Doron Tavory

In the days following October 7, Y., a jazz musician, and his wife Yasmin, a dancer, resolve to say yes to everything. Y. and Yasmin sell their bodies and souls to the highest bidder, surrendering themselves and their art to Israel’s social, political and military elite. Soon, Y. is entrusted with a mission of the utmost importance: to compose the music for a rousing, ruthless new national anthem.

Salma Zidane, a widow, lives simply from her grove of lemon trees in the West Bank's occupied territory. The Israeli defence minister and his wife move next door, forcing the Secret Service to order the trees' removal for security. The stoic Salma seeks assistance from the Palestinian Authority, Israeli army, and a young attorney, Ziad Daud, who takes the case. In this allegory, does David stand a chance against Goliath?

Two Israeli sisters delve into the dark mystery of their father’s former life in Poland during World War II.

In contemporary Tel Aviv, a mother and daughter confront each other after the death of the father/husband and the discovery of the dead man's secret affair. The daughter is drawn irresistibly to the "other" woman's son and torn between feelings of loyalty to her mother and distaste of the father's passionate past. The mother is tormented by the past betrayal and current jealousy. Each struggles to settle old debts as they both experience passion and pain, but grow to learn independence.

The story is set in Jerusalem in the winter of 1959. Shmuel Ash, a sensitive student who has dropped out of university because his father's finances have collapsed, takes a live-in job as a companion to an elderly, incapacitated man, Gershom Wald, who needs someone to argue with. Wald learns from Shmuel that he has stopped working on his thesis, which dealt with Jewish views on Jesus. The conversation between these two protagonists revolves around the humanity of Jesus. Shmuel tells Wald about his alternative theory on Judas Iscariot: he says he believes Judas was not a traitor at all but, in fact, the truest believer in Jesus's divinity. Furthermore, a relationship develops between Shmuel and Wald's daughter-in-law, Atalia Abravanel, a sensual and mysterious woman. Shmuel falls in love with her in what becomes a tender coming-of-age tale.

Hanan, a poor Yeshiva student, deeply involved in Kabbalah, learned that his beloved Lea, daughter of the wealthy man of the shtetl, will be given to another man. His incongruous death changes the cause of the events. The story takes an incredible turnover.

The film delves into an almost forgotten event that took place in Kfar Qasim in October 1956, when 47 innocent civilians were shot and killed by Israeli Border Police soldiers. Through a gripping narrative structure, like a suspenseful legal drama, the film unfolds the historical, political, and psychological reality that shaped and triggered the event. A cinematic montage created by the intertwined plotlines, emphasizes immense gaps, conflicting narratives, and deep divides between Jews and Arabs who are destined to live together on the same land. If we begin to recognize these gaps, will there be hope for reconciliation?

Twelve year-old Uri reports his teacher Balaban as a suspected spy when he observes him meeting with a young arab man. Only later does he discover that Balaban's interest in the young arab is romantic rather than political.

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.

The royal family is in conflict and at its center - a rejected, hurt and injured child who in his adulthood becomes a cruel dictator, a malignant disease that mercilessly brutalizes those who brutalized him. An eloquent and touching murderous clown who takes us on a spectacular journey of self-destruction. The damaged villain who steps on corpses on his way to the throne - is actually a mirror of human society, for all its flaws, a warning light for all of us, because why stop at the family when you can eliminate the country?

An old actress, a young actress, a famous writer, a budding playwright, a depressed teacher, and one who always wears black, meet at a summer house and philosophize about art, boredom and the meaning of life. Everyone is in love, of course, but precisely with someone who does not love them back.