Shaul Mizrahi Movies

The insular world of Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem comes to the screen (with their blessings) in this warm comedy drama. Moshe (Shuli Rand) was once a secular Jew, but he rediscovered his faith and became an ultra-Orthodox Jew, and with his wife, Mali (Michal Bat Sheva Rand), he struggles to support their family. With the harvest festival of Sukkot around the corner, Moshe is broke, and asks for help from a yeshiva charitable fund. Moshe is told the fund has been depleted, and he and Mali are left with no options but to pray for a miracle. To their surprise, the next day they're informed some money was found in the fund after all, and they are given 1,000 dollars; Moshe and Mali believe this is the miracle they asked for, and they joyously make plans to build a sukkah, a gazebo-like structure where Orthodox Jews entertain guests and serve their meals. Just as he completes the new sukkah, Moshe is surprised by the unexpected arrival of Eliahu (Shaul Mizrahi) and Yosef (Ilan Gannai), two old friends from his restless days before he embraced his current faith. Imagining the Lord has sent him guests as part of the miracle, Moshe takes in his old pals and tries to make peace with their rambunctious ways, but what he doesn't know is that the two are on the run from the law, having recently escaped from jail. Ushpizin was scripted by leading man Shuli Rand, who is in real life an ultra-Orthodox Jew and demanded a number of conditions before agreeing to participate in the making of the film (such as the producers agreeing to never show the picture on the Sabbath). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this Israeli urban sex farce, Naomi (Keren Mor) and Tziki (Dov Navon) find their suburban home burglarized. When Naomi goes to the police station, she sits next to a hooker (Dana Raz) -- leading the cops to mistakenly assume she's a prostitute. Eventually, cop Claude (Rami Hoiberger ) takes an interest in her case. Claude is trying to train his dog to bark when traffic lights change -- hence, the film's title. Meanwhile, Tziki, wandering around town, encounters the same prostitute Naomi met at the police station. What he doesn't know is that her pimp is behind the robbery. Shown at the 1997 Seattle and AFI/Los Angeles film festivals. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This implausible action film stars Michael Pare as a soldier who must rescue the CIA-director's daughter (Janis Lee) from a Turkish prison camp. In the process, Pare is temporarily blinded but uses his psychic abilities to defeat a group of Arab terrorists attempting to steal plutonium to blow up the world. Director Bob Misiorowski handles the action scenes fairly well, but the silly premise seems to have been patched together from several different scripts, none of them very good. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

In this docudrama based on true events, a mid-'80s Michigan housewife finds her life turned upside down when a vacation to Tehran with her Iranian husband turns into virtual imprisonment for her and her young daughter. Betty Mahmoody (Sally Field) is reluctant to visit the wartorn homeland of her doctor husband, Moody (Alfred Molina). But, depressed about the racism of the American medical establishment and pining for contact with his family, Moody convinces her to join him for a two-week jaunt. The Islamic fundamentalism and strange customs of Iran bewilder and frighten Betty and her daughter, Mahtob (Sheila Rosenthal). But nothing prepares her for Moody's announcement that the family will be remaining in Tehran indefinitely. Despite beatings and more pervasive psychological control from her husband and his relatives, Betty makes it to the Swiss embassy (there is no American ambassador at the time). There, she learns that as the wife of an Iranian, she is now automatically considered a citizen and that she has absolutely no parental rights over Mahtob in this country. Betty then endures several years as a virtual prisoner, escaping only with the help of Westernized Iranian friends. Based on the book by the real-life Mahmoody and William Hoffer, Not Without My Daughter was coincidentally released during the long build-up to 1991's Gulf War. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

An unusual drama about Israeli soldiers in Southern Lebanon, this story combines reality and fiction so well that the borders between the two seem blurred. The message is simple: war is anarchic, the guilty and innocent are both killed, and there are no winners in the trenches. The personal lives of several soldiers provide the narrative framework. One soldier sees a pretty Lebanese woman while his patrol goes through her village and from that moment onward, he cannot get her out of his mind. Another feels a kinship with the Druse, his own people, who live on the opposite side of the border. A third tries to befriend a street urchin. Their inclination to reach out beyond their uniforms contrasts with the stifling routine of their military existence and the realities of Israeli-Arab politics. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi