Israeli Film Festival: we speak to the founders and take a look at what’s showing
Seret celebrates its 13th year with a great collection of movies
Fauda, Shtisel, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem – Israeli TV shows are household names here in the UK and this month we get to discover Israeli cinematic gems too, as the Seret International Israeli Film Festival returns, celebrating its Bar Mitzvah year.
The Seret (Hebrew for film) Festival launched in 2012 to showcase the best of Israeli films. Founders Odelia Haroush and Patty Hochmann have brought together a fabulous programme. Film selection is tough. Patty, the festival’s artistic director, watches every film made, and then picks 40 films. The two women then watch each film – selecting a final list based on the their quality.
Odelia says that when she’s watching a film, her husband asks if she’s working. Not every film is good – so often it is real work. The pair ensure films cover a range of topics and interests. But it’s not just films – the festival also includes guest appearances from the director, producer, scriptwriter, or a leading performer, who do a Q&A session after many showings. “It’s a totally different experience when you watch it with somebody from the crew,” says Odelia.
The films showing this year include the award-winning Seven Blessings – a drama focusing on a marriage and the sheva brachot that follow, except this turns into a sad comedy about family crimes, forgiveness and loss. Seven Blessings won 12 Ophir (Israeli Oscar) prizes including best film, best director and best actress for Reymonde Amsallem. Reymonde also stars in The Future – another festival film – about a criminal profiler asked to question a Palestinian woman who assassinated an Israeli minister. As part of the Seret programme she will join a panel discussion at JW3, with Liraz Chamami and Nelly Tagar, on balancing being an actress in Israel with family commitments. Reymonde also plays Miriam in the forthcoming Netflix mini-series Testament – the Story of Moses.
Nelly Tagar starred in the 10-year-old classic comedy drama Zero Motivation, showing again at the 2024 Festival. The film looks at life for a unit of female Israeli soldiers at a remote desert base biding their time until they can return to civilian life. The film has been described as unique; unlike anything except perhaps The Office in the army or M*A*S*H with administration.
Completely different is Arugam Bay, which looks at three friends taking a post-military service trip to Sri Lanka with unresolved issues from their army service. Actor Yadin Gellman will be attending to talk about the film. Yadin is well-known in Israel as a war hero – wounded on the first day of the October 7 war.
For fans of Shtisel, Home should hit the spot. Yair, an ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva student, opens an electronics shop – a challenge to his ultra-orthodox neighbourhood that eschews modern technologies.
Previous years have had themes. This year there is no key theme although the festival will continue the angle of women in the cinematic world. Sixteen films will be shown, including a rap musical (The City) and five comedies as Odelia and Patty really felt a “need to bring something so the audience will laugh… that will lift up feelings”. There are also three documentaries, including Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre examining the October atrocity through the eyes of survivors. Absent are films directly about the Israeli Palestinian situation. “A few years ago, there were many films about the conflict, but people now are fed up and don’t want to see yet another film on this,” says Odelia. Instead, recent Israeli films have focused on family issues and relationships.
Work on the festival started before the war – with events scheduled for London, Brighton and Cambridge. Seret also hosts events in Spain, Germany, Holland, Chile and Argentina. Odelia highlighted that this year some cinemas “don’t want to work with us anymore”, while others won’t publicise they are showing the films – meaning you have to book via the Seret website for ‘private’ showings.
In Barcelona, the owner of a cinema booked to show films cancelled the day before the start, due to threats from pro-Palestinian groups. The Netherlands festival was postponed from November to March, with two venues that had shown films for the last nine years withdrawing, and potential replacements saying they were afraid to show anything. “I don’t want to cancel the Palestinian culture, and they shouldn’t cancel my culture – culture is not politics!” says Odelia.
Sadly, after the October 7 atrocity, supporting Israeli cultural initiatives is not seen as a priority and there has been a significant reduction in both sponsorship and advertising. Odelia says: “It’s supposed to be a big celebration and it’s not. A lot of the money that I usually get from Israeli or Jewish institutions went to Israel to support what’s going on right now. So I get half of the money, a third of the money, or none at all. Yet film is not merely a medium for storytelling; it serves as a lens through which we view culture, offering a platform for dialogue and understanding.”
To address this Odelia and Patty have launched a crowd-funding campaign. Any amount – even £10, or £13 to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah, will help.
Donate at crowdfunder.co.uk/p/seret.
Seret UK runs in London and Brighton 16 – 23 May, various locations seret-international.org
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