Victor Atar

A sensitive teenager living in a poor Tel Aviv suburb grapples with a range of pressures in his neighborhood—both personal and social. Nissim Dayan on his film: “First and foremost, it’s important for me to emphasize that I’m a local patriot; I have no mixed feelings about Tel Aviv. I made this film in the neighborhood out of genuine love for it, for its people, and for what it symbolizes to me…” The film, considered a pioneer of Israeli political cinema, draws heavily on 1960s Italian cinema (Pazolini’s *Accattone*, for example), known as the second generation of Italian neorealism.

An adaptation of a popular Israeli stage musical. Kazablan is an army veteran turned gang leader in the Israeli port of Jaffa who masks his feelings of bitterness with a lot of bravado. He's sweet on Rachel, a young woman who lives with her father and stepmother. The budding relationship scandalizes the neighbors (not to mention Rachel's parents) and infuriates Yanush, a middle-aged shoe store owner who wants Rachel for himself. (Yanush feels he's entitled to marry Rachel since they're both Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern European origins, whereas Kazablan is a Sephardic Jew from Morocco.) The neighborhood has something else to worry about besides the antics of Kazablan and his gang: the city wants to tear down their crumbling homes. The residents pool their resources to save their houses, but the money that's collected is stolen. When he's jailed for the theft, Kazablan must find a way to clear himself.