Keren Mor Movies
- 2008
Filmmakers Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz revisit some of the characters from their 2004 picture Ve Lakachta Lecha Isha in this mordant examination of family life. It's 1991, the Middle East is still reeling from the impact of the Gulf War, and Ilana (Keren Mor) is an Israeli woman who has become a widow in the wake of her husband's unexpected death. After the funeral, members of the Ilana come to her home for the Jewish ritual of sitting shiva, in which the immediate family observes a week of prayer and contemplation as well-wishers visit. However, Ilana's family does not always get along, and as eight siblings and a number of parents, aunts, uncles and in-laws are brought together in close quarters, tensions rise to the surface over the course of the week. Haim (Moshe Ivgy) is a businessman whose firm is on the verge of bankruptcy after hiring a number of family members and close friends who've let him down. Viviane (Ronit Elkabetz) has left her husband Eliyahu (Simon Abkarian), though for some reason he thinks joining her for shiva will bring them back together, and she finds herself bickering with her sister and longtime rival Simone (Hanna Azoulay Hasfari). Jacques (Rafi Amzaleg) and his wife Lili (Yael Abecassis) are at each others throats, and Therese (Ruby Shoval) and Evelyne (Evelin Hagoel) sped most of their time in the kitchen, spreading malicious gossip about their relatives. Les Septs Jours (aka The Seven Days) was screened as part of the Critics Week series at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronit Elkabetz, Albert Illouz, (more)
- 2007
An offensive hand gesture sets into motion a tragic series of events in director Tzahi Grad's tense tale of one man who refuses to bend to the powers that be. It's Holocaust Memorial Day, and Michael Klienhouse's wife, Tamar, has just flipped 60-year-old war hero Dreyfus the finger. Enraged at the blatant act of disrespect, Dreyfus punches the gas of his car and nearly kills Tamar when he drives directly into her door. A law-abiding citizen who only wants justice for his wife, family man Michael is shocked when the authorities tell him that there is little they can do about the incident. As it turns out, Dreyfus has some pretty powerful friends, and never seems to have lost his battlefield mentality. Stunned by the willingness of police to overlook the incident and sent into a downward spiral of powerlessness, Michael finds himself newly invigorated as he sets about procuring a gun and seeking justice on his own terms. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Amos Gitai directed this Israeli-French family comedy-drama, the second film in a trilogy about contemporary Israeli cities. A Jewish woman, Hanna (Hanna Maron), runs a bakery with her Arab husband Yussef (Yussef Abu Warda), while their son Moshe (Moshe Ivgi) has problems with his wife Didi (Dalit Kahan). With a proposed retail mall in the future, Yussef feels there are inherent political implications if he were to sell the bakery to the Israeli developer. Shown at the Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Moshe Ivgi, Hanna Maron, (more)
- 1997
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, All Movie Guide
This difficult-to-follow arthouse film explores the parallel stories of two very idealistic Zionist women who never met in real life. The story concerns the German poet Elsa Lasker-Schuller and the Russian Mania Schochat. Elsa (Lisa Krezer) lives in 1920's Berlin as Germany is degenerating into the chaos from which Hitler will emerge. Mania (Rivka Neumann) is living in Palestine, amid some of the first and most rigorous experiments in genuinely Marxist living, at a radical kibbutz. Each survives to be present at the beginning of the Jewish state, and each is sorely disillusioned. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa Kreuzer, Markus Stockhausen, (more)
