Staying Real in Israel
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…and Egypt is a country that is at PEACE with Israel!!! They won’t even let a film made by an Israeli director be shown at a festival in Cairo. The film has nothing to do, whatsoever, with Israel, Jews or Judaism, but the fact that an Israeli was involved in making it is enough to ban it from Egypt. It’s about a 12-year-old boy searching for his birthday, for crying out loud!
Intellectual freedom at its best…
A true international exchange of culture…
If there is such hatred present in countries with whom Israel is at peace…can you imagine the depth of this evil in Israel’s enemies?

Cairo

Israeli film removed from Egypt festival

‘Almost Normal’ deprogrammed from film festival organized by French Cultural Center in Cairo, after Egyptian jury member protests against fact that director is Israeli

Reprinted from Ynetnews.com /

According to Ennahar Online, a short film has been deprogrammed from a film festival in Cairo after an Egyptian jury member protested against the fact that the director is Israeli.

The short film, directed by Keren Ben Rafael, is titled “Almost Normal” and tells the story of a 12-year-old boy searching for his birthday.

It was to be shown in a film festival organized by the French Cultural Center in Cairo and the National Center for Egyptian Cinema, but withdrawn after Egyptian director Atef Ahmed protested its inclusion.

Though he resigned his post as a board member of the festival “Rencontres de l’Image”, scheduled for April, the CFCC and services of the Embassy of France also decided not to reinstate him in the jury.

This Israeli film appears to be a real cliff-hanger.
don’t worry if you don’t understand Hebrew, it has English sub-titles…

A Matter of Size


A pound-for-pound pleasure

Reprinted from Bostom Globe

In “A Matter of Size,’’ four Israeli friends of a certain weight become amateur sumo wrestlers. Lightly directed by Erez Tadmor and Sharon Maymon from a script Maymon wrote with Danny Cohen-Solal, this is a sweet, enjoyable — if limited and episodic — “when life gives you lemons’’ sort of a movie. The lemon in this case is a body-mass index that would make Richard Simmons bleat. In the last decade or so, weight has become another politicized identity. So it’s a not-insignificant achievement that these guys don’t show up in the last five minutes looking like Adrien Brody.
Demoted from his job as a cook because of his size, Herzl (Itzik Cohen) starts dishwashing at a Japanese restaurant in Ramla whose grizzled owner (Togo Igawa) used to coach sumo. Obviously, the old man wants nothing to do with coaching a bunch of slumping Israelis. Herzl still lives with his nagging mother (Levana Finkelstein). Macho Aharon (Dvir Benedek) treats his wife like — well, he doesn’t treat her at all. Sami (Shmulik Cohen) works for the local news station. Gidi (Alon Dahan) is a closet case who finds the one hot man in Ramla who loves bears (Gidi also discovers what a bear is).

Things with these folks proceed predictably enough. Herzl and Aharon have a real chip on their shoulder about their weight (Aharon learns that people don’t enjoy him because he can be a jerk, not because he’s fat). We’re meant to like these men, and we do, more or less, but they’ve been simplified for easy digestion.

Surprisingly, the most complicated character is Herzl’s new girlfriend, Zehava (Irit Kaplan). She’s as big as he is, but she’s beautiful. She might even know it, but her self-image is fitful. Her relationship with Herzl is prom ising. But she knows that he’s a desperate, mediocre boyfriend, and that his mother disapproves of her. So to the dismay of the shrew who runs Zehava’s diet club, she gradually starts eating to cope, and the sadness in Kaplan’s face breaks your heart. Who hasn’t been there, hunched over a plate of something he or she will regret in 20 minutes?

By the movie’s standards, things start looking up for her. I just didn’t feel that great about her choices. She gets her self-esteem back. But will it last? Does she know she has other options? This is the one character whose feelings mattered to me. Forget what Herzl’s mother thinks about Zehava. She can do better.
In Hebrew, with subtitles

Some countries would call this treason, like, for instance, any Arab country in the Middle East that Mr. Copti might choose to live in.(but he doesn’t…he chooses Israel) He is, in fact, a citizen of the State of Israel. Israel, by the way, helped fund this film which is giving Copti his 15 minutes of fame. He had no problem accepting the money and all the benefits of Israeli citizenship. He chooses to live in Israel, not anywhere else, as do all of the Arab citizens of the Jewish State. No one is keeping them here against their will.
How about a little grace? How about a little thankfulness for all the good you have received from your country?
You seem to be taking your freedom and human rights in Israel a bit for granted…
Copti says he doesn’t represent his home country,,the country that facilitated his advance in the movie industry and helped finance his film. I wonder just exactly who he DOES represent?…I guess just old selfish himself…

‘Ajami’ director: I don’t represent Israel


‘I cannot represent a state that does not represent me,’ Scandar Copti says just hours before Academy Awards ceremony

Reprinted from YNet News

“Ajami” co-director Scandar Copti said Sunday that he is not representing Israel at the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, just hours before his film competes in the best foreign film category.

“I am not the Israeli team and I am not representing Israel,” Copti told Channel 2. “It’s a very technical thing. This is how it works at the Oscars. It says Israel because the money comes from Israel. You have an Israeli director, you have a Palestinian director, you have Palestinian actors and Israeli actors.

International Success
‘Ajami’ gets real, aims for Oscar / Reuters
None of Israeli film’s actors imagined low-budget drama would earn nomination for best foreign language film at Academy Awards. Directors’ strategy was to find first-time actors who shared similar backgrounds with characters and who would infuse roles with real-life experience
Full story

“The film represents Israel technically, but I don’t represent Israel. I cannot represent a country that does not represent me.”

Yaron Shani, the film’s other co-director, does not agree with Copti. “It’s an Israeli film. It represents Israel, it speaks in the Israeli language and it deals with Israeli problems. The representation question refers to problems of perspectives and political problems which need to be solved,” Shani said in the same interview.

Following the remarks, Science and Technology Minister Daniel Herkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi) called on Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat to launch an inquiry into the film’s funding by the State of Israel.

“The person who directed the film with Israeli funding may cover himself with Hamas flags tonight. If the film wins an Oscar, this may be a Pyrrhic victory for the State of Israel,” the minister said.

In response to Copti’s remairs, Minister Livnat said, “The film ‘Ajami’ was produced and received an Oscar nomination thanks to funds from the State of Israel, which Scandar Copti now tries to renounce. Without the State’s support, Copti would not be walking on the red carpet tonight.”

She added, “It’s sad that a director who was supported by the State is renouncing those that made it possible for him to create and express himself. Fortunately, all the others who had a part in the film’s creation consider themselves part of the State of Israel and are proud to represent it.”

The film’s directors and stars attended several Hollywood events over the weekend ahead of Sunday night’s ceremony. Copti told Ynet earlier that winning was not the most important thing for him.

“It would be nice to get the prize, but we don’t need it. It’s not a must,” he said.

“Ajami” will be competing in the best foreign-language film category against “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” from Argentina, “The Milk of Sorrow” from Peru, “Un Prophete” from France, and “The White Ribbon” from Germany. It is the ninth Israeli movie to be nominated for an Oscar in this category.