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Black Carpet: Minister of Culture, Israel / Photo: Erlend Štaub / Courtesy of PÖFF

TALLINN (November 24, 2022) – The 26th PÖFF is welcoming 61 guests from the focus country Israel with Israeli Minister of Culture and Sports Hili Tropper also attending.

The festival is screening 16 Israeli films that showcase unpredictably sharp emotions, expanding worldviews and making people laugh with unexpectedly black humour. The one recurring theme throughout the programme is that there are no taboo topics for Israeli cinema is more varied and daring than it has ever been. In two of the last three years, the Israeli Film Academy awarded the Best Film Award to a film directed by a female director, making the cinema scene one of the most inclusive industries in the Israeli society.

The films in the festival’s selection are Leon Prudovsky’s My Neighbor Adolf, Shahar Rozen’s Ducks, Urban Legend, Ma’ayan Rypp’s The Other Widow, Mordechai Verdi’s Barren, Moshe Rosenthal’s Karaoke and Eitan Anner’s The Good Person, Michal Vinik’s Valeria is Getting Married, Ehab Tarabieh’s The Taste of Apples is Red, Yona Rozenkier’s 35 Downhill, Jack Paltrow’s June Zero, Nitzan Gilady’d In Bed and Ohad Milstein’s Summer Nights. The programme also includes three classic Israeli movies – Big Eyes by Uri Zohar, Avanti popolo by Rafi Bukai and Thirst by Tawfik Abu Wael.

Looking at this varied line-up, it is hard to imagine that not so long ago the Israeli cinema was almost exclusively Hebrew-speaking. According to film critic and scholar Avner Shavit, today Israeli films speak in multiple languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Amharic and more, reflecting the various countries of origin of the filmmakers. This is also reflected in the selected films.

For instance, Barren was made by a Rabbi and is set in an ultra-orthodox society, In Bed is a film by a gay filmmaker, in June Zero, we are taken back to the 60s and in Karaoke, a young filmmaker focuses on his parents’ generation in his debut film. Hebrew, English and Ukrainian are spoken In Valeria is Getting Married. Even more significant is the fact that there are female characters in almost every frame. Virginity was made by an Israeli cultural icon who refigured, how to represent Sephardic society and culture. “These films take place in a specific Israeli setting. Nevertheless, the themes are universal. They hold a mirror up to both the Israeli society and the global community,” writes Avner Shavit in PÖFF’s Catalogue 2022.

When talking about Israeli film, it is also notable that at the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, Hilchick by director Adam Sanderson and produced by David Mandil was selected for the Baltic Event Co-Production Market, Talitha Kumi, by director Hadar Morag and producer Shira Hochman was picked for the Script Pool section and Ruth by director Esty Shushan and producers David Silber and Sivan Cohen was selected for International Works in Progress.

PÖFF’s focus on Israeli cinema has been co-funded by the Israel Cinema Project, Rabinovich Foundation and the Israel Film Fund, both dedicated to supporting Israeli films. The foundations are supported by the Cultural Administration at the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Israeli Council for Cinema. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Israel in Finland are also one of the co-funders of this year’s focus.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2022 is held from November 11 to 27.

Full details of all films from Black Nights, Just Film and PÖFF Shorts can be found online at poff.ee/en/programmes.

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