Israeli Movie Day Picks: From Dana Ivgy’s Homeless Drifter to Kupa Rishit’s Big-Screen Debut

Israel’s annual Movie Day, which now effectively runs two or three times a year, offers tickets to Israeli films for 10 shekels apiece. The timing this year is awkward, falling between last award season and the next one and just before the summer box-office rush, but it also gives overlooked titles and delayed releases a chance to find audiences. The columnist offers five films already seen and liked, plus one hopeful curiosity.

The strongest recommendation is Tom Shoval’s "Life Without Credits," led by Dana Ivgy in a performance described as if she were a co-creator of the character. She plays Libi, a homeless mental-health patient searching in Tel Aviv for a relative named Ezra who cannot be found. The film is bleak but also funny, defiant and full of life, with Menashe Noy among the supporting cast. "Do not miss it," the writer says.

Another highlight is "Letter to David, the Complete Version," a documentary tied to Shoval and the Kunion family of Nir Oz. David Kunio, who was abducted with his family and held by Hamas for 738 days before the latest deal, had once acted in Shoval’s debut feature "The Youth" with his twin, Eitan; their brother Ariel was also kidnapped for nearly two years. Shoval had promised to reopen the film once the brothers returned, and the new version ends with that emotional homecoming.

The list also includes the youth drama "You Are Ugly," Sharon Anghelhart’s debut, about body image, jealousy and a teenage soldier played by Riki Raef Sini, who wants to lose her virginity before entering officers’ training. "Burning Man," by Eyal Halfon, follows a struggling writer, played by Shai Avivi, who takes his son to an army base and wants to stay nearby for a few days; despite controversy around its state prize, it is praised as warm, melancholy and deeply relatable for parents of soldiers. "Sky and Earth," a melodrama by Ruby Duanias starring Tom Avni and Hila Saada, centers on a sick child and a buried family secret. The biggest commercial draw may be "Kupa Rishit: The Movie," adapted from the hit Channel 11 comedy series, which the writer says could follow the path of other TV-to-film successes produced by Moshe Ederi.