Current statistics suggests that, even though France is depicted as less than empathetic to the Jewish community, the Jewish population there has actually grown.
Yvan Attal huddles on a velvet couch in a corner of the cavernous Chateau Marmont lobby, a study in nervous energy. The Israeli-born French actor-director, who is charming if energetic, furrows his brow and runs his fingers through his tousled black hair. It\’s not hard to believe that one of his film idols is Woody Allen (\”I identify with his neuroses\”) or that he makes films that serve as personal therapy.\n\nConsider his new dark comedy, the frenetically paced \”Happily Ever After,\” which explores his midlife crisis. He got the idea in 2003 when he dropped his son off at preschool and noticed most of the other parents were divorced.\n\n\”I began thinking about my own life and the choices I have made, and they felt enormous and scary,\” he said.
\”Arafat is a powerful symbol. But today it\’s very difficult to say that he has control over what\’s happening on the ground.\”
The 19th annual Israel Film Festival will showcase 33 movie features, television films, documentaries and student shorts from the Jewish State from May 28 through June 8.
Joseph Cedar, director of the Oscar-nominated Israeli film, \”Beaufort,\” and an Orthodox Jew, has resolved a thorny Shabbat dilemma.
Renowned Israeli director Amos Gitai acknowledges that his film, \”Kadosh,\” raises ire in segments of the observant community. \”It\’s critical of certain elements of Jewish tradition that I consider to be reactionary,\” says the filmmaker, whose movie tells of two oppressed Orthodox women in Jerusalem\’s Mea Shearim. \”But it\’s not a total denial. It\’s precise.\”
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