to director Francis Lee.
- 10/26/2020
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has picked up the North American distribution rights to Eytan Fox’s Israeli drama Sublet with a plan to release the movie in 2021.
The deal was negotiated by Greenwich’s Ed Arentz and UTA Independent Film Group on behalf of the filmmakers.
The movie, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, stars Tony Award-winning and Emmy-nominated John Benjamin Hickey and features the debut of Niv Nissim. Sublet focuses on a New York Times writer (Hickey) who visits Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy. The city’s energy and his relationship with a younger man he meets there (Nissim) bring him back to life.
“I’m so happy that Greenwich Entertainment will be releasing Sublet, because it’s a movie that celebrates the free-dom we had before this Covid-19 outbreak: to travel, explore, make connections and get a new take on the world,” says Fox.
“It’s about...
The deal was negotiated by Greenwich’s Ed Arentz and UTA Independent Film Group on behalf of the filmmakers.
The movie, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, stars Tony Award-winning and Emmy-nominated John Benjamin Hickey and features the debut of Niv Nissim. Sublet focuses on a New York Times writer (Hickey) who visits Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy. The city’s energy and his relationship with a younger man he meets there (Nissim) bring him back to life.
“I’m so happy that Greenwich Entertainment will be releasing Sublet, because it’s a movie that celebrates the free-dom we had before this Covid-19 outbreak: to travel, explore, make connections and get a new take on the world,” says Fox.
“It’s about...
- 8/13/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
When movies
position a main character as a globe-trotting, emotionally unmoored soul
searcher with a damaged heart, why do they always make them a writer? Everyone’s
seen this movie before; a protagonist, usually a writer, jets off to an exotic
locale to recover from an emotional trial, they soak up the culture, rediscover
a lost part of themselves, and inevitably fall for the all-knowing local that’s
been nudging them along. “Sublet” runs with this recipe without many
deviations, using the basic outline from “Under the Tuscan Sun,” “Eat Pray
Love,” and the Colin Firth bit from “Love Actually” with an Israeli, Lgbtq
slant.
Continue reading Eytan Fox’s ‘Sublet’ Walks a Well-Worn Path [Review] at The Playlist.
position a main character as a globe-trotting, emotionally unmoored soul
searcher with a damaged heart, why do they always make them a writer? Everyone’s
seen this movie before; a protagonist, usually a writer, jets off to an exotic
locale to recover from an emotional trial, they soak up the culture, rediscover
a lost part of themselves, and inevitably fall for the all-knowing local that’s
been nudging them along. “Sublet” runs with this recipe without many
deviations, using the basic outline from “Under the Tuscan Sun,” “Eat Pray
Love,” and the Colin Firth bit from “Love Actually” with an Israeli, Lgbtq
slant.
Continue reading Eytan Fox’s ‘Sublet’ Walks a Well-Worn Path [Review] at The Playlist.
- 4/18/2020
- by Warren Cantrell
- The Playlist
[Note: In the wake of the Tribeca festival's postponement this year, The Hollywood Reporter is reviewing select entries that elected to premiere digitally.]
Israeli director Eytan Fox, who landed on the map with his 2002 gay military romance Yossi & Jagger, brings sensitivity, restraint and slow-burn sensuality to a story of cross-generational emotional awakening in Sublet. John Benjamin Hickey's Michael, a New York Times travel writer whose column aims to discover as much as possible about his destination in just five days, finds Tel Aviv to be "full of contradictions, chaotic and intense, but at the same time ...
Israeli director Eytan Fox, who landed on the map with his 2002 gay military romance Yossi & Jagger, brings sensitivity, restraint and slow-burn sensuality to a story of cross-generational emotional awakening in Sublet. John Benjamin Hickey's Michael, a New York Times travel writer whose column aims to discover as much as possible about his destination in just five days, finds Tel Aviv to be "full of contradictions, chaotic and intense, but at the same time ...
- 4/17/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
[Note: In the wake of the Tribeca festival's postponement this year, The Hollywood Reporter is reviewing select entries that elected to premiere digitally.]
Israeli director Eytan Fox, who landed on the map with his 2002 gay military romance Yossi & Jagger, brings sensitivity, restraint and slow-burn sensuality to a story of cross-generational emotional awakening in Sublet. John Benjamin Hickey's Michael, a New York Times travel writer whose column aims to discover as much as possible about his destination in just five days, finds Tel Aviv to be "full of contradictions, chaotic and intense, but at the same time ...
Israeli director Eytan Fox, who landed on the map with his 2002 gay military romance Yossi & Jagger, brings sensitivity, restraint and slow-burn sensuality to a story of cross-generational emotional awakening in Sublet. John Benjamin Hickey's Michael, a New York Times travel writer whose column aims to discover as much as possible about his destination in just five days, finds Tel Aviv to be "full of contradictions, chaotic and intense, but at the same time ...
- 4/17/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President to open festival as previously announced.
