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Israeli Cinema

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Ambiguity

Dir.: Yossi Madmoni
| 100 minutes

Ambiguity explores the intense, complicated inner battle of those deeply bound to the ultra-Orthodox community yet driven to break free. Screening of the first two episodes.

Cha Cha Cha

Cha Cha Cha

Dir.: Olivia Levi Hadid
| 20 minutes

Latina in the Middle East. Immigrant between two worlds: Argentina and Israel. Cha Cha Cha is a visual and musical collage that investigates the intimate and the public, between the visible and the hidden.

Proud Jewish Boy

Proud Jewish Boy

Dir.: Israel (Isri) Halpern
| 87 minutes

Proud Jewish Boy follows the fascinating story of young assassin Herschel Grynszpan, the boy accused by the Jews of triggering the pogrom that marked the beginning of the Holocaust, and by the Germans of starting WW2.

The World Will Tremble

The World Will Tremble

Dir.: Lior Geller
| 109 minutes

True story of a group of WWII Polish Jewish prisoners attempting the unthinkable and launching a daring escape from a Nazi death camp. Taking place in real-time, The World Will Tremble is a nail-biting triumph of the human spirit.
Wednesday 17.12.25 17.12.25
20:00
 20:00
Cinematheque 4
Cinematheque 4
 2025-12-17 20:00:00 2025-12-17 23:00:00 Asia/Jerusalem Patterns of Memory: Maya Zack Retrospective <p>Screening in the presence of filmmaker Maya Zack</p><p><strong>Mother Economy </strong></p><p>Israel 2007 | 20 min. | no dialogue</p><p>A solitary housekeeper moves through a family home in search of traces left by its absent inhabitants. As she documents objects, sketches their outlines, and assigns each a numerical value, her meticulous actions reveal a traditional ritual in which every gesture is measured, calculated, and controlled. Within this domestic microcosm—where the home becomes an economic unit and even the mother functions as an instrument of order—the film exposes the thin line between care and calculation, and between reward and punishment. A meditation on memory, discipline, and the systems we build to cope with upheaval, Mother Economy transforms the familiar household space into a precise, haunting visual score.</p><p><strong>Black and White Rule</strong></p><p>Israel 2011 | 17 min. | no dialogue</p><p>A visually striking exploration of the human desire to impose order on chaos.<br />Set on an oversized chessboard, the film follows two poodles meticulously trained to execute the commands of their handler. Their every movement is observed and documented through a camera obscura by a clerk stationed in a glass-walled office beside the board, turning their routine into a ritual of control, surveillance, and performance. As the sequence unfolds, a small break in the pattern disrupts the established order—revealing the fragility of systems built on discipline and obedience. Meticulously crafted, <strong>Black and White Rule</strong> is also a refined visual experience and a homage to the art of drawing.</p><p><strong>Counterlight  </strong></p><p>Israel 2017 | 24 min. | German<br />The third installment of Maya Zack’s award-winning <em>Memory Trilogy</em>, following <em>Mother Economy</em> and <em>Black and White Rule</em>, is a hypnotic exploration of memory and consciousness inspired by poet Paul Celan. A female archive researcher listens to Celan’s recordings and gradually shifts from archivist to alchemist, dissecting photographs, maps, documents, and poems until the boundaries between past and present blur. Her investigation draws her into a 1937 Czernowitz street photograph, where she encounters Celan’s mother baking challah. What begins as research transforms into feminine magic, culminating in the creation of a “memory-golem.” Rooted in Zack’s study of Celan and the women in his life, the film interweaves death and birth and is dedicated to the memory of the artist’s mother.<br /><strong>Counterlight</strong> completes the trilogy with a meticulously crafted meditation on history, memory, and imagination.</p><p><strong>Decryption</strong></p><p>Israel 2024 | 12 min. | Hebrew | English subtitles</p><p>When memories of her mother begin to fade, artist Maya Zack returns to the morbid poem her mother used to recite to her as a child to lull her to sleep. In the mesmerizing cinematic poem "Decryption," Zack deconstructs, weaves, and reassembles the poem and attempts, through it, to revive the memory of the body of her mother, who died prematurely. Zack’s own experience of motherhood inspired “Decryption” which depicts a magical-artistic rite in the chain of inter-generational and inter-female transmission between daughters and mothers, real and spiritual, alive and dead. Through this rite, Zack seeks to decipher the alchemy of memory and oblivion and to formulate an answer to the fear of being forgotten and our inevitable death.</p> Cinematheque Jerusalem Cinematheque

Patterns of Memory: Maya Zack Retrospective

Mother Economy Israel 2007 | Black and White Rule Israel 2011 | Counterlight Israel 2017 | Decryption Israel 2024 | Screening in the presence of filmmaker Maya Zack