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Avi Mograbi

Avi Mograbi

Directing

Biography

Studied Philosophy at Tel Aviv University and Art at Ramat Hasharon Art School. Worked as First Assistant Director in local and foreign feature films and commercials before directing.

Known For

The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation
6.9

An exhaustive explanation of how the military occupation of an invaded territory occurs and its consequences, using as a paradigmatic example the recent history of Israel and the Palestinian territories, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, from 1967, when the Six-Day War took place, to the present day; an account by filmmaker Avi Mograbi enriched by the testimonies of Israeli army veterans.

The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation

2021
How I Learned to Overcome My Fear and Love Arik Sharon
7.1

On the verge of the election, the director Avi Mograbi aims to make a documentary on the most maligned Israeli politician, Arik Sharon. Against all his prediction, Mograbi discovers that Sharon is friendly and welcoming, completely different from the man who was thought to be...

How I Learned to Overcome My Fear and Love Arik Sharon

1997
Happy Birthday, Mr. Mograbi
8.0

This film is a bit of a "documentary within a documentary" as Mr. Mograbi is hired by a producer to do a film on Israel's 50th anniversary celebration. After one check is cut and filming begins, high unemployment figures come out in the press. The producer feels he should take some money and build a factory to provide employment - but all he and Mograbi know is films, so he cuts a second check for Mograbi to do a film on injustices which might highlight the need for reforms.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Mograbi

1999
Dreams of Innocence
8.0

Little Benjamin and Margalit are raised in the boondocks of Israel by their long-suffering mother, but they have in them something of their father, who can't stay in a place with no prospect of riches and excitement.

Dreams of Innocence

1994
Between Fences
5.7

No description available.

Between Fences

2016
Wait, It's the Soldiers, I'll Hang Up Now
N/A

No description available.

Wait, It's the Soldiers, I'll Hang Up Now

2002
The Reconstruction
6.3

On December 8, 1983 a fifteen year old Jewish boy from the city of Haifa was kidnapped, murdered and sexually abused after his death. Five Arabs who worked in in the neighborhood’s supermarket were convicted and imprisoned for life and 27 years. The conviction was based only on the defendants’ confessions and reconstructions. Seventeen years after their conviction, the five defendants still claim they are innocent. "​The Reconstruction" follows the police investigation and juridical process step by step. The heart of the film is the original videotaped reconstructions of the murder performed by the defendants in which they admit their guilt.

The Reconstruction

1994
When Night Falls
5.8

Giora (Assi Dayan) runs a bar and dreams of opening a restaurant. He has made a mess of his life — his marriage is in trouble, since he is pathologically cheating on his wife; his parents (Yosef Millo and Orna Porat) have separated; and his father arrives for an extended visit from Nahariya. Giora spends time with his army buddies, recalling their experiences during the War in Lebanon. His father is undergoing a major life crisis and finds both the loneliness of the city and his son's lifestyle unappealing. As a non-Jew in a Jewish society, he feels estranged, an outsider who has never been able to adapt, and contemplates suicide. Eventually, Giora's parents decide to attempt a reconciliation, until tragedy strikes.

When Night Falls

1985
August: A Moment Before the Eruption
7.0

A documentary filmmaker goes out to document August, since he believes that this month constitutes a metaphor of whatever is hateful in the State of Israel. Yet while doing so he himself becomes August. "August" is a partly documentary and partly fictional film that portrays a month in the life of a filmmaker and his wife. He wishes to document the month of August, since he believes that this month constitutes a metaphor of whatever is hateful in the State of Israel. She, on the contrary, is rather fond of August, which represents to her all that is optimistic.

August: A Moment Before the Eruption

2002
No image
N/A

Video piece by Avi Mograbi

Relief

1999
Once I Entered in a Garden
6.0

Fantasizes an 'Old' Middle East, wherein communities were not divided along ethnic and religious lines; a Middle East in which even metaphorical borders had no place

Once I Entered in a Garden

2013
Z32
5.4

A former Israeli soldier participated in a mission of retribution in which two Palestinian policemen were killed. He seeks forgiveness for what he did. His girlfriend does not think it is so simple and raises questions that he is not yet able to cope with. The soldier willingly testifies before the camera as long as his identity is not revealed. The filmmaker, while seeking a solution to protect the identity of the soldier, questions his own political and artistic conduct.

Z32

2009
Our Beds Are Burning
N/A

The film presents fascist ideologies since the beginning of the 20th Century. The actor/presenter of Maurice Barrés argues against foreign labor on the Tel Aviv beach. Mussolini in a gym. Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera in a bookshop. Carl Schmitt at court. Abba Ahimeir and Itamar Ben-Avi in a public library. Gudrun Streiter recalls her love affair with an SA Stormtrooper with Hitler and Himmler on a bench in a park. Three Rabbis from the Yitzhar Settlement on the West Bank: Shapira, Ginzburg and Elitzur have recently ruled that “there is a reason to kill a child if it is clear that it will grow to harm us” (Torat Hamelekh, 2009, pg. 207). They too appear and discuss their interpretation of Divine commands on a park bench.

Our Beds Are Burning

2021
No image
7.0

An armoured vehicle, a cloud of dust, a bleeding woman, a megaphone, an ambulance, a woman with two children, another ambulance, a weeping girl, a man with white hair, a gust of wind, a reporter, an armoured vehicle, a detail of a bigger picture.

Detail

2004
Avenge But One of My Two Eyes
7.0

Shot in the Occupied Territories by Israeli director Avi Mograbi, this controversial documentary film draws parallels between the Israeli - Palestinian situation today and the enduring myths of Samson and Masada. Mograbi offers a powerful, at times chilling, lament of the continuing cycles of violence rooted in the past and threatening to engulf everyone's future. With the roots of so much real-world conflict left unexamined by today's restless media, this film reminds us just how vital filmmakers like Avi Mograbi are. Documentary today is rarely immersed in questions of this magnitude - or tackles them with the level of eloquence shown here by Mograbi. An exceptional and challenging film.

Avenge But One of My Two Eyes

2005
Deportation
8.0

A short film consisting of one scene in which three people (clearly Palestinians) are deported from their country. What happens in the film doesn’t quite look like a deportation. All its brutal externals have been peeled away, to leave the act itself exposed to a moral discussion.

Deportation

1989