In Haifa, Moshe is the son of a Jewish mother and an Arab father. His marriage is under stress and this situation has prompted him into an identity crisis. Meanwhile, a developer wants to buy his father's bakery in order to build a new mall. Yussef wants to retire, but to sell is always a political question in Israel, bringing up issues of the balance between the two cultures.
Directed by Amos Gitai
Writing credits Jacky Cukier, Amos Gitai
Cast:
Moshe Ivgy.... Moshe
Hanna Meron.... Hanna
Juliano Mer.... Jules
Dalit Kahan.... Didi
Yussuf Abu-Warda.... Yussuf
Natali Atiya.... Grisha
Anne Petit-Lagrange.... The Doctor
Samuel Calderon.... Shmul
Gassan Abbas.... Nadim
Keren Mor.... Mimi
Irit Gidron.... Bank Teller
David Cohen.... David
Aharon Milard.... Man in Market
Yehuda Tzanaani.... Cantor
Shukri Amara.... Notary
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AMOS GITAI - director
Amos Gitai was studying architecture, following in his father's footsteps, when the Yom Kippur War interrupted his studies and it was the use of his 8 Super camera, whilst flying helicopter missions that led to his career as a filmmaker.
Based in Israel, the United States and France, Gitai has produced an extraordinary, wide-ranging, and deeply personal body of work. In around 40 films documentary and fiction, Gitai has explored the layers of history in the Middle East and beyond, including his own personal history, through such themes as homeland and exile, religion, social control and utopia. His trademark style includes long takes with scarce but significant camera movements and a devilishly clever sense of humour.
In the late 70s and early 80s, Gitai directed numerous documentaries, including HOUSE and FIELD DIARY. During the same era, Gitai received his Ph.D in architecture from the University of California Berkeley.
Following the controversial reception to FIELD DIARY, Gitai moved to Paris in 1983, where he was based for the next ten years and during this period continued to travel widely directing such documentaries as PINEAPPLE a humorous odyssey about the growth and marketing of pineapples. He also made BRAND NEW DAY a film that followed Annie Lennox and the Eurythmics as they toured Japan.
During this period he began directing fiction and historical films about the experience of exile. These films include the Venice critic's prize-winning BERLIN JERUSALEM and the extraordinary trilogy on the Jewish legend of Golem.
In the mid-90s Gitai moved to Haifa and began the most fertile, productive period of his career to date. Over 10 years, Gitai made some 15 films, both documentary and fiction. The 1995 feature DEAVARIM marked the return to his country and his reunion with the light and landscape of Tel Aviv. The first film in Gitai's trilogy of Israeli cities, DEVARIM was followed by YOM YOM (shot in Haifa) and KADOSH (shot in Mea Shearim, the Jerusalem district of Orthodox Jews). Other fiction features followed: KIPPUR 2000, EDEN 2001, KEDMA 2002, ALILA 2003 and 2004 PROMISED LAND.
Gitai?s work has been the subject of major retrospectives, notably at Centre Pompidou (Paris), NFT and ICA (both in London), and cinematheques in Madrid, Jerusalem, Paris, Sao Paolo, Tokyo and Toronto. Future retrospectives are scheduled later this year at New York's Lincoln Center and Berlin's Kunstwerk.