Raphaël Nadjari
Directing
Biography
Raphaël Nadjari (Hebrew: רפאל נדג'ארי; born 1971) is a French-Israeli writer and director for film and television. In 1993, Nadjari started working for French television as a writer and director. In 1997, he wrote the television screenplay Le P'tit Bleu, which was directed by Francois Vautier for Arte as part of the TV drama collection Petits Gangsters. The same year he wrote and directed his first US feature, The Shade (released in 1999), which starred Richard Edson, Lorie Marino, and Jeff Ware. It was an adaptation of A Gentle Creature by Dostoevsky that Nadjari updated, setting it in contemporary New York City. This film was an official selection for Un Certain Regard at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and also appeared at the Deauville Film Festival; the film was awarded in Bergamo Film Festival (Italy). At the end of 1999, Nadjari directed his second feature, I Am Josh Polonski's Brother (2001). Starring Richard Edson and Jeff Ware, it was shot on Super 8 mm film in New York. The film opened in Paris on June 6, 2001, and was selected for the Forum for New Cinema at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2001. The same year, Nadjari shot the film Apartment #5c in New York; it was released in 2002. The film starred Richard Edson and Tinkerbell, an Israeli actress, and was selected in Cannes' Director's Forthnight. In 2004, Nadjari filmed Avanim in Tel Aviv with Asi Levi who has been nominated for Best Actress in the European Film Award. The film received also the Best Film award in Cinéma Tous Ecrans and the Best Director award in the Cannes 2005 France Culture Award, Awards at the Seville Film Festival. In 2006 Tehilim was set in Jerusalem and stars Michael Moushanov and Limor Goldstein, two prominent figures of Israeli television and theatre; it has been shown at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival in the Official Selection and won the Tokyo Filmex Best Film Award the same year. In 2009, his documentary A History of Israeli Cinema, a two-episode film of 104 minutes each, telling the story of Israeli Cinema since 1933 until today, was screened at the Berlin film festival forum. In 2013, A Strange Course of Events, a film set in Haifa was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Nadjari's 2016 film Night Song (Mobile étoile) won the Tobias Spencer Award (in the Between Jewish and Israeli Identity competition) at the Haifa International Film Festival. Description above from the Wikipedia article -, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
The first film of New York-based French director Raphael Nadjari is an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's The Gentle Creature, which had also inspired Une Femme douce of Robert Bresson. The Shade is a drama about a mysterious woman and a pawnbroker who meet in New York. The film begins with Simon, who is alone in his apartment with the corpse of his wife, Anna, who has just committed suicide. In his grief, he remembers the first time he met her, a year ago when she walked into his pawnbroker's shop in Spanish Harlem. Mysterious Anna, who seems to come from nowhere, impresses solitary Simon with her sad beauty, and he proposes to her on their first night out. The Shade is a love story with great psychological insight.
The Shade
No description available.
Mobile Étoile
Three brothers, Abe, Ben and Josh work in a textile shop and live a relatively quiet life until one day when Josh is killed in front of Abe's eyes. Determined to solve the mystery surrounding his brother's death, Abe is drawn deeper into an underworld filled with prostitution where he meets Jill, a call girl who guides him in his brother's footsteps.
I am Josh Polonski's Brother
Shaul (Uri Pepper), the film’s protagonist, a solitary divorced man, tries to overcome his difficult emotional state. He goes to see his father Shimon (Moni Moshonov) in Haifa and confronts him, blaming his father for all his current woes. Shimon and his partner Betty (Michaela Eshet), try to help Shaul with alternative methods, using stones with magical attributes and therapeutic oils. With their help, Shaul becomes much more optimistic…
A Strange Course Of Events
A family in Jerusalem is torn apart by the mysterious disappearance of their father after a tragic a car accident.
Tehilim
Nicky and Uri, two young Israeli, arrive in New York, living off small theft. They set down in a very modest Brooklyn appartment. One night, during an argument with Uri, Nicky inadvertently shoots herself in the leg.
Apartment #5C
Michale is a thirty year old woman. She works with her father in a Tel Aviv accounting office providing services to important religious institutions. She divides her time between her child, her husband, her work and the man with whom she is having an affair. When Michale learns of the tragic death of her lover, her life is shattered.
Stones
No description available.
A History of Israeli Cinema
A History of Israeli Cinema is the result of years of researches, studies, documentation, screening, interviews, some recorded, some to learn, to understand, to unfold. Actors, thinkers, producers, filmmakers, professors, critics negotiated to build a narrative that remains fragile and incomplete. It is the process rather than the result that is shared here.