Waltz With Bashir
Soldier turned filmmaker Ari Folman has produced the first animated feature length war documentary that tells the true and gut wrenching story of the invasion of South Lebanon by the Israeli army in June 1982.
Ari Folman, as part of his national service, invaded South Lebanon following years of Palestinian bombardment from their territory, planning to occupy the country and appoint Bashir Gemayel as President. The film goes on to depict the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps but Ari cannot remember a thing about this period in his life.
Suffering from a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by twenty six vicious dogs, every night the same dream. Intrigued by this riddle he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades to discover the truth about that time and about himself.
Waltz with Bashir is four years in the making and 2,300 illustrations which, using 3D and Flash classic animation, turned the drawings into animation and the film took the Cannes Film Festival by storm back in May.
This film follows in the footsteps of last year's critical hit Persepolis and it seems that animation has become the new medium for looking at political unrest in the Middle East, as well as both having a very eye catching graphic animation style.
The film scooped the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated in the same category at the Oscars.
In 1976, Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked an Air France flight and forced it to land in the African town of Entebbe, where they were welcomed and protected by Uganda's then-dictator, Idi Amin.
Releasing all the non-Israeli passengers, the terrorists threatened to kill the rest unless dozens of their comrades were released from Israeli prisons.
However Israel didn't give in to the blackmail plot and the army flew to Entenbbe and freed more that 100 of the hostages.
The film Operation Thunderbolt follows these events and was produced with the co-operation of the Israeli Air Force and the Israeli Government.
The movie was well received in Israel and oversees and went on to be nominated for a Best Foreign Language film Oscar.
Turn Left at the End of the World was released in 2006 and was a box office smash in it's native Israel.
The setting is the late sixties, in a tiny, isolated Israeli village. Two immigrant families, one from Morocco and the other from India become neighbours. They share nothing but a dream.
As they are forced to live together, the two wary communities attempt to build a sense of identity. In order to assert their imperial identity, the Indians from the village put together a rag tag cricket team.
The Moroccans, who take the game as an act of snobbery, do their utmost to be disruptive. Meanwhile, each family has a teenage daughter negotiating the landscape of the sexual revolution.
When the sultry Moroccan Nicole and the heady Indian Sara become friends, their youth and desire for freedom help them overcome prejudices.
Released back in 1964 Sallah Shabati is widely regarded as a classic of Israeli cinema that saw then go on a great run of Oscar nominations at the Academy Awards.
The movie follows a Yemenite Jewish family who have moved to the fledgling state of Israel. The head of the family, played by Topol, uses his wits and a bit of old fashioned "chutzpah" to get his family into the new apartment promised him by the government.
Over the years Israel has produced some truly stand out cinema, this being very evident last year with Waltz With Bashir, and are an industry to keep a close eye on.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw