Yeshiva University is proud to present the Ring Family Israel Film Festival, which will showcase four important contemporary Israeli films and provide an opportunity for audience members to meet and speak with some of the films’ creators. The screenings will also include lectures, workshops and open forums conducted by some of Israel’s leading film artists and critics.
Each film will be followed by a post-screening discussion moderated by Prof. Eric Goldman.
The festival uses cinema as a means to help us understand contemporary Israeli society and our relationship to it. Israeli cinema provides an intimate insight into the dynamic nature of Israel and its diverse people—a lens through which we view Israel's history, culture and challenges.
Footnote
Yeshiva University will host a screening of Footnote at the Schottenstein Cultural Center on YU’s Beren Campus. The film, scheduled for theatrical release in mid-March, has won Best Screenplay at Cannes and is up for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Academy Awards. Footnote explores the lives of father and son—Talmudic scholars who find themselves in competition with each other. Following the screening, director Joseph Cedar, an observant Jew who won Best Director at this year’s Ophir Awards (the highest honor given by the Israeli film industry), will take questions from the audience.
Restoration
Tuesday, February 14, 7:30 p.m., Wilf Campus
A triangle of fatherhood ties and love, Restoration focuses on 70-year-old Yaakov Fidelman, who hangs on with all his might to the antique restoration workshop that has been his life’s work. After his long-time business partner passes away, Fidelman rejects his son Noah’s idea to close the business and build an apartment complex on the site. He believes that with the help of his new apprentice, Anton, he’ll find a way to save his workshop, his world and his solitary way of life. Will the old man understand that his only hope for redemption is to learn to let go, and admit and accept his weakness and the dictate of time?
Restoration was awarded Best Screenplay at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for 11 Ophir Awards. This screening will be followed by a discussion with Noemi Schory, renowned Israeli filmmaker and museum director and producer for Yad Vashem. Watch trailer.
For My Father
Wednesday, February 15, 7:30 p.m., Wilf Campus
What happens when a young Palestinian who comes to Tel Aviv for malevolent reasons is forced to stay for Shabbat? While there, he develops a special relationship with a young Israeli woman who is going through her own rebellion. Each learns from the other, and they show that maybe there is hope for co-existence. The youth also gets to connect with some Israelis, whom he has been taught to hate. A powerful study of Israel today and a look at the emotional, physical and political walls that separate Palestinians and Israelis. With Hili Yalon, Shredi Jabarin and Shlomo Vichinsky. This screening will be followed by discussion with Noemi Schory, renowned Israeli filmmaker and museum director and producer for Yad Vashem. Watch trailer.
Three Mothers
Thursday, February 23, 7:30 p.m., Wilf Campus
Dina Zvi-Riklis’s 2006 film Three Mothers explores Israel’s history through the lives of three Egyptian-born sisters.Triplets Rose, Flora and Yasmin were born into “high society” over 60 years ago in Alexandria, Egypt. Today, they live together in Israel in an apartment without men and children. The film grapples with compelling moral issues, as each struggles with ghosts of the past. As they share their stories, the sisters try to come to grips with mistakes made and ways to heal. A powerful and moving drama, it stars three of Israel’s finest actors, Gila Almagor, Miri Mesika and Rivka Raz. Director Dina Zvi-Riklis will take questions from the audience after the screening. Watch trailer.
The Ring Family Film Festival at Yeshiva University is free and open to the public, but space is limited. To request tickets, please fill out the form below. For more information, please contact yufilmfestival@yu.edu. Please note: tickets for Footnote have already sold out.