With three titles in the Panorama and another two in the Forum, no one would believe the Israeli films made it to the Berlinale by the skin of their teeth. For, despite the honorable performance of the products themselves, right until the last moment it seemed as if no official representation would be in Berlin and no stand would be in the market. If a fund operated by the Exhibitors Association had not extended the seed money necessary for the delegation to go to Berlin, Israeli films would have made it on to the Berlin screens, but no one would have been there to reap the rewards.
Those familiar with the conditions of cinema in Israel won't be surprised. For even by their own harsh domestic standards, 1997 turned out to be one of those years most of them would like to forget. The ministry of industry and trade, the official patron of the Israeli Film Center, decided to withdraw from all cinema business, pulling out from its 50% participation in the $4.5 million budget of the Fund for the Promotion of Quality Films, the only body committed to aiding the production of Israeli feature films. The ministry of education and culture, which was supposed to pick up the entire bill, displayed no interest in doing so. With public attendance for home products falling far below expectations (no Israeli film has made it over the 50,000 admissions mark recently), film producers feel more and more tempted to move into the domain of TV commercials (many of them already have) for much better pay and less hassle.
And yet, despite all these obstacles, it appears that, by hook or by crook, feature film output is still stable, while the pictures selected for the Berlinale indicate not only that quality hasn't suffered but that its range may even have expanded. In the Panorama, The 92 Minutes of Mr Baum completes Assi Dayan's pessimistic trilogy on human folly, started five years ago with the Berlin-awarded Life According to Agfa. Ali Nasser's The Milky Way is one of several Palestinian productions on Palestinian themes financed by the Fund for the Promotion of Israeli Quality Films. While The Dybbuk of the Holy Apple Field, an Israeli-German-Swiss co-production which screens today, will hopefully open the door for some much-needed European investment in Israeli production.
The two Forum films display the most energetic, and probably imaginative, aspect of Israeli production in recent years. Israeli documentaries have done amazingly well in festivals around the world, possibly because the less expensive and the more immediate approach of this genre allows filmmakers more freedom in the choice of subjects and their treatment. Ron Havilio's six-hour Jerusalem Fragments and Zippy Reibenbach's Three Sisters, made with the assistance of the New Foundation for Films and Television are perfect examples of this new trend. Edna Fainaru
[Home ] [Content] ] [The Team ] [Comments ]