The world premieres of The Trip To Greece and a documentary about Sean Penn’s relief work in Haiti, as well as the inaugural Women at Work documentary showcase are among the line-up of 115 features announced by Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday (3).
Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip To Greece reunites Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon and marks the fourth feature entry in the comedy series. It screens in Spotlight Narrative.
Don Hardy’s documentary Citizen Plus screens in Movies Plus and chronicles Penn’s activism and charitable work in the disaster-struck Caribbean island nation.
The world premieres of The Trip To Greece and a documentary about Sean Penn’s relief work in Haiti, as well as the inaugural Women at Work documentary showcase are among the line-up of 115 features announced by Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday (3).
Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip To Greece reunites Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon and marks the fourth feature entry in the comedy series. It screens in Spotlight Narrative.
Don Hardy’s documentary Citizen Plus screens in Movies Plus and chronicles Penn’s activism and charitable work in the disaster-struck Caribbean island nation.
- 3/3/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President to open festival as previously announced.
The world premiere of a documentary about Sean Penn’s relief work in Haiti and the inaugural Women at Work documentary showcase are among the line-up of 115 features announced by Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday (3).
Don Hardy’s documentary Citizen Plus screens in Movies Plus and chronicles Penn’s activism and charitable work in the disaster-struck Caribbean island nation.
The Us premiere of HBO’s Toronto dark comedy pick-up Bad Education starring Hugh Jackman screens in Spotlight Narrative, the same section that will show the New York premiere of...
The world premiere of a documentary about Sean Penn’s relief work in Haiti and the inaugural Women at Work documentary showcase are among the line-up of 115 features announced by Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday (3).
Don Hardy’s documentary Citizen Plus screens in Movies Plus and chronicles Penn’s activism and charitable work in the disaster-struck Caribbean island nation.
The Us premiere of HBO’s Toronto dark comedy pick-up Bad Education starring Hugh Jackman screens in Spotlight Narrative, the same section that will show the New York premiere of...
- 3/3/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Michal Aviad on Glenn Close and Michael Douglas in Adrian Lyne's Fatal Attraction and Demi Moore and Douglas in Barry Levinson's Disclosure: "Before writing and while writing and researching I looked for films that deal with sexual harassment." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Michal Aviad's Working Woman, co-written with Sharon Azulay Eyal and Michal Vinik, shot by Daniel Miller, stars Liron Ben-Shlush (Asaf Korman's Next to Her), Menashe Noy (Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz' Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem), and Oshri Cohen with Irit Sheleg (Rama Burshtein's Fill The Void), and is produced by Amir Harel (Eytan Fox's Walk On Water which starred Lior Ashkenazi) and Ayelet Kait.
Michal Aviad on Liron Ben-Shlush as Orna in Working Woman: "I want to know how does it feel to be inside the female protagonist and try to look at it from her point of view.
Michal Aviad's Working Woman, co-written with Sharon Azulay Eyal and Michal Vinik, shot by Daniel Miller, stars Liron Ben-Shlush (Asaf Korman's Next to Her), Menashe Noy (Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz' Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem), and Oshri Cohen with Irit Sheleg (Rama Burshtein's Fill The Void), and is produced by Amir Harel (Eytan Fox's Walk On Water which starred Lior Ashkenazi) and Ayelet Kait.
Michal Aviad on Liron Ben-Shlush as Orna in Working Woman: "I want to know how does it feel to be inside the female protagonist and try to look at it from her point of view.
- 4/2/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Richard Gere (Norman Oppenheimer) with Lior Ashkenazi (Micha Eshel) at Lanvin: "It's almost like theater."
Star of Joseph Cedar's Footnote and Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer, Lior Ashkenazi, spoke with me on growing up seeing Kirk Douglas, Steve McQueen, and Paul Newman movies with his father, Burt Lancaster in Robert Siodmak's The Crimson Pirate being his first, shooting Eytan Fox's Walk On Water at Berlin's Tempelhof airport, meeting Son Of Saul director László Nemes at the Cannes Film Festival, and performing a silent scene with Richard Gere.
Lior's upcoming films include Julie Delpy's My Zoe (with Gemma Arterton, Richard Armitage, Daniel Brühl); Dragos Buliga's The Wanderers (Armand Assante); Eran Riklis's Refuge (Golshifteh Farahani, Neta Riskin), Samuel Maoz's Foxtrot (Sarah Adler), and José Padilha's Entebbe (Rosamund Pike, Brühl), where he portrays Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Star of Joseph Cedar's Footnote and Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer, Lior Ashkenazi, spoke with me on growing up seeing Kirk Douglas, Steve McQueen, and Paul Newman movies with his father, Burt Lancaster in Robert Siodmak's The Crimson Pirate being his first, shooting Eytan Fox's Walk On Water at Berlin's Tempelhof airport, meeting Son Of Saul director László Nemes at the Cannes Film Festival, and performing a silent scene with Richard Gere.
