Valley of the Rulers

An intimate investigation of World War II soviet veteran, 92-year-old Newsak Weis or as he prefers, just Uncle Nusya. The mission is to discover a real person under the armor of medals and the role model of a hero.

Four LGBTQ adults re-encounter the home video footage they shot of themselves as youths: Shauly explored his homosexuality; Tom faced his gender identity; Betty filmed her friends and lovers; Rumia discovered her roots in drag.

A young filmmaker meets and follows Raya, a 94-year-old Soviet war heroine who fought in the Siege of Leningrad. As Head of the World War II Disabled Veterans Club in her city, she introduces him to a vanishing generation in Israel. Her own fighting spirit and willpower are still fierce. As Raya faces the loss of her last comrades and her health deteriorates, the two become involved in a spiritual process that awakens the young woman within her; Through her eyes and dreams, they create their own reality in which time and age lose all meaning. Their growing closeness transforms a film about war and loss into a mystical story of love and friendship.

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.

While investigating the destructive relationship of his parents, Efim, the filmmaker, stumbles upon a dark secret concealed from him. This revelation rocks his world and he sets out on a cinematic journey to heal his wounded soul.

An observational documentary set in the Sderot lookout on the Israel-Gaza border, a charged memorial site. Today, a coin-operated telescope aimed directly at Gaza has been installed there. Visitors: children, soldiers, Birthright groups, foreign tourists, families, take turns swiping their credit cards to activate a telescope aimed directly at Gaza. Through their immediate reactions, the film captures a cross-section of Israeli and Jewish society encountering destruction in real time. The film becomes an observation of how we observe the suffering of others, inviting the viewer to confront a complex reality and the darker layers of the human soul.