The title character of NORMAN: THE MODERATE RISE AND TRAGIC FALL OF A NEW YORK FIXER, lives in a world of endless possibilities. Spinning schemes, half-truths, and complete fictions into a confident spiel about enormous profits and helpful introductions, he wanders the streets of New York stalking his prey of people on the edges of… Read More »
PRINCESS
PRINCESS is an intimately observed film that forces us to face some uncomfortable truths. Told with unflinching honesty, completely eschewing the sensational in favor of the perceptive, we are plunged into a 12-year-old’s waking nightmare lived in a highly sexualized atmosphere created by her mother and her mother’s live-in boyfriend. The girl is Adar… Read More »
FILL THE VOID (Lemale et ha’halal)
Nora Burshsteins FILL THE VOID has already been compared to a Jane Austen novel, and the observation, while counter-intuitive at first glance, is highly astute. While Austens world of Regency England may not seem to have much in common with a community of modern Hassids in Israel, the delicate but strict play of custom and… Read More »
THE APPOINTED (HAMEYU)
Daniel Wachsmann’s 1990 film, THE APPOINTED, melds the mystical and the profane creating an enigmatic tale of love and destiny, Set in the biblical world of the Kabbalah as lived in contemporary Israel, it is the story of Shemya, the prodigal son and grandson of rabbis who tries and fails to remove himself from his… Read More »
JAMES’ JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM (Massa’ot James Be’eretz Hakodesh)
When we first meet the eponymous James (Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe) of JAMES JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM, hes basking in the presence of that city. His bright face is aglow with a smile that can light up the farthest corners of the universe. That glow is reflected in the sun-drenched image of such familiar landmarks as The… Read More »