Lior's upcoming films include Julie Delpy's My Zoe (with Gemma Arterton, Richard Armitage, Daniel Brühl); Dragos Buliga's The Wanderers (Armand Assante); Eran Riklis's Refuge (Golshifteh Farahani, Neta Riskin), Samuel Maoz's Foxtrot (Sarah Adler), and José Padilha's Entebbe (Rosamund Pike, Brühl), where he portrays Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
- 5/12/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Member of the Wedding: Zexer’s Debut Churns Empathy from Obscene Custom
We’ve seen an increasing tide of feminist perspective narratives detailing the despicable social sleights faced by women in various (usually Middle Eastern) cultures, many of these focusing on a particularly awkward situation where tradition allows men to take a second wife while his first is still alive and well. Such is the starting point for Sand Storm, the impressive debut from Israeli filmmaker Elite Zexer. But audiences thinking they’re already familiar with how these pained scenarios tend to unfold will be pleasantly surprised when they realize Zexer has something a bit more complex and unpredictable in store. What begins as a tale concerning a powerless woman begrudgingly accepting her fate becomes a moving portrait of a mother commending better possibilities for the future of her daughter, creating a glimmer of hope in an endless denial of agency.
We’ve seen an increasing tide of feminist perspective narratives detailing the despicable social sleights faced by women in various (usually Middle Eastern) cultures, many of these focusing on a particularly awkward situation where tradition allows men to take a second wife while his first is still alive and well. Such is the starting point for Sand Storm, the impressive debut from Israeli filmmaker Elite Zexer. But audiences thinking they’re already familiar with how these pained scenarios tend to unfold will be pleasantly surprised when they realize Zexer has something a bit more complex and unpredictable in store. What begins as a tale concerning a powerless woman begrudgingly accepting her fate becomes a moving portrait of a mother commending better possibilities for the future of her daughter, creating a glimmer of hope in an endless denial of agency.
- 1/26/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Eytan Fox loves Eurovision. The filmmaker known for tragic romances like Yossi & Jagger and The Bubble has made a sweet confection about an unlikely group of Tel Aviv neighbors who'll represent Israel in an international song contest. This musical comedy is sugary and sincere, like the cupcakes Anat (Anat Waxman) prepares with national flags rendered in colorful icing for the annual viewing party. Friends arrive at her apartment, but the usually upbeat baker is experiencing marital problems and can't revel in the garish competition (known in Cupcakes as UniverSong). Singer-songwriter Efrat (Efrat Dor) brings out her guitar, begins improvising a cheery ballad, and everyone else joins in — with perfect lyrics and no false notes. Fox counters the...
- 3/25/2015
- Village Voice
Band of Girls: Lavie’s Acerbic, Confident Debut
Exacerbated ennui is explored to comedic effect in Tayla Lavie’s striking directorial debut, Zero Motivation, which explores life on an Israeli military base through the perspective of several female soldiers. Groups of humans not taken seriously and treated with demeaning abandon tend to disengage from rational behaviors, and Lavie explores the rampant pettiness born out of being kept in certain positions without any opportunity to grow. Some have criticized Lavie for abstaining from composing the film as a more complicated and transgressive portrait of the reductive nature of war, in general. Coming from an area where cinematic offerings are saturated and inflected with the constant, aggravated unrest transpiring there, Lavie’s film is already a subtly wicked statement, and her focus on the trivialities of one group of women on one military base serves as the subtle microcosm for the enduring...
Exacerbated ennui is explored to comedic effect in Tayla Lavie’s striking directorial debut, Zero Motivation, which explores life on an Israeli military base through the perspective of several female soldiers. Groups of humans not taken seriously and treated with demeaning abandon tend to disengage from rational behaviors, and Lavie explores the rampant pettiness born out of being kept in certain positions without any opportunity to grow. Some have criticized Lavie for abstaining from composing the film as a more complicated and transgressive portrait of the reductive nature of war, in general. Coming from an area where cinematic offerings are saturated and inflected with the constant, aggravated unrest transpiring there, Lavie’s film is already a subtly wicked statement, and her focus on the trivialities of one group of women on one military base serves as the subtle microcosm for the enduring...
- 12/4/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
If you still have an affinity for books, there can be few more choice summer reads than Edmund White's 2005 autobiography, My Lives. Divided into nonlinear sections devoted to his relationships with his parents, his hustlers, and his female entanglements, there's also a chapter entitled "My Europe." Herein White notes how while in the Paris of the 1980s, he became aware that petite green beans are tastier than their larger cousins. He also recounts how the social theorist Michel Foucault, a pal of his, noted that while "'gay philosophy' and 'gay paintings' were meaningless notions...writing gay fiction was legitimate since it enabled us to imagine how gay men should live together."
Foucault apparently "felt that relationships between gay men were tenuous, undefined, still to be invented, and that gay fiction was the place where a vision of association could be worked out in concrete detail."
The same could be said of Lgbt cinema,...
