Israeli Film Festival

PANAMA. The Israeli film industry captures the diversity of culture, traditions and lifestyles enjoyed by the people of Israel. The industry has been constantly evolving and developing up to the point today where it is highly acclaimed and well received around the world.

Given this, the Embassy of Israel and the Panama Israel Cultural Institute are organizing a Festival of Israeli Cinema this upcoming week to be held in Cinepolis (Multiplaza Pacific).

They will be showing films from Thursday September 18 to Tuesday September 23 in screenings at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. offering Panamanians a glimpse of the industry’s accomplishments in recent years.

The embassy will inaugurate the festival on Thursday with a gala at Cinepolis at 7:30 p.m. with “The Band’s Visit”, a highly acclaimed film by Israeli director Elan Kolirin which was selected for the 2007 Cannes Festival.

“The Band’s Visit” depicts a clash of cultures that gives way to a meeting of minds and well, other things. It narrates the story of a small Egyptian Police band set to perform in Israel at an inauguration ceremony.

Due to bureaucracy, bad luck, and language constraints (the town they’re supposed to visit starts with a P, which they pronounce with a B when asking for directions because of the lack of P in the Arabic language), they are left stranded at the airport.

They try to manage on their own, only to find themselves in a desolate, almost forgotten small Israeli town somewhere in the heart of the desert.

The interaction between this lost band and the dead-end Israeli town promises a good time for anyone looking for a gentle comedy. Critics have called it “a real crowd pleaser,” and if the rest of the selection of films to be shown is as good as this one you are in for a treat.

Among the other Israeli films to be shown this year are “Aviva My Love”, “Mal Gesto”, “Alguien con quien correr”, “La Fogata”, “A simple Vista” y “Abre tus alas”. The cost of the ticket will be $3.00.

The movies are quite varied, ranging from romantic comedies to action movies.

“Aviva my love” is a romantic comedy, about a working mother with a secret gift of writing. When she meets a famous novelist who takes her under his wing, Aviva must learn to attain her dream while balancing her family responsibilites.

“Alguien con quien correr” starts with two parallel stories, one of a man looking for a lost dog and one of a man looking for his brother, which converge in the end.