Eyal Shiray Movies

Israeli director David Volach's chamber drama My Father, My Lord (aka Hofshat Kaits, 2006) provides an intense character study of a rabbi in an Orthodox neighborhood, whose letter-of-the-law application of Talmudic tenets takes an exacting toll on his life. He must thus grapple with the conflicting demands of his belief system and his familial obligations to his wife and child. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A woman seeking to embrace both her faith and her culture finds that neither is as simple as she imagined in this drama from Israel. It's 1981, and Rachel (Michaela Eshet) has become a single mother of two teenage girls after the unexpected death of her husband. Looking for a new identity as she starts her life again, Rachael decides to pull up roots and leave Jerusalem for a new settlement on the West Bank. Rachel's daughters have become acclimated to city life and are unenthusiastic about their mother's decision, but that doesn't change her mind. However, Rachel's neighbors soon make their own feelings felt; they obviously aren't happy with the prospect of a single mother living in their community, and she soon finds herself subjected with any number of matchmaking opportunities from fiftysomething men. More seriously, daughters Esti (Maya Maron) and Tami (Hani Furstenberg) don't feel safe or accepted in their new environment, especially Tami, who has a traumatic experience while on a camping trip with a Zionist youth organization. Campfire was the winner five Israeli Academy Awards in 2005, including Best Picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Issues of love, loyalty, and faith are set on a collision course in this award-winning drama. Rabbi Meltzer (Asi Dayan) is a respected Orthodox rabbi and leader of a yeshiva school in a remote section of the Judean hills. One of the Rabbi's favorite causes is returning Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock to the control of Israel -- a holy shrine in the ancient city that Moslems use as a mosque and Jews call Temple Mount. With this goal in mind, the Rabbi organizes a military unit comprised of his students, with military officer Menachem (Aki Avni) serving as an advisor. While Menachem agrees with Rabbi Meltzer in principle, especially since the Rabbi regards the group's activities as more symbolic than anything else, he and other military authorities are wary of his plan, believing the Rabbi's soldiers could easily turn into a fanatical terrorist group with the wrong twist of the political winds. One of the Rabbi's prize students is a frail young man named Pini (Edan Alterman), and Meltzer is fond enough of the lad that he's decided Pini should wed his daughter Michal (Tinkerbell). But while Michal respects her father, she has a mind of her own and no interest in marrying Pini. Instead, Michal has become infatuated with Menachem, but the officer refuses to go against the Rabbi's wishes; determined to follow her heart, Michal leaves home to strike out on her own. Pini is devastated by Michal's departure, and he becomes newly determined to make good within Rabbi Meltzer's military unit, while mapping out a secret plan with fellow student Itamar (Micha Selektar) in which they'll finally destroy the Dome of the Rock. Time of Favor won wide acclaim in Israel, earning six Israeli Academy awards, including Best Picture, and it was the nation's official entry for the 2000 American Academy Awards competition (though it failed to make it into the final field of nominees). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The debut film from Toronto-born Israeli theatre director/writer Jonathan Sagall, who played a supporting role in Shindler's List, Urban Feel focuses on a modern couple (Played by top Israeli actors Dafna Rechtner and Scharonn Alexander) and their rocky relationship. Robby is an accountant and a hypochondriac, Eva works in a shop specializing in erotic toys for women, and they have an eight-year-old son named Jonah. The routine of daily life is disrupted by the sudden appearance of the 'catalyzing stranger,' the charming and slightly alcoholic Emanuel (no other that the director Jonathan Sagall himself), who was Eva's childhood sweetheart and also an old buddy of Robby. Emanuel's influence is felt strongly by all members of the household, including little Jonah, whom he teaches to be tough on the street. But the most drastic change is in Eva, whose sexual feelings are rekindled. After the drunken intrusion of Emanuel into her bed one night, Eva lands in an anonymous sex club. Robby's reaction is to plunge into a crazy affair with a woman named Nelly, who regularly places ads in the lonely hearts columns of newspapers and is somewhat involved with an aging theatre director. In the meantime, the audience is supposed to wonder, who is the real father of Jonah, Robby, or Emanuel? The film has pretensions of a global late-1990's zeitgeist, engulfing characters that have stopped caring; one character, Asi, walks through a terrorist bomb attack, but is still preoccupied by something to do with his love life. It is also about post-modern man's yearning for love beyond sex. The problem is all this has already been said (and shown) many times before, and Urban Feel has nothing new or original to add. At its best, it is a bittersweet comedy with some clever dialogue. The film competed at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide