Tuesday, January 18 2011
‘Lebanon’ Succeeds Through Its Restrictions
Using only the inside of a tank as a setting, the film is a story about modern warfare generally as much as it is one about the 1982 Lebanon War specifically.
Friday, October 15 2010
CIFF 2010: ‘The Matchmaker’ (Avi Nesher, 2010)
At a time when many Israeli films are getting attention for displaying the harsh and ambiguous realities of war, The Matchmaker is an anomaly. The film is a sweet and heartwarming coming of age tale that paints Israel in warm tones without the help of rose-tinted glasses.
Wednesday, September 29 2010
Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World
A journalist enters the dystopian world of Franz Kafka in an attempt to journey to Gaza to study the local surf scene.
Thursday, September 2 2010
‘Ajami’ Tells of the Struggle to Survive By Any Means Necessary
An unflinching human look at the struggle of Jews, Arab Muslims, and Arab Christians to live together in at least a fragile manner.
Thursday, July 15 2010
‘A Tale of Love and Darkness’: A Child of Israel and the Children of Palestine
Reading narratives of the seemingly intractable Arab-Israeli conflict is like trying to follow the plot of a novel that has had every other page ripped out. Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness has fewer missing pages than most.
Tuesday, January 5 2010
Lemon Tree
While Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis' Lemon Tree pretends to look hard at political and cultural realities, sticky, juvenile symbolism turns pith to pulp.
Monday, November 2 2009
Soulico: Exotic on the Speaker
Deftly incorporates a multitude of rhythmic structures and vocal styles that are distinctly Middle Eastern, hip-hop, or, as the case may be, both.
Tuesday, July 7 2009
Esther Ofarim: Esther Ofarim in London
A noise that's so clean it's almost surreal.
