If I Met a Magician

Through stories, Memorial Day ceremonies and his letters, Ami was always a present absence for his nephew Shaked, the film's director. Following his grandmother's declining health, Shaked applies to the Defence Ministry for nursing care. His claim is rejected. Their refusal leaves him confused. Fifty years after Ami's death, a shocking truth is unveiled.

Natasha (21) is participating in an organized trip to encourage immigration of Russian speaking descendants of Jews to Israel. On the second day, the group arrives to the desert. Two Israeli soldiers join them for the night and the girls all fall for Shlomi, the handsome combat soldier. When Natasha manages to catch his attention by revealing her plan to permanently stay in Israel right after the trip, her friends grow jealous and things turn ugly.

Omer's poster of his ex-boyfriend Ori falls off the wall. Omer becomes re-obsessed and starts a journey of mixed emotions, to discover if they could get back together. Omer uses his only excuse to meet Ori, a haircut.

The whole world was enthusiastic about Esther, but the Germans were hypnotized. Esther and Abi Ofarim appeared to them not only as representatives of a musical internationalism… but above all as messengers of Israel and a new generation that might find ways of reconciliation.

Zvi Elpeleg, the director's grandfather, was a military governor of the Arab citizens of Israel after the establishment of the State. The positive image Zvi presented slowly crumbles when the director reveals his true actions as a ruler in both his military and family life. As she uncovers a family secret, the personal and political merge, reflecting on one another. The film investigates the subject of control and draws a portrait of a country that has, and still is, constantly and obsessively, since its inception, dealing with controlling populations.

Two young boys are sitting on the stairs and playing ball. Then they perform a sexual act with a girl from the building. A friend of the boys watches everything happening from upstairs, several floors above them.

The excommunication of Baruch Spinoza, the Dutch Jewish philosopher who revolutionized modern thought, is a formative, mysterious event in the understanding of his work. Director David Ofek takes us on an intercontinental journey tracing six reasons for Spinoza's excommunication. Between Amsterdam, the Hague, New York, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv, he makes some surprising discoveries, and traces the figure of a man who continues to intrigue our culture with his ideas, which remain revolutionary, spiritual, and radical to this day. This is the 17th film in The Hebrews project.