Trabelsi Productions

So many Israelis still wax nostalgic about that old Friday afternoon ritual, back in the times when television had just one channel. Everyone would watch the Arab movie of the week, but did anybody ever wonder how Israel’s official TV station was able to transcend hostile boundaries to obtain these films, and why it insisted on showing movies made by “the enemy”? The Arabic-language movie from Egypt let some of us escape back to our original homeland, and let others peek out from our “villa in the jungle” and catch a glimpse of our neighbors across the border. But most of us didn’t really want to see the people whose culture, anguish, and aspirations were reflected on our screens. “Arab Movie” brings us the stars and the songs, the convoluted plots, and that fleeting moment when we shared the same cultural heroes as everyone else in the Middle East. But this film about the richness and intensity of Egyptian cinema also raises some disturbing questions.

A journey from the harbor town of Jaffa to the Jaffa orange, a fruit through which the Israeli filmmaker examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

No Jewish divorce is complete without the man literally giving the woman her freedom back. With Israel having neither civil marriage nor divorce, women can get trapped. The film follows several such "chained" women together with Batya, a religious lawyer, who embarks on a struggle against the rabbinical courts.

The film delves into an almost forgotten event that took place in Kfar Qasim in October 1956, when 47 innocent civilians were shot and killed by Israeli Border Police soldiers. Through a gripping narrative structure, like a suspenseful legal drama, the film unfolds the historical, political, and psychological reality that shaped and triggered the event. A cinematic montage created by the intertwined plotlines, emphasizes immense gaps, conflicting narratives, and deep divides between Jews and Arabs who are destined to live together on the same land. If we begin to recognize these gaps, will there be hope for reconciliation?

Juliano Mer Khamis' documentary on his mother, Arna, an activist against the Israeli occupation who founded an alternative education system for Palestinian children.

Nizar is an introverted alter boy and a social outcast. During this years' Easter, Nizar decides to compete with the village children in the 'breaking eggs' games. His goal is to collect as many eggs as possible in order to sacrifice them in the village church for the sake of his beloved Jesus. Nizar's egg is 'Mashmaa' (a fake egg that is hardened by wax). Only he and Jesus know this fact. The danger of getting caught is very much imminent. Nizar manages to collect many eggs and to gain respect from the village children, until finally he is caught. It would be the first time Nizar questions his faith.

Fadhumo and Helen are two refugees, one living in Tel Aviv and the other in Berlin who are asking for asylum. While they both try to cope with a life full of discrimination and alienation away from home, they become determined social activists to help women who live hard lives like themselves. The documentary shot by Efrat Shalom Danon and Gili Danon provides a realistic point of view to the unstable lives controlled by the government policies, to Israeli and German immigration policies, and, despite all this, to the lives of people who dream while standing on their kindness.