Looking back on 2004, a breakthrough for Israeli cinema

It was 20 years ago that Israel suddenly emerged as a movie powerhouse, with Israeli films winning acclaim and prizes around the world, and drawing large audiences both at home and abroad. 

A few years before that, Israeli movies had been at their lowest point ever. Ephraim Kishon, who made classic movies in the ’60s such as Sallah Shabati, had moved to Switzerland decades earlier to concentrate on his writing. The other figure who had dominated the industry, Uri Zohar, who had made irreverent comedies and award-winning dramas in the ’60s and ’70s, had become an ultra-Orthodox rabbi and settled in Jerusalem. The one filmmaker who emerged in the late ’70s, Avi Nesher, had gone to Hollywood to make movies there. No one wanted to see Israeli movies, and part of the Israel Film Fund’s budget went to paying theater owners for the heating and air-conditioning costs they incurred when they showed locally made movies in virtually empty theaters. 

But a few things happened early in the 21st century, creating the conditions for Israeli filmmakers to flourish. First, the Knesset passed the so-called Cinema Law in 2001, which was supported by politicians on both sides of the aisle and greatly increased government funding for the movie industry. Israeli film schools had been graduating classes of proficient filmmakers for a decade. The second channel had opened on television and the Israeli public was hungry for Hebrew-language content, so a young generation of filmmakers began learning their craft in TV studios. And just when the Cinema Law was passed, Nesher returned to Israel, to live and work, and began collaborating with two ambitious producers who wanted to invest in the local film industry, Leon Edery and Moshe Edery, who had just started the first Cinema City multiplex in Glilot. 

It takes a few years to make a movie, and the movies made with the funding provided by the law flooded movie theaters with great movies for the first time in 2004. There was real excitement from the public about the films and even interest in what would win the Ophir Awards, a first. And the movies almost immediately started winning prizes around the world. 

It was also a time when new voices began to emerge, from communities such as Mizrahim, Israeli Arabs, the ultra-Orthodox, and gay Israelis, who had not been front and center in the entertainment industry before. They made their movies with skill and intensity and their stories became Israel’s stories. 

Ten films from 2004 that changed Israeli cinema

What follows is a look at ten movies from 2004 that changed the Israeli movie landscape for the better. Some, but not all, are available on streaming services and the Israeli movie channels here and many are available on various streaming services abroad. 

1. Turn Left at the End of the World – Avi Nesher’s movie was a breakthrough in so many ways and remains one of the most popular Israeli movies of all time. It tells a never-before-seen story of the friendship between Sara (Liraz Charchi), a teen from India who immigrates to Israel with her family in the ’60s, and who is sent to live in a Negev development town. There, she befriends the much bolder Nicole (Neta Garty), the child of Moroccan immigrants. Nesher, who researched the story meticulously, created a wide canvas that showcases the stories of other characters as well, including Sara’s father (Parmeet Sethi) and Simone (Aure Atika), a young war widow, as well as labor problems in the local Coca Cola factory. The comic highlight is a cricket match in which the ragtag Indian and Moroccan immigrants play against a visiting British team. This would be a good film to project on a wall at Columbia University for those who think Israelis are all white colonizers. 

2. Walk on Water – Eytan Fox had previously made Yossi & Jagger, about a romance at an Israeli outpost in Lebanon between two male soldiers, that has since become a classic, and he followed it up with this story of a cynical Mossad agent (Lior Ashkenazi). The agent is tasked with being the bodyguard for the grandson of an infamous Nazi when the grandson, who happens to be gay, visits Israel. It’s a suspenseful espionage story, but the reason we remember it after 20 years is that it’s a moving human drama of redemption and friendship. Ashkenazi was already a star but this demonstrated his acting talent, and it established Fox as a leading director. It won awards all over the world and earned millions of dollars abroad, becoming one of the most successful Israeli films of all time. 

3. Campfire – Like Fox, Campfire’s director Joseph Cedar had made a previous movie, Time of Favor, but his focused storytelling in this film was even more compelling. Campfire is about a widow (Michaela Eshet), who wants to move with her two teen daughters (Maya Maron and Hani Furstenberg) from Jerusalem to a West Bank settlement. There had hardly ever been a movie before about the National Religious experience here, and there have been few since. Cedar’s next two movies, Beaufort and Footnote (which also tells a story of this community), went on to receive Oscar nominations. Campfire featured a strong supporting cast and Assi Dayan is brilliantly loathsome as the annoying settlement leader.

4. To Take a Wife – The trilogy about a Moroccan-born wife and mother longing for independence, written and directed by siblings Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz, started with this movie 20 years ago and it’s arguably the best of the three. Ronit