Venue: Russian Cultural Centre, Kamalpokhari, Kathmandu 

(17-19 November 2009)

As part of its annual cultural activities, the Embassy of Israel, Kathmandu is glad to announce that it is organizing 4th Israeli Film Festival at the Russian Culture Centre, Kamalpokhari starting from 17-19 November 2009.

Israel is a country, small in size, a modern society built on ancient root, with a culturally active, heterogeneous population. Four thousand years of Jewish heritage, over a century of Zionism, and more than half a century of modern statehood have contributed to a culture which has already established an identity of its own, while preserving the uniqueness of 70 different communities.

The constant search for cultural identity is expressed through creativity in a broad range of art forms, appreciated and enjoyed by a great many people, as part of daily life.

Israeli film industry is vivid and diversified reflecting many aspects of life in Israel. It has undergone major developments since its inception in 1950s. The movies selected for the festival will expose the viewers to a fascinating facet of the modern Israeli culture.

The following movies will be screened during the festival.

* The Vulture (Nov 17th, 3.00 pm)

* Dead End Street (Nov 17th, 5.30 pm)

* Yellow Asphalt (Nov 18th, 3.00 pm)

* Kazablan (Nov 18th, 5.30 pm)

* Passover Fever (Nov 19th, 3.00 pm)

* Turn Left at the End of the World (Nov 19th, 5.30 pm)

Most of the above movies are winners of the international film awards. “The Vulture” and “Dead End Street” represented Israel in Cannes Film Festival in 1981 and 1983 respectively. “Yellow Asphalt” won the Special Jury Prize in Cologne Mediterranean Film Festival in 2001. “Kazablan” was nominated for Golden Globes Award in 1974 in the categories of Best Foreign Language Foreign Film and Best Original Song (for the song Rosa Rosa). “Passover Fever” bagged Best Screenplay Award in Montreal World Film Festival in 1995, won the best supporting actress award of the Israel Film Academy held in same year and screen in 40 festivals world wide. “Turn Left at the End of the World” won two awards of the Israel Film Academy in 2004 for Best Art Design and Best Costume Design.

The Embassy is confident that such cultural activities will serve as a bridge and a medium to bring peoples of our two countries culturally further closer and strengthen people to people relations.

Free entrance. Seats are limited. Passes are available at the Embassy of Israel, Kathmandu (Tel. 4411811/4413419) or on the day of show, at the Russian Cultural Centre, Kamalpokhari.

Please feel free to download Media Kit as follows for use in your media:

Press Release about the 4th Israeli Film Festival in Kathmandu, issued by the Embassy of Israel, Kathmandu

Synopses of the featured films

Photos from the films

(a) The Vulture

(b) Dead End Street

(c) Yellow Asphalt

(d) Kazablan

(e) Passover Fever

(f) Turn Left at the End of the World 

Download Promotional Flyer

Film: The Vulture (1980)

Type: Drama

Subtitle: English

Show Date & Time: 17 Nov 2009, 3.00 pm

Duration: 92 min

Directed by: Yaky Yosha

Boaz, a young officer, returns home from the "Yom-Kippur" (1973) war. He left for the war with two friends and returned with one dead and one badly injured. Down and out, and lonely, Boaz aimlessly wanders the streets of Tel-Aviv. To comfort himself, Boaz goes to console his dead friend's parents, only to find himself sucked into a most complex relationship with the bereaved parents. First out of courtesy, then out of cynicism, Boaz gives them all they’re missing: a poem their son allegedly wrote, false tales of heroism and some occasional snapshots. Out of thin air Boaz erects a false monument of a dead hero out of a fairly mediocre child, who didn't get to leave much behind him. Boaz becomes romantically involved with his dead friend's girlfriend, and simultaneously with the beautiful coordinator in the army's memorial department. And so, by day they serve a holy trinity of comfort and immortality and by night they are fallen angles.

Film: Dead End Street (1982)

Type: Drama

Subtitle: English

Show Date & Time: 17 Nov 2009, 5.30 pm

Duration: 86 min

Directed by: Yaky Yosha

Based on a true story, Alice, a young street walker, receives an opportunity of a lifetime when a television crew casts her to star in a documentary about prostitution in Tel-Aviv. Alice, a 17 year old girl from the gutters of the city, is exposed for the first time to the glitzy world of make believe. For her personal safety and the crew's convenience, Alice is invited, during the shoot, to stay in the home of Yoram, the director and Mary, his producer-girlfriend. Alice's presence exceeds all expectations as she lays out her gloomy life story in front of the cameras. When Mary notices that Yoram’s involvement with Alice, she wraps the production as quickly as possible. Alice doesn't want to go back to the streets, but she doesn't belong in the 'decent' world either. Alice finds herself in a dead end.

Film: Yellow Asphalt (2000)

Type: Fiction/Drama

Subtitle: English

Show Date & Time: 18 Nov 2009, 3.00 pm

Duration: 87 min

Directed by: Danny (Nokyo) Verete

The film is a triptych examining collisions between Bedouin tribes and their Israeli neighbors. BLACK SPOT is a short story of an oil tanker speeding down a desert highway that hits a Bedouin child. When the drivers frantically try to hide the dead boy, they are discovered. A standoff ensues between the unapologetic Israelis and the threatening Bedouin tribesman, while the child's mother wails in a heap of black burqua on the sand. HERE IS NOT THERE revolves around Tamam, a German woman with blue, made-up eyes behind a veil, who is forbidden to leave her Bedouin husband by the tribal elders. So she sneaks away in the night with her two children. Tamam recalls happier times while desperately dragging her crying daughters through the desert, and her vengeful husband hunts them down. Finally, RED ROOFS depicts life in the tribe that discovers the affair between a married Israeli farmer, Shmuel, and his Bedouin maid, Suhilla; and the death and dishonor touch all involved.

Film: Kazablan (1974)

Type: Musical Drama

Subtitle: English

Show Date & Time: 18 Nov 2009, 5.30 pm

Duration: 122 min

Directed by: Menahem Golan

An adaptation of a popular Israeli stage musical, Kazablan is an army veteran turned gang leader in the Israeli port of Jaffa who masks his feelings of bitterness with a lot of bravado. He's sweet on Rachel, a young woman who lives with her father and stepmother. The budding relationship scandalizes the neighbors and infuriates Yanush, a middle-aged shoe store owner who wants Rachel for himself. (Yanush feels he's entitled to marry Rachel since they're both Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern European origins, whereas Kazablan is a Sephardic Jew from Morocco.) The neighborhood has something else to worry about besides the antics of Kazablan and his gang: the city wants to tear down their crumbling homes. The residents pool their resources to save their houses, but the money that's collected is stolen. When he's jailed for the theft, Kazablan must find a way to clear himself.

Film: Passover Fever (1994)

Type: Comedy/Drama

Subtitle: English

Show Date & Time: 19 Nov 2009, 3.00 pm

Duration: 100 min

Directed by: Shemi Zarhin

A large family convenes to celebrate the Passover Eve Feast. During the meal several dramas take place among suspicious looks and restrained smiles. Everyone is there, but a dark cloud casts its shadow over the night. Izhar, the youngest son of Yona and Michael, is missing. Another son tries to get back at his wife for divorcing him. Michael behaves suspiciously and Yona suspects him of cheating on her, while in fact he is preparing a wonderful surprise. This is a sad comedy, the stories of which intermingle, creating a human yarn which is both funny and painful.

Film: Turn Left at the End of the World (2003)

Type: Drama/Romance

Subtitle: English

Show Date & Time: 19 Nov 2009, 5.30 pm

Duration: 108 min

Directed by: Avi Nesher

Israel, 1968, the peace of a small desert town inhabited mostly by Israelis originally from North Africa is disturbed when a group of Jewish immigrants from India arrives. The two groups are very different, and the cultural clashes and group conflicts are many. A cricket match between the local Indian cricket team and a professional British one is destined to take place in town. The town people join in the efforts to put the town on "the map". In the middle are two teenage girls - a local and a new comer from India - who develop a close friendship and discover together the colors, the music and the sexual revolution of the late sixties.