Uriel Sinai

Schocken, on the Verge of Consensus

Salman Schocken was the King of department stores in Germany. Before WWII, he owned 22 department stores with 6,000 employees. He possessed a unique collection of 60,000 rare books in German and Hebrew and founded a modern, Jewish publishing house. He was the lifelong supporter of Shmuel Yosef Agnon and he owned the Haaretz newspaper which still survives on the border of consensus. He supported secular, Jewish culture and identified with humanist, liberal Judaism, a relic of 19th century Europe. Today, in an age of unscrupulous market economy and militant Judaism, Salman Schocken’s ways point to an alternative, perhaps not entirely lost.

Days of Pick

The dramatic life story of Tsvika Pick, Israel’s first pop star and the man who gave Israel a local, tangible version of “The Prince of Tides”. His childhood in Poland, an eternal foreigner in Israel, his breakout role in “Hair”, his transformation into a star and his painful downfall in the 1980s. The depressing days in the wretched clubs, his divorce from his lyricist, the remarkable comeback with his song “Diva”, becoming a reality star and a “Maestro”, a stroke, his rehabilitation, and then death. These are just a few stops in the journey that Pick himself describes in his final interview, alongside those closest to him. This journey tries to decipher the personality of one of the most famous and mysterious people in Israeli culture.

The Center

Dizengoff Center, the first shopping center in Israel, has become a phenomenon, an icon, a city within a city. “The Center” is more than a shrine for consumption or a shopping place, for many people it’s a place they call “a home”. The Center will discover the story and the history of Dizengoff Center, layer by layer, from the ground it was built on, to the top floor and the secrets this place withholds. The film will travel from the past to the present in order to try and find out what makes this place so special.

A Lullaby for the Valley

Artist Eli Shamir paints the view from his studio balcony - fields stretching to the horizon, ancient oak trees, and a generation of farmers that is disappearing from the vistas of the Jezreel Valley. His large oils are treasured by collectors worldwide. It was director Ben Shani's encounter with one of Shamir's works that spawned the idea of documenting the artist at work. Neither of them had any idea that everything would change as the filming progressed, as an unforeseen danger threatened to rob Shamir of his talent. Filmed over the course of ten years, A lullaby for the Valley focuses on the fascinating figure of Eli Shamir and his paintings. As time passes, like the endless fields of the valley, they are transformed before our very eyes.

15 Years

Yoav's demons start haunting him after his best friend becomes pregnant, without telling him, and after his boyfriend of 15 years starts talking about children, too. His life unravels, and self-destruction seems inevitable.

Numbered

An estimated 400,000 people were tattooed with serial numbers at Auschwitz, of whom only a few thousand survive today. This intimate and visually rapturous documentary details the current lives of some of these survivors, their memories of the camps, and their relationships with the numbers. Numbered is an emotionally affecting portrait of memory and history, and their enduring presence in individual lives.

Alone Together

Ravit spends all of her time spreading her love wherever it is needed. During the day she cooks for hundreds of Tel Aviv's homeless. In the evenings she hugs abandoned babies in the birthing ward. Without human touch and the warmth of a hug, the abandoned babies won't develop properly and can even die. Ravit always wanted children of her own, but life dictated otherwise. As she turns 50, she decides that she too wants to be on love's receiving end, but that may prove to be a lot harder to find.

The Jewish Underground

It took the Israeli secret service four years to get their hands on right-wing terrorist organisation, the Jewish Underground. After carrying out several attacks on Muslims in the early 1980s, the group plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock. Director Shai Gal reconstructs the events in the form of a detective story with dramatisations and interviews with key figures, including the perpetrators, who claim they have nothing to hide. With a chilling contemporary relevance, director Gal reveals the ties between members of the Jewish Underground and the Israeli political sphere are stronger than ever.