Film festival celebrates the many sides of Israel
This year’s featured entry, The Flood, has a Quebec connection
If you think Israel is a country defined only by conflict, please attend the eighth Montreal Israel Film Festival, Sunday to May 7. It would make founder Eran Bester a very happy man.
The voluble festival director wants to show Montrealers that Israel isn’t a onedimensional country founded and fed on struggle. His event is committed to showing the multicultural diversity of his homeland and how its people are preoccupied with the same issues that keep others around the world up at night.
Father-son relationships, mother-daughter relationships, relationships in general. Gender issues. Growing up, fitting in, finding a voice. The usual stuff, in all its glorious, slippery complexity.
“My purpose is to show Canadians that Israeli cinema is modern, exciting, powerful and vital,” Bester explained recently. “It’s not a primitive film culture with three cameras and a tape recorder. Israeli films have been nominated for best foreign Oscar four times in the last five years. “It is a vibrant young cinema, made by young people exploring varied subject matter. Of the nine films in the lineup this year, not one is about the Palestinian conflict. They share universal themes.”
Bester points to Melting Away, a film about the fallout from attacks on a gay and lesbian bar. Or My Lovely Sister, a “Fiddler on the Roof à la Marocain, with themes of love, respect and understanding for cultural traditions other than your own.” Or My Australia, about two Polish kids fresh to Israel in the 1960s who strive for acceptance on a kibbutz.
A big entry this year is The Flood, Guy Nattiv’s award-winning story of autism and adolescent angst in a spectacularly dysfunctional family. Nattiv will be in town to talk about the film at festival screenings Sunday and Monday, and will chat with students at Bialik High School after a special daytime screening Monday.
The Flood also has a Canuck connection. There is some Quebec funding. The stunning images were shot by famed Quebec cinematographer Philippe Lavalette. Original music is by the celestial West Island singersongwriter Patrick Watson and the producer is veteran Ina Fichman, out of Toronto. It opens commercially here May 4.
“I see many similarities in the experiences of the artistic community in Quebec and in Israel,” said Bester. “Both are fighting to create and protect their culture, surrounded by a much larger Arab or anglo presence. And both find creative and innovative ways to make their voices heard.”
He believes the festival has found a home here, even more than in Toronto, where the same program runs every October. “There’s a much larger expat Israeli community in Toronto, and they come out for the event regardless. I consider that preaching to the choir. In Montreal, there’s a much larger Québécois presence at the screening. I judge the success of the event by the number of non-jews who attend.”
He cites the example of a Quebec woman who wrote to say that “she was not at all close to the Jewish community before going to the festival, but is now so fascinated by Israel she wants to visit. She says the films have opened her eyes to the fact the country is not as one-sided as it is portrayed by the media.”
To keep her attention, and that of the faithful who make a point of attending everything, Bester is committed to keeping it fresh. “I try to do something new every year.”
He begins by screening everything that comes out of the country, some 25-30 features annually. Though he’s not from a cinema background himself, and started the event with a modest three films, he has since developed strong contacts within the Israeli industry.
“Of all the films made there, I’d say one-third are good, one-third are so-so and one-third are bad. My challenge is to choose the good films, and make the connections to get them shown here. People have given me a mandate to stimulate them and I don’t want to let them down. All the films in the program are good. Not everyone is going to like every film, of course, but they can’t say anything in the program is a waste of time.
“At closing night of the first year, people gathered around me pleading ‘Promise us you will be here again next year.’ ” Bester’s unwritten contract since then has been to keep his end of the bargain. The audience’s is to show up, for the many sides of Israel.