Foucault apparently "felt that relationships between gay men were tenuous, undefined, still to be invented, and that gay fiction was the place where a vision of association could be worked out in concrete detail."
The same could be said of Lgbt cinema,...
- 7/26/2014
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
English-language thriller set on French Riviera in the 1950s due to shoot July 2015.
Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz’s upcoming thriller The Beauty of Sharks was one of the hot projects at the inaugural edition of the Paris Coproduction Village, which unfolded off the French capital’s Champs Elysees last week.
Two French buyers were rumoured to be circling the thriller about a group of Us expatriate hustlers living on the French Riviera, who are trying to get a piece of an elderly socialite’s millions.
It is based on an original screenplay by UK writer Rob Green who recently worked on Billy O’Brien’s horror romance Scintilla.
The feature is produced by Filip Jan Rymsza of Royal Road Entertainment, which is based out of Los Angeles with satellite offices in New York and Luxembourg. Rymsza, who has a dual Us and Polish nationality, also takes a co-writing credit.
“The plan is to raise finance both out...
Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz’s upcoming thriller The Beauty of Sharks was one of the hot projects at the inaugural edition of the Paris Coproduction Village, which unfolded off the French capital’s Champs Elysees last week.
Two French buyers were rumoured to be circling the thriller about a group of Us expatriate hustlers living on the French Riviera, who are trying to get a piece of an elderly socialite’s millions.
It is based on an original screenplay by UK writer Rob Green who recently worked on Billy O’Brien’s horror romance Scintilla.
The feature is produced by Filip Jan Rymsza of Royal Road Entertainment, which is based out of Los Angeles with satellite offices in New York and Luxembourg. Rymsza, who has a dual Us and Polish nationality, also takes a co-writing credit.
“The plan is to raise finance both out...
- 6/16/2014
- ScreenDaily
All together now!
With Eurovision fever at its height just now, everybody is in the mood for dancing, so it's just the time for Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox's feelgood pop fairytale Cupcakes to come out on DVD. The story of six neighbours who enter the Universong Contest by mistake, it's an energetic film with characters who learn to make sense of their personal lives through their international celebrity experience. I caught up with Eytan to ask him about the film and about the Israeli band Ping Pong whose own Eurovision stardom he helped to create.
Time for a little respect.
"The film was inspired by that story," he acknowledges, though noting that the narrative develops in a different direction. "The two men in the group were friends of mine, young journalists who wrote for radical alternative art magazines in Israel. They were very serious people who formed a little...
With Eurovision fever at its height just now, everybody is in the mood for dancing, so it's just the time for Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox's feelgood pop fairytale Cupcakes to come out on DVD. The story of six neighbours who enter the Universong Contest by mistake, it's an energetic film with characters who learn to make sense of their personal lives through their international celebrity experience. I caught up with Eytan to ask him about the film and about the Israeli band Ping Pong whose own Eurovision stardom he helped to create.
Time for a little respect.
"The film was inspired by that story," he acknowledges, though noting that the narrative develops in a different direction. "The two men in the group were friends of mine, young journalists who wrote for radical alternative art magazines in Israel. They were very serious people who formed a little...
- 5/9/2014
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The most prominent Israeli filmmakers in recent years have produced heavily politicized work (Amos Gitai) or focused on the impact of the country's political situation on day to day social life (Eytan Fox). "Zero Motivation," the debut feature writer-director Talya Lavie, stands out for resisting either of those categories even as it acknowledges the bigger picture. An offbeat comedy about several disgruntled female soldiers stationed at a remote human resources office in the middle of the desert, the movie engages with gender imbalance and satirizes the aimlessness of military bureaucracy while retaining a disarmingly personal quality. It's a softly humorous and sad story about the frustrations of young women thrust into the military complex who air their grievances with snark. Its critical angle only emerges by implication. The closest point of comparison with "Zero Tolerance" is Robert Altman's "Mash," which depicted the goofy antics of a Vietnam-era outpost even as the horrors of.
- 4/25/2014
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Eytan Fox's musical comedy about a bunch of Israelis who are surprise song-contest entrants has a big dollop of Almodóvar thrown in
Eytan Fox's feelgood musical comedy treads little new ground on the dancefloor, but is no less enjoyable for it. The story centres on a group of friends gathered in theTel Aviv apartment of Ofer (Ofer Shechter) to watch Universong, a Eurovision parody. Despite an attempt at enthusiasm with booze, bunting (of sorts) and a camp singalong, it's "un point" to Israel (British audiences will relate). They break into a spontaneously made-up song to cheer themselves up, and a mobile phone recording makes its way to the show's judges, they become Israel's next official entry. If you're a fan of the genre, you'll know how the find-your-own-voice melody goes and ends and you shouldn't lament the lack of complex character development too much. With a big handful...
Eytan Fox's feelgood musical comedy treads little new ground on the dancefloor, but is no less enjoyable for it. The story centres on a group of friends gathered in theTel Aviv apartment of Ofer (Ofer Shechter) to watch Universong, a Eurovision parody. Despite an attempt at enthusiasm with booze, bunting (of sorts) and a camp singalong, it's "un point" to Israel (British audiences will relate). They break into a spontaneously made-up song to cheer themselves up, and a mobile phone recording makes its way to the show's judges, they become Israel's next official entry. If you're a fan of the genre, you'll know how the find-your-own-voice melody goes and ends and you shouldn't lament the lack of complex character development too much. With a big handful...
- 4/24/2014
- by Dee Rudebeck
- The Guardian - Film News
The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival has chosen its line-up, and it includes Oscar candidates, the honoring of a Hollywood legend, and a tribute to another. The festival's opening night gala will feature a tribute to the late Sid Caesar, a comic pioneer whose "Your Show of Shows" paved the way for future sketch comedy series such as "Saturday Night Live." With that in mind, the festival has chosen the rare 1973 documentary "Ten From Your Show of Shows" as the opening film. The opening night festivities will continue with an appearance by Carl Reiner, one of the many men who honed their writing craft on "Your Show of Shows" (also including Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Woody Allen), and will be presented with the Lajff Lifetime Achievement Award by "Everybody Loves Raymond" creator Phil Rosenthal. The festival will continue with a number of notable films, including the new musical comedy...
- 4/11/2014
- by Max O'Connell
- Indiewire
Oscar 2014: 289 movies in the running for Best Picture and in other regular categories (image: Jennifer Lawrence in ‘American Hustle’) The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced earlier today, December 16, 2013, that no less than 289 feature films are in the running for the 2014 Academy Awards. As the Academy’s press release explains, to qualify for the 2014 Academy Awards, "feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County by midnight, December 31, and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days." According to Academy rules, a feature film "must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and must have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format." There’s more: feature films that were first publicly shown or distributed "in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release" cannot be considered for Academy Awards in any category.
- 12/17/2013
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Baz Luhrmann's Gatsby is a glittering hymn to the age of jazz, while the monster-robot blockbuster Pacific Rim is daftness writ large
Nothing about F Scott Fizgerald's The Great Gatsby feels especially festive: it's all critical despair in stifling summer air, chilled mint juleps and crisp linen suits. Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby (Warner, 12) is another matter: this luxurious pudding seems more at home in the run-up to Christmas (when it was originally slated for release in cinemas) than it did back in May. That may be because Luhrmann has never met a bauble, sparkler or strand of tinsel he didn't like: like all his films, this Gatsby is dressed and decorated to scrumptious excess.
Critics trotting out the tired "style over substance" epithet were missing the point. Style is substance in Luhrmann's universe, and as such, the film is rather effective in capturing the beautiful but damned...
Nothing about F Scott Fizgerald's The Great Gatsby feels especially festive: it's all critical despair in stifling summer air, chilled mint juleps and crisp linen suits. Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby (Warner, 12) is another matter: this luxurious pudding seems more at home in the run-up to Christmas (when it was originally slated for release in cinemas) than it did back in May. That may be because Luhrmann has never met a bauble, sparkler or strand of tinsel he didn't like: like all his films, this Gatsby is dressed and decorated to scrumptious excess.
Critics trotting out the tired "style over substance" epithet were missing the point. Style is substance in Luhrmann's universe, and as such, the film is rather effective in capturing the beautiful but damned...
- 11/10/2013
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
UK Jewish film festival | Aesthetica short film festival | French film festival UK | Leeds international film festival
UK Jewish film festival, nationwide
There's really no telling what a Jewish film could or should look like, or even where it could come from. It might be an eastern European thriller (In The Shadow); a New York comedy such as Blumenthal, starring Brian Cox; an Almodóvar-esque musical (Eytan Fox's Cupcakes); an Argentinian Nazi drama (Wakolda); or even a psychedelic semi-animated head trip such as Ari "Waltz With Bashir" Folman's latest, The Congress. The result is one of the most varied festivals out there, and an ever-expanding event (80 films this year, across 19 venues). More recognisably Jewish themes are also abundant, such as in self-explanatory opener The Jewish Cardinal, based on a true story, or new doc Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy, with Michael Grade in conversation after.
Various venues, to 17 Nov
Aesthetica short film festival,...
UK Jewish film festival, nationwide
There's really no telling what a Jewish film could or should look like, or even where it could come from. It might be an eastern European thriller (In The Shadow); a New York comedy such as Blumenthal, starring Brian Cox; an Almodóvar-esque musical (Eytan Fox's Cupcakes); an Argentinian Nazi drama (Wakolda); or even a psychedelic semi-animated head trip such as Ari "Waltz With Bashir" Folman's latest, The Congress. The result is one of the most varied festivals out there, and an ever-expanding event (80 films this year, across 19 venues). More recognisably Jewish themes are also abundant, such as in self-explanatory opener The Jewish Cardinal, based on a true story, or new doc Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy, with Michael Grade in conversation after.
Various venues, to 17 Nov
Aesthetica short film festival,...
- 11/2/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
UK Jewish Film Festival kicks off its 17th edition tonight; 53 UK premieres presented.
The UK Jewish Film Festival opens its 17th edition tonight at the BFI Southbank with the UK premiere of The Jewish Cardinal by French director Ilan Duran Cohen.
The festival runs across five cities - London, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester - from Oct 20 to Nov 17. The closing night gala will screen the UK premiere of Eytan Fox’s Cupcakes.
More than 80 films and other special events are planned. There are 53 UK premieres.
Programme highlights include an IMAX screening of Ari Folman’s The Congress, horror film Big Bad Wolves, Seth Fisher’s Blumenthal starring Brian Cox, Jill Soloway’s Afternoon Delight starring Juno Temple, Lucia Puenzo’s thriller Wakolda, documentary Dancing In Jaffa and Tracie Holder’s Joe Papp in Five Acts.
The festival has also started a new VOD channel sponsored by Think Jam (link here).
Festival founder and executive director Judy Ironside...
The UK Jewish Film Festival opens its 17th edition tonight at the BFI Southbank with the UK premiere of The Jewish Cardinal by French director Ilan Duran Cohen.
The festival runs across five cities - London, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester - from Oct 20 to Nov 17. The closing night gala will screen the UK premiere of Eytan Fox’s Cupcakes.
More than 80 films and other special events are planned. There are 53 UK premieres.
Programme highlights include an IMAX screening of Ari Folman’s The Congress, horror film Big Bad Wolves, Seth Fisher’s Blumenthal starring Brian Cox, Jill Soloway’s Afternoon Delight starring Juno Temple, Lucia Puenzo’s thriller Wakolda, documentary Dancing In Jaffa and Tracie Holder’s Joe Papp in Five Acts.
The festival has also started a new VOD channel sponsored by Think Jam (link here).
Festival founder and executive director Judy Ironside...
- 10/30/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Nobody Knows: Mayer’s Debut Explores Personal is Political with Tragic Gay Love Story
For his screen debut, Israeli born director Michael Mayer’s Out in the Dark further complicates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by giving us a story about two young men from opposite sides of the track, as it is, falling in love. The result is a complicated series of road blocks for the couple, a situation that causes not only familial strife, but political and violent turmoil. Mayer has tapped into a predicament not often visited cinematically when exploring the ever present conflict in the Mid-East, and he’s managed to not only make a memorable debut, but an unflinching document about the violence and hardships Lgbt people face in this hostile territory.
Sneaking dangerously across the border one night to get from Ramallah to Tel Aviv, Nimir (Nicholas Jacob), a young Palestinian student is on his way to see his close friend,...
For his screen debut, Israeli born director Michael Mayer’s Out in the Dark further complicates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by giving us a story about two young men from opposite sides of the track, as it is, falling in love. The result is a complicated series of road blocks for the couple, a situation that causes not only familial strife, but political and violent turmoil. Mayer has tapped into a predicament not often visited cinematically when exploring the ever present conflict in the Mid-East, and he’s managed to not only make a memorable debut, but an unflinching document about the violence and hardships Lgbt people face in this hostile territory.
Sneaking dangerously across the border one night to get from Ramallah to Tel Aviv, Nimir (Nicholas Jacob), a young Palestinian student is on his way to see his close friend,...
- 9/27/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
In an effort to review every new film I see this year -- a task I have never accomplished but there's a first time for everything -- I will resort to capsules like these when I haven't reviewed properly. (I realize that my "Oscar" section of reviews implies that all films should be seen through this prism. This implication is not literal or an endorsement -- it's just something that's fun for me and some of you to think about.)
Yossi
We're ten years on from Yossi & Jagger and Yossi is now a doctor, who buries himself in work to avoid living life or moving beyond that love cut short. When a chance encounter with Jagger's mother shakes him from his stupor, he ends up on holiday. Some of the notes are beautifully played -- the early tearful scene with Jagger's mother is super -- but Yossi is a maddeningly passive protagonist.
Yossi
We're ten years on from Yossi & Jagger and Yossi is now a doctor, who buries himself in work to avoid living life or moving beyond that love cut short. When a chance encounter with Jagger's mother shakes him from his stupor, he ends up on holiday. Some of the notes are beautifully played -- the early tearful scene with Jagger's mother is super -- but Yossi is a maddeningly passive protagonist.
- 3/11/2013
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Eytan Fox’s gay-themed drama Yossi is a an emotional story of starting to find one’s way back after losing a love – something to which everyone, gay or straight, should be able to relate to. The new film takes place ten years after the tragic events of Fox’s earlier Yossi And Jagger, an international hit film from 2003 about Yossi, an Israeli commander whose secret gay lover Levi is killed during a raid on Lebanon. A decade later Yossi (again played by Ohad Knoller) is still suffering over the death of Levi, remains closeted (just as he was as a soldier) and appears to have few, if any friends. Now chubby and unshaven, he’s become a respected cardiologist. He spends a lot of time at the hospital where he works avoiding the wasted sexual advances of a clueless female colleague and even more time at home trolling gay porn and hook up sites.
- 2/22/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Yossi
Eytan Fox's superb sequel to his award-winning love story, Yossi & Jagger (2002), has finally arrived. The original told of two Israeli soldiers situated on the Lebanese border, whose clandestine love affair was struggling to survive in a friendly yet homophobic atmosphere. Jagger, who was a little more out there, did his darnedest to loosen up Yossi (Ohad Knoller), begging him to quit the army and live with him in a more tolerant ambiance such as the one Tel Aviv could furnish. The rosy vision unsettled Yossi, but not for long. Jagger was killed in an ambush - - and buried as a brave heterosexual, at least in the eyes of his parents and his compatriots.
Now jump a decade ahead. Dr. Yossi Hoffman is a highly respected cardiologist, yet a lonely, slightly out-of-shape homosexual. A workaholic, he refuses to take vacations, and his free evenings are neatly eviscerated by TV shows with laugh tracks.
Eytan Fox's superb sequel to his award-winning love story, Yossi & Jagger (2002), has finally arrived. The original told of two Israeli soldiers situated on the Lebanese border, whose clandestine love affair was struggling to survive in a friendly yet homophobic atmosphere. Jagger, who was a little more out there, did his darnedest to loosen up Yossi (Ohad Knoller), begging him to quit the army and live with him in a more tolerant ambiance such as the one Tel Aviv could furnish. The rosy vision unsettled Yossi, but not for long. Jagger was killed in an ambush - - and buried as a brave heterosexual, at least in the eyes of his parents and his compatriots.
Now jump a decade ahead. Dr. Yossi Hoffman is a highly respected cardiologist, yet a lonely, slightly out-of-shape homosexual. A workaholic, he refuses to take vacations, and his free evenings are neatly eviscerated by TV shows with laugh tracks.
- 2/4/2013
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Yossi
Directed by Eytan Fox
Israel, 2012
Eytan Fox’s follow-up to his 2002 short-feature Yossi & Jagger is an accomplished, sweet love and regret story.
Yossi (Ohad Knoller) is a closeted young doctor. When Varda (Orly Silbersatz) shows up at his hospital for a routine check-up, Yossi’s military and romantic past leads him to a new crossroads in his life.
Yossi is ostensibly divided into two halves. The first half takes place largely in Yossi’s Israeli hospital and the surrounding city and is a trudge towards obvious exposition. It’s the second-half, taking place almost solely in a beach resort, when director Fox’s compositions feel freer and the narrative takes on a looser lilt that Yossi eventually succeeds.
Ohad Knoller gives a strong performance as the title character, but he too feels limited by the stuffy opening to the film. It’s unclear whether Fox thinks that the narrative...
Directed by Eytan Fox
Israel, 2012
Eytan Fox’s follow-up to his 2002 short-feature Yossi & Jagger is an accomplished, sweet love and regret story.
Yossi (Ohad Knoller) is a closeted young doctor. When Varda (Orly Silbersatz) shows up at his hospital for a routine check-up, Yossi’s military and romantic past leads him to a new crossroads in his life.
Yossi is ostensibly divided into two halves. The first half takes place largely in Yossi’s Israeli hospital and the surrounding city and is a trudge towards obvious exposition. It’s the second-half, taking place almost solely in a beach resort, when director Fox’s compositions feel freer and the narrative takes on a looser lilt that Yossi eventually succeeds.
Ohad Knoller gives a strong performance as the title character, but he too feels limited by the stuffy opening to the film. It’s unclear whether Fox thinks that the narrative...
- 2/2/2013
- by Neal Dhand
- SoundOnSight
While much excitement (and the last edition of this column) has been devoted to the handful of generally fantastic new queer films -- "C.O.G," "Concussion," "Interior. Leather Bar," "Pit Stop," "Kill Your Darlings," "God Love Uganda" -- to come out of last week's Sundance Film Festival, the fact of the matter is that it's gonna be a while before any of these films actually hit theaters. But there is one great Lgbt-focused film you can go see right now (at least if you're in New York, though soon enough in most other major cities): Eytan Fox's "Yossi," a sequel-of-sorts to his 2002 film "Yossi & Jaggar." "Yossi" quietly premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last April, where it was picked up by Strand Releasing. It came out in New York last weekend to rather little fanfare, but it's definitely worth seeking out. I wasn't the biggest fan of its.
