The man who put Israeli movies on the map

• Published date: 27 September 2021
• Author: HANNAH BROWN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"What you give is always yours," said Edery, who immigrated from Tangier to Dimona in the early 1960s when he was a child, as he sits in a conference room in his suite of offices at Cinema City in Glilot – the first multiplex in Israel, and the flagship of the chain. There is a framed photo here of him with his late brother, Leon, who passed away in 2018 and with whom he went on the magic carpet ride that has made Israeli movies winners at every festival around the world and driven ticket sales sky-high at home.

A relentless bundle of energy, the trim, athletic Edery, who looks much younger than he is – he just celebrated his 70th birthday in an event where he was feted by Israel's leading filmmakers – has produced literally hundreds of movies in fewer than 20 years. These include Joseph Cedar's Beaufort and Footnote, both Oscar nominees; Avi Nesher's Turn Left at the End of the World and all the films he has made since then; Eytan Fox's Walk on Water and most of his subsequent films; Eran Kolirin's The Band's Visit; Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado's Big Bad Wolves; Eran Riklis's Lemon Tree and many of his other films, and so many more.

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These titles are from the more highbrow end of Edery's empire. He has also been instrumental in revitalizing the crowd-pleasing comedy branch of Israeli cinema, that withered after the success of the seretei bourekas (slapstick comedies) in the 1970s, with movies that include this year's big summer hit, Saving Shuli, by the Mah Keshur trio, which he said was set to sell one million tickets by the end of the coming weekend.

"Have you seen it? It's a phenomenon," he said. "It's the most commercially successful Israeli movie in the last 40 years." In the early days of the film industry, he said, "Who knows what movies really made? Now, with computers, we know exactly how many tickets are sold."

He estimates that he invests in around 70% to 80% of all Israeli movies and he has about 20 movies in production now, as well as a slate of films ready to be released, "once the government figures out what it's doing" regarding the pandemic. "We're waiting to release them. They have to come out, we can't wait with them forever."

These include Avi Nesher's upcoming film, Image of Victory, an anti-war drama about the Israelis and Egyptians on both sides of the Independence War; it just received 13...