Israeli Cinema Exhibition debuts on SESC Digital with LGBT films

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From June 24 to July 7, 2022, the Sesc São Paulo and the Instituto Brasil-Israel (IBI – Brazil-Israel Institute), with the support of the Israeli Embassy and the General Consulate of Israel in São Paulo, hold the Mostra de Cinema Israelense (Israeli Film Exhibition), offering to the public throughout Brazil a free selection of contemporary Israeli films that have gained worldwide projection in recent year With online exhibitions on the Sesc Digital platform, the exhibition features six titles, including feature films and short films, which reflect a multicultural and diverse society. To watch the movies, go to sescsp.org.br/cinesesc and sescsp.org.br/cinemaemcasa.

The first Israeli Cinema Exhibition proposes to bring “visibility to the contradictions, layers and dilemmas of a country permeated by conflict, and to stimulate the public to imagine alternative worlds”, says David Diesendruck, president of the Instituto Brasil-Israel (IBI). The diversity of voices of Israeli society, expressed in its cinematographic language, constitutes the curatorial axis of programming.

One of the highlights of the exhibition is the latest work of the renowned director Amos Gitai, responsible for films such as “Kadosh – Laços Sagrados” (1999) and “Kedma” (2002). Unprecedented in Brazil, “Laila em Haifa” discusses the relations between Israeli Jews and Arabs in a city known for sheltering the two ethnic groups against the backdrop of the tensions that cross Israeli democracy and relations between peoples.

Known for addressing LGBTQIA+ themes with delicacy and humanity, the director Eytan Fox, from “Delicada Relação” (2002) and “Bubble” (2006), participates in the exhibition with the mature “Sublet”, the story of an American travel book writer who arrives in the country to write about Israel and sublet the apartment of a young Israeli. It is in this intergenerational meeting, of different cultural references, that the writer renews his motivations to write and live.

Universal issues, such as family relationships, arise in Nimrod Eldar‘s “O Dia Seguinte Em Que Me Fui”, and Yuval Delshad‘s “Baba Joon”, the latter bringing a family of Iranian origin to the scene by reflecting the multiple origins that characterize Israeli society. “Mami”, by filmmaker Keren Yedaya, is a musical adapted from a rock opera that takes place in southern Israel, in cities far from the country’s major political centers and sometimes forgotten, and brings the contrast between different ethnicities expressing in their musicality an anti-militarist narrative.

With several awards around the world and an Oscar nomination, Tomer Shoshan’s short film “White Eye” tells the story of a man who finds his stolen bike, which now belongs to a stranger. While trying to recover his good, he struggles to remain human. The film brings to the screens the issue of African refugees, living in precarious conditions and suffering racial discrimination.

Unprecedented in Brazil (except “Sublet”), the films are on display in the Cinema #EmCasaComSesc series, from Sesc Digital, on different dates and some with a viewing limit.

The opening of the event will be online, broadcast live on the YouTube channel of the Instituto Brasil-Istrael, on 6/23, at 4:00 pm, and will have the participation of the filmmaker Amos Gitai, in an exclusive conversation with the journalist Anita Efraim, presenter of the podcast “E eu com isso?”, of the Instituto Brasil-Israel.

ISRAELI CINEMA EXHIBITION
From 6/24 to 7/07
sescsp.org.br/cinesesc or sescsp.org.br/cinemaemcasa

PREMIERES 6/24

OLHO BRANCO
White Eye | Dir.: Tomer Shoshan | Israel | 2019 | 20 min | Fiction | 14 years-old

A man finds his stolen bike, which now belongs to a stranger. He believes that the task to recover it will be easy, but during a single night, he faces issues of racism, police abuse and xenophobia. Available from 6/24 to 7/07/22.

MAMI
Red Fields | Dir.: Keren Yedaya | Israel, Luxembourg, Germany | 2019 | 90 min | Fiction | 14 years-old

This is the story of Mami, a young woman who was born and raised in a small poor town in southern Israel. She works at the local gas station cafeteria and is in love with her neighbor Nissim. One day, the destiny knocks on her door: a few days after the wedding, Nissim is wounded in the war and succumbs to a vegetative state. Available from 6/24 to 7/07/22.

SUBLOCAÇÃO
Sublet | Dir.: Eytan Fox | Israel, USA | 2020 | 89 min | Fiction | 14 years-old

A New York Times travel writer arrives in Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy. The energy of the city and its relationship with a younger man brings it back to life. Available from 6/24 to 7/30/22, with a limit of 1500 views.

LAILA EM HAIFA
Laila in Haifa | Dir.: Amos Gitai | Israel, France | 2020 | 99 min | Fiction | 14 years-old

Laila in Haifa takes place on a fateful night in Haifa port city and explores the intertwined stories of five women in a nightclub where Israelis and Palestinians come together to engage in personal relationships. Available from 6/24 to 7/30/22, with a limit of 1000 views.

ESTREIAS 7/01

O DIA SEGUINTE EM QUE ME FUI
The Day After I’m Gone | Dir.: Nimrod Eldar | Israel, France | 2019 | 98 min | Fiction | 14 years-old

Yoram, a 50-year-old veterinarian living in Tel Aviv, is forced to take a different view of his relationship with his teenage daughter, Roni, after she goes on to desire to end her own life. He goes with the girl on a journey to visit her mother’s family, which eventually becomes a process of mutual self-knowledge in a desert landscape near the Dead Sea. Available from 7/01 to 7/07/22, with a limit of 800 views.

BABA JOON
Baba Joon | Dir.: Yuval Delshad | Israel | 2015 | 91 min | Fiction | 14 years-old

The film depicts three generations in the Morgian family, Persian immigrants from Iran to Israel, while surviving on their small turkey farm in the early 1980s. Years earlier, his grandfather, known as Baba, gave the farm to his youngest son, Yitzak, after his eldest son, Darius, fled to America. Now a grown man, Yitzak threatens to “push” his 13-year-old son Moti to the farm’s work. When the boy shows a strong preference for engineering (he wants to build his own motorized scooter using spare parts in the barn), Yitzak interprets his disgust for agricultural work as a personal rejection. Available from 7/01 to 7/07/22, with a limit of 1000 views.

About the Instituto Brasil-Israel

The Instituto Brasil-Israel (IBI) produces and disseminates knowledge about Israel in dialogue with Brazilian society and combats anti-Semitism. The institute incorporates a broad network of collaborators, follows a plural language and also invites dissenting voices to the debate. Learn more at http://institutobrasilisrael.org/