Jerusalem Film Festival unveils Israeli lineup for its 43rd edition

The Jerusalem Film Festival announced on Tuesday its Israeli program for the 43rd edition, set for July 9 to 19. The festival will center on six feature films competing in the Haggiag Competition for Israeli narrative cinema, five documentaries in the Diamond Competition, plus special screenings, a short-film competition, and an experimental cinema competition.

In the narrative section, Hadas Ben Aroya will premiere her new film "How to Feel," a Berlin-set love story about an Israeli dancer and a German poet whose relationship enters a crisis. The competition also includes David Ofek and Nehad Bshir's "Amal," about a mother trying to save her son in a violent world of clan feuds and revenge, and Gidi Dar's "The Jester," which had its world premiere at Tribeca.

Other contenders are Ruti Pri-Bar's "The Future," also screened at Tribeca, about a woman who flees to Eilat after trauma and tries to start over, Efrat Korm's "Gold Heart," about a bus ticket seller in Ashkelon who finds an abandoned baby, and Assaf Maknes' first film "Where To," which screened in Berlin and follows a Palestinian taxi driver in Berlin repeatedly crossing paths with a lost Israeli passenger.

The documentary competition includes "269" by Karen Yehezkeli-Goldstein and Noam Stolerman, about the growth of an animal-rights protest movement alongside the story of a couple of activists; "I'm New" by Yael Abecassis, following the long recovery of a 3.5-year-old child badly injured in a car accident; "Find Me, Okay?" by Yula Gedron, filmed over two years with the mother and sisters of hostage Eden Yerushalmi, who was killed, as they sought her return and later rebuilt their lives; "Hayei Sarah" by Shir Houri-Abu, about a 21-year-old who leaves the ultra-Orthodox world and discovers an unplanned pregnancy; and "Good Morning Gaza" by Hanan Brands and Matan Skopsky, which explores the mind of a combat soldier through an improvised podcast for troops on military communications.

Special screenings will include the world premiere of David Fisher's "The Tuxedo Survivor, A Journey After Elie Wiesel" for Kan, and restored digital copies of Uri Barbash's "Behind Bars" and the shorts "Ravens" by Ayelet Menahemi and "Big Girl" by Nirit Yaron, as part of the Jerusalem Cinematheque's ongoing preservation project. The festival will also feature 16 Israeli short films, nine video art and experimental cinema works, total prizes worth about 1 million shekels, and expects tens of thousands of visitors from Israel and abroad.