Tag: Israeli

TIFF16 REVIEW: Past Life [2016]

Jared Mobarak

“In tragedy you can’t escape fate” It’s 1977 and you’re the lead soprano in your first international concert. Rapturous applause and a flawless performance later you find yourself hobnobbing with classmates and audience members alike, the famed German composer Thomas Zielinski (Rafael Stachowiak) even enters to the crowd’s delight. But rather than let the electricity of the moment overwhelm you and bask in the glory of a successful evening, you can’t help noticing an older woman walking towards you with a scowl on her face. She asks your name, inquires…

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REVIEW: Shesh peamim [S#x Acts] [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“I think I’ve heard of you already” Director Jonathan Gurfinkel‘s debut feature Shesh peamim [S#x Acts] deals with the important topic of teenage sexual abuse in a way that better make you uncomfortable by its end. Told in six acts with escalating encounters between transfer student Gili (Sivan Levy) and the popular group of boys she hopes to infiltrate in order to not be labeled “the weird girl” at yet another school, we watch as infatuation evolves into sexual favors until the moral gray area at play can no longer…

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REVIEW: לבנון [Lebanon] [2009]

Jared Mobarak

“Man is steel. The tank is only iron.” The First Lebanon War began in June 1982 when the Government of Israel launched a military operation against the PLO and their Syrian and Muslim Lebanese allies. Rather than tell that story in a broad, war epic way, writer director Samuel Maoz decided to encapsulate the fear, horror, and chaos by creating a story around an Israeli foursome on a simple mission, the tank support for a platoon dispatched to search a hostile town. לבנון [Lebanon] ends up being the Rear Window…

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REVIEW: ואלס עם באשיר [Waltz with Bashir] [2008]

Jared Mobarak

“Good morning Lebanon” 2008 has become a very odd year for foreign films. I like to think that it is a testament to the quality of movies coming over internationally that has caused this problem of picking those worthy of awards. One of only two Oscar nominees that mirrored the noms from the Golden Globes is ואלס עם באשיר [Waltz with Bashir]. It’s not much of a surprise that this is one of the holdovers being that it won the prize at the Globes and is probably the heavy favorite…

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