- 2/1/2013
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
Below, director Eytan Fox shares a scene from "Yossi," his acclaimed follow-up to "Yossi & Jagger," that premiered at last year's Tribeca Film Festival to great notices. Written by Itay Segal, the sequel picks up with Yossi as a workaholic Tel Aviv doctor who meets a soldier on the road after he’s forced to take a vacation. The film is now playing in New York and is set to open nationally in the coming weeks. The scene I chose from the film is where Yossi goes to visit and confront Lior (Jagger’s) parents. In "Yossi and Jagger," after Lior's death, Yossi visits Lior’s parents to sit shivah, the Jewish week of mourning. It was there that his friend Yaeli explained that Lior was called "Jagger" by his friends because, "in our eyes he was like a rock star." It was important for me to shoot this scene in...
- 1/30/2013
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
A lovingly rendered slow burn of a character study, Yossi impresses its message upon viewers with a quiet fortitude. In this sequel to Yossi & Jagger, we find Yossi (Ohad Knoller), a 34-year old heart surgeon in Tel Aviv, still mourning the loss of Jagger, his lover from a decade prior. A former fellow officer in the Israeli Defense Force. More than both a little oversensitive and a little overweight, Yossi’s obsessive inability to break from his state of grief leads him to an unending cycle of malaise. Dalliances in outdated pornography, junk food binges, and Internet dating prove to be an unsurprisingly poor substitute for love. Unsure of how to navigate his psychical shortcomings in the dating sphere, he posts photos of his healthier, younger self so as not to scare off potential suitors on dating sites. As Yossi is Eytan Fox’s (The Bubble, Walk on Water) touching follow-up to the controversial Israeli film illustrating...
- 1/30/2013
- by Mark James
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Ten years ago, Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox made an unexpected splash with Yossi & Jagger, a 67-minute wartime romance about two Israeli soldiers, the titular Yossi (Ohad Knoller) and Jagger (Yehuda Levi), who struggled to conceal their love during mandatory service at the Israel-Lebanon border. The film struck a chord with a great wealth of viewers, won Knoller an acting prize at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival, and announced Fox as a formidable directorial talent. As Fox tells it, it also allowed him to take part in a cultural revolution that’s unfolded in Israel—and beyond—throughout the last decade, giving him …...
- 1/25/2013
- by R. Kurt Osenlund
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Closet Space: Fox Brings a Welcome Addendum to Celebrated Film
Eytan Fox’s much celebrated 2002 film, Yossi & Jaggar, concerning a passionate and secret love affair between two male Israeli soldiers, one of which dies tragically in combat in the arms of the other on the border of Lebanon, clapped a melancholy ending on what seemed a romance impossible to openly disclose both in time and place. A decade later, after debuting several other successful films, Fox returns with Yossi, who has also aged ten years and still remains in the closet. Not only does this followup serve as a continuation of a character from a film that’s gone on to develop a cult status in the queer film canon, but also as survey of progress in the acceptance of queer representation.
Still mourning the death of his lover, Jaggar, Yossi (Ohad Knoller) now works as a physician in an Israeli hospital,...
Eytan Fox’s much celebrated 2002 film, Yossi & Jaggar, concerning a passionate and secret love affair between two male Israeli soldiers, one of which dies tragically in combat in the arms of the other on the border of Lebanon, clapped a melancholy ending on what seemed a romance impossible to openly disclose both in time and place. A decade later, after debuting several other successful films, Fox returns with Yossi, who has also aged ten years and still remains in the closet. Not only does this followup serve as a continuation of a character from a film that’s gone on to develop a cult status in the queer film canon, but also as survey of progress in the acceptance of queer representation.
Still mourning the death of his lover, Jaggar, Yossi (Ohad Knoller) now works as a physician in an Israeli hospital,...
- 1/25/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Title: Yossi (Ha-Sippur shel Yossi) Strand Releasing Director: Eytan Fox Screenwriter: Itay Segal Cast: Ohad Knoller, Lior Ashkenazi, Orly Silbersatz, Oz Zehavi, Ola Schur Selektar Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 1/8/13 Opens: January 25, 2013 There are many ways that the cultures of Iran and Israel are dissimilar. In Iran’s population there exists not a single homosexual, at least not since 1979. If you can’t believe the president of that country, whom can you believe? In Israel, for example, gays may not always be out of the closet but that macho country happily has no problems with gays in the army. Not only that, but gay men and hetero men [ Read More ]
The post Yossi Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Yossi Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 1/9/2013
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Returning to the acclaimed role that won him the Tribeca Film Festival's Best Actor award in Eytan Fox's Yossi & Jagger back in 2003, Israeli screen star Ohad Knoller gives yet another extraordinary performance as Yossi, a gay man living out a solitary existence in Tel Aviv. To celebrate the DVD release of Yossi (2012) on Monday 10 December, we're delighted to be able to offer our word cinema-savvy readers one of Three DVD copies of the film, courtesy of the dedicated team at UK Lgbt distributor Peccadillo Pictures This is an exclusive competition for our Facebook and Twitter fans, so if you haven't already, 'Like' us at facebook.com/CineVueUK or follow us @CineVue before answering the question below.
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- 12/13/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
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