Gila Almagor Movies

As her retirement unfurls, ex-Mossad agent Rachel (Gila Almagor) unexpectedly comes face to face with a long-buried demon from her past in Israeli director Assaf Bernstein's haunting psychological thriller The Debt. Though Rachel lived out a central intelligence career packed with one earth-shaking climax after another, the highlight undoubtedly arrived in the mid-'60s, when she and colleagues Ehud and Zvi joined forces to successfully track down and exterminate a long-elusive Nazi war criminal ominously nicknamed "The Surgeon of Birkenau." Now, the mid-'90s have arrived, and Rachel attends the party to celebrate her recently published memoirs. Zvi suddenly crops up for the first time in years, with a haunting and compelling account of an elderly gentleman in a Kiev, Ukraine nursing home, who insists that he is actually the "real" surgeon. Director Bernstein co-mingles 1960s spy film visual style with the tale of a woman in her golden years summoned to perform one last mission, checking off an assignment left unrealized. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Much as Steven Spielberg followed 1993's special-effects blockbuster Jurassic Park with a far more downbeat and personal project later the same year, Schindler's List, in 2005 after tearing up the box office with War of the Worlds the director closed out the year with a powerful and thoughtful drama about the human costs of international terrorism. The 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, were supposed to be a peaceful gathering of outstanding athletes from around the world, but on September 5, the games took a sinister turn when eight masked Palestinian terrorists invaded the Olympic village, killing two Israeli athletes and abducting nine others. The kidnappers demanded safe passage out of Germany in addition to the release of Arab prisoners in Israeli and German prisons, but when they arrived at the Munich airport they were met by German police and military forces, and in the melee that followed, all nine hostages were killed. In the wake of the killings, the Israeli government gave Mossad, the nation's intelligence agency, a special assignment -- to track down and eliminate the Palestinians responsible for the death of the Israeli athletes. A young and idealistic Mossad agent (Eric Bana) is assigned to the four-man unit created to wipe out the Olympic terrorists, but while he believes in serving his country, as their bloody work goes on he begins to buckle under the weight of his work and wonders if he can morally justify his nation's acts of revenge. Munich also stars Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Ciarán Hinds. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A middle-class Israeli family has a reunion for Passover and find themselves feasting on a smorgasbord of dysfunction as they try to cope with their innumerable problems in this drama. Yona and Michael are hosting the Passover festivities. It is a sadder than usual gathering because one of their sons was recently killed in a military accident. Nathaniel, twin brother of the deceased, creates a stir when he shows up with his new girl friend. His ex-wife Gila bears this well and she and the girl friend become better acquainted. Dorona is the eldest and is constantly plagued by allergies, something that has helped kill the romance in her marriage to Rikki. Shai is anorexic while Dalia is morbidly obese. Meanwhile the bratty son of Nathaniel and Gila creates all sorts of malicious mischief. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A Jewish Moroccan immigrant family living in Israel is nearly destroyed by conflicts resulting from generational differences in this arresting Israeli drama. It begins as Cheli, a successful but emotionally troubled talk show host who has been unable to deal with her traumatic childhood is traveling to attend her father's funeral. She is accompanied by her mentally ill sister Pnina and her adopted estranged daughter. It is a hellish trip and as they travel, flashbacks chronicle their painful youth. Rachel had always wanted to break away from her family's Moroccan heritage and so spent much time trying make herself fit in with her Israeli peers. She was humiliated by her poor, ignorant family. Her father was an overbearing, blindly religious fanatic and their mother was a witch who manipulated the family by casting spells. She feared her mother, and despised her insane sister, to whom she was very cruel. Cheli's older brother Shlomo was the most normal one in the bunch. But after he impregnated his girlfriend and took her to a midwife for an abortion, the girlfriend's angry brother retaliated by getting Pnina pregnant. Pnina's mother then cast a powerful spell and caused the hapless girl to miscarry. The culmination of their weird childhood came as Rachel was preparing to leave for prep school. Something horrible happened between the sisters and neither have been quite the same since. Though Cheli now feels guilty, she is too neurotic to make proper amends. The film is also titled Practical Magic and Sh'Chur. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Marlo Thomas stars as Lucille "Sis" Levin, whose husband Jerry (David Dukes) is an American TV journalist assigned to Beirut in 1984. Jerry is kidnapped by Muslim fundamentalists, a fact kept off the front pages by the State Department, ostensibly because the publicity could cost Jerry his life. Sis doesn't accept this (she suspects that our government doesn't want to offend the Lebanese government), and arranges on her own to communicate with her husband's captors. Israel stands in for Lebanon for the on-location scenes in Held Hostage: The Sis and Jerry Levin Story. This fact-based TV movie is wholly credible in every aspect save Marlo Thomas' uncertain Southern accent. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A young girl and her mother both carry the scars of their experiences during the holocaust in this drama from Israel. In 1951, Aviya (Kaipo Cohen) is a ten-year-old girl being raised by her single mother, Henya (Gila Almagor), in a small village in Israel. Henya is a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, and has come out of the experience considerably worse for wear; she's haunted by the memories of her past, and has become emotionally unstable. Circumstances for her and her daughter are hardly improved by the poverty of the newly wounded state of Israel, and their own difficult economic circumstances. Aviya, meanwhile, is obsessed with finding her missing father, and wonders if he might be the man who has just moved into their village. Henya, however, knows better, and knows why Aviya's father is never coming back to them. The Summer of Aviya was based on a novel by Gila Almagor, who also plays Henya; a sequel, Under the Domim Tree, was released in 1995. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Yaky Yosha's 1982 Israeli drama Kvish Lelo Motza (aka Dead End Street) observes the trials and travails of a young prostitute named Alice (Anat Atzmon) who is thrust into jail alongside her pimp and hustler boyfriend. In desperation, Alice devises a scheme to save both of them: she will take the steps necessary to free herself, then set about raising the money to save her beau. However, she fails to anticipate the arrival of a documentary crew comprised of husband and wife Yoram (Yehoram Gaon) and Miri (Gila Almagor), who insist on filming her as she undergoes rehabilitation; when Yoram begins to fall hard for Alice, it draws the ire and chagrin of Miri, who begins to seethe with jealousy. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Engaging and controversial in its own way, this personal look at a little boy's life and times undoubtedly relies on director Dan Wolman's own experiences. The setting is just before Israel gained independence and 12-year-old Uri is not doing well in school. His parents have left him with Grandpa because they are busy in politics. Picking up on this cue, Uri plays games in which he fights Arabs and Brits without really understanding the reasons why they are "enemies." After Grandpa hires a young tutor to help Uri do better in school, the little boy eventually comes to really care for the man. Then disaster strikes -- Uri finds out some of his tutor's friends are Arabs, and he is sent into a tailspin. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This thrill-packed fact-based action-adventure from Israel chronicles the daring rescue of 104 passengers from a hijacked plane in Entebbe, Uganda, on July 4, 1976. The film is also known as Entebbe: Operation Thunderbolt. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The ongoing plight of Russian Jewry serves as the backdrop for the Golan-Globus effort Escape to the Sun (Habricha el Hashemesh). Laurence Harvey is cast against type as Major Kirsanov, a nasty KGB officer who refuses to allow Soviet Jews Nina Kaplan (Josephine Chaplin, Charlie's daughter and Geraldine's sister) and Yasha Bazarov (Yuda Barkin) to emigrate to Israel. In desperation, Nina, Yasha and several others hijack a jetliner. Kirsanov foils the plan, but Nina and Yasha manage to escape--if you can call heading to the desolate Russian steppes an "escape." The actors are talented and the locations well chosen, but the script is a real let-down. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi