Golda kicks off a season of “Oscar bait”, movies that try very hard to make an impression towards the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As much as Guy Nattiv’s film may have been conceived from a good place, with the movie’s heavy use of make-up and prosthetics to transform Oscar-winner Helen Mirren into Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, it’s hard for viewers to dismiss this possible pandering.
Afterward is a personal documentary for Ofra Bloch. With a career in psychoanalysis and a desire to make a movie, she sets out to talk with people of various backgrounds about how they’ve been effected by their culture’s history, followed by discussions examining guilt. And with so much cultural animosity taking place in the modern world, Bloch digs deeper to see is if these claims are proven to be contradictive of current discrimination, and then pushes further…
By: Jessica Goddard A well-paced timeline of the 1990s peace negotiations in the Middle East, The Oslo Diaries skillfully articulates the sense of both hope and skepticism in the period. Directed by Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, the filmmakers use diary excerpts, historical footage, news clips, and participant commentary to paint a picture of simultaneous optimism and doubt surrounding the Oslo Accords.
Israeli filmmaker Shimon Dotan’s previous efforts have earned him recognition in his home country, where he has won nine Israeli Academy Awards for his work as a writer, producer, and director. Though most of his films are narrative-based, the documentary Hot House (2006) earned acclaim when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
What is a settler? An extremist? A visionary fulfilling a spiritual mission? A murderer? An invader? According to the most basic definition offered by Shimon Dotan’s The Settlers, a settler is someone who has built their home “in an area over which the State of Israel has no sovereignty”.
