Anat Waxman

Levana Hakim’s student graduation project from Tel Aviv University’s Department of Film and Television Studies features the story of Havatzelet, a young woman who spends her nights in the company of UN soldiers, in the hopes that one of them might whisk her off with him across the ocean, as far away as possible from her past and her life of destitute, living in a shack she must share with her strict conservative mother, pregnant sister, and brother who is bleeding her dry, financially. The film was shown at multiple festivals and has won scores of praise and awards.

Shahar Rozen presents a moving portrait of two women who forsake convention and acceptance to share a deep love and friendship. Round Trip is a story from Israel that depicts a blossoming relationship amidst the stark outskirts of Tel Aviv, between Nurit a mother of two separated from her husband who drives a bus for a living, and Mushedi, her live-in nanny from Ghana . Soon, Nurit’s husband infers that the two women are engaged in an un-orthodox relationship, and challenges their committed and abiding love. This thoughtfully created narrative serves as a gentle reminder that throughout the world, people continue to struggle for love, but that the journey of self-discovery makes the trip worthwhile.

At thirty-seven, Miri is a twice-widowed, El Al flight attendant. Her well-regulated existence is suddenly turned upside down by an abandoned Chinese boy whose migrant-worker mother has been summarily deported from Israel. The film is a touching comic-drama in which two human beings -- as different from each other as Tel Aviv is from Beijing -- accompany each other on a remarkable journey, one that takes them both back to a meaningful life.

The taboo relationship between young Nadav and his Aunt Nina transcends definition on its way to odd highs and lows.

An unmarried 38 year old gives up on men, but lives the fantasy of being a bride at a wedding, and decides to marry herself. Her hilarious girlfriends support her and her selfish mother objects, but what will she do when suddenly the right man shows up?

A group of friends in a Tel Aviv suburb get together to watch Universong, a Eurovision-like television song contest. They gather to watch and are depressed by the lifelessness of the Israeli entry, a parody of many recent offerings, a flashy, grating song about "amour." Realizing that Anat is distraught over the crisis in her marriage, they decide to compose a song to cheer her up. As a lark, they enters their cellphone video of it in next year's contest, and it becomes Israel's entry.

This comedy about the "sanity" of those in an asylum focuses on popular Israeli comic Seffi Rivlin, who plays a bank manager who discovers that the inmates of a mental institution are running a counterfeiting operation from the basement of their hospital. Actors exaggerate their portrayals of the patients, and the plot zooms off in several directions at once

Like many, another young Israeli, Rafi never gave much thought to the fact that when he reached a certain age, he would be expected to serve in the Israeli Army and that he would experience active duty in combat. It certainly never occurred to him that he might be injured, and if it did, it never occurred to him that he would be crippled, as he was. Now he must try to learn to cope with a life which is vastly different from anything he ever imagined, and at first he has nothing but bitterness. An older veteran tries to help him learn to cope, and his relatives work hard to adjust as well. However, only his sister-in-law Maya seems to understand his state of mind and doesn't freak out at his easily provoked displays of temper.