Haifa Film Festival Unveils Israeli Lineup Featuring Diverse Dramas and Documentaries

The 42nd Haifa International Film Festival, scheduled for September 26 to October 3, has announced its Israeli film program, featuring a competitive slate of seven narrative features and five documentaries. The festival will also premiere additional Israeli films, launch a new documentary track dedicated to key figures in Israeli culture, and host special screenings with prominent figures like Yehoram Gaon and Gila Almagor.

Among the narrative competition entries is "Ve'ahavta," the final film by the late director Nitzan Giladi, which explores the struggles of a religious yoga teacher and her husband to conceive. Another competition film, Dina Zvi Riklis's "Blue Signs," based on Emily Moatti's novel, follows a young woman from Netanya who travels to Paris for fashion design school and seeks revenge after a sexual assault leads to an unwanted pregnancy. Other narrative films include "The Eger-Land," set in Ethiopia in 1973, "Double Panther," based on the true story of an informant within the Black Panthers movement, and "Farewell to Dough," about a bachelor in Jerusalem giving up carbohydrates.

The documentary competition includes Tomer Heymann's "I Want to Tell My Story," focusing on Shimon Rothschild as he reenacts his Holocaust survival story at 100 years old. "Children of Hebron" by Elad Goldberg and Kerem Hamad Wilder examines how growing up during the Second Intifada shaped individuals in Hebron. Eitan Cohen's "A Place Called Hope" follows a father and son's journey across Israel, while Uri Levy's "Shalom 30 20" documents Maoz Yinon's transformation of personal loss into a peace advocacy.

A new section, "Cultural Icons," will showcase three documentaries: "Naomi Shemer, Between Grass and Stone," delving into the private life and controversies surrounding the iconic Israeli singer; "Topol: On Top of the World," exploring the career decisions of actor Chaim Topol; and "Alice. Last Conversations," documenting the final year of feminist pioneer Prof. Alice Shalvi.

Special screenings will feature "Yehoram and Gila," starring Gaon and Almagor as veteran actors whose careers are tested when Gaon's character is diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's. In the international "Haifa Wild Nights" section, "Negative" by Michael Rozanov, a thriller set in an HIV testing clinic amidst city-wide protests, will be screened. Additional premieres include "A Breath Away" and "Many Waters," with special events planned for films by Amos Gitai and Avi Nesher.