Israel's fall film festivals light up the screen

• Author: HANNAH BROWN
• Published date: 12 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The Arava International Film Festival just announced its lineup. It is celebrating its 10th anniversary from November 3-13 with an in-person event that, unlike last year's mainly drive-in festival, will bring back traditional seating. And that's not all that will be back – there will be a significant group of foreign guests who will present their latest films. The presence of some of the best contemporary filmmakers will make the festival, which is held outdoors under the starry skies of the Ashush nature reserve, next to Tzukim, truly festive.

Robert Wise's classic musical, West Side Story, just ahead of the Steven Spielberg remake, will be screened as part of the festival. Eran Kolirin's Let It Be Morning, which just won the Ophir Award for Best Picture and six other awards, will be shown ahead of its release.

Among these guests will be Michel Franco, the Mexican director who made Sundown. The movie, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, stars Tim Roth as a man vacationing in Mexico with his family where all is not what it seems. The Cage, another recent film he produced, will also be shown.

Juho Kuosmanen, the Finnish director of Compartment Number 6, the story of a Finnish woman traveling through Russia by train, which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, will also be a guest. Kuosmanen has taken part in the Arava Festival in the past.

Laurent Cantet, the French director of such acclaimed films as The Class, will attend the festival with his latest film, Arthur Rambo, the story of a mysterious North African writer. Another guest will be Radu Muntean, from Romania, who will present his acclaimed film, Intregalde, about humanitarian aid workers in a rural area who find themselves tested when they try to help a disoriented local. An Icelandic director, Valdimar Jóhannsson, will attend and will present his movie, Lamb, the story of an isolated couple longing for a child who finds a mysterious new creature on their land.

THE ARAVA Film Festival will feature a tribute to the late Polish master director Krzysztof Kieslowski and will screen his 1989 series, Dekalog, which features 10 films, each based on one of the 10 commandments. Krzysztof Piesiewicz, his cowriter on the series, will be a guest. The Adam Mickiewicz and the Polish Institutes collaborated on this program.

The opening night film will be the movie-business satire, Official Competition, starring Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, by Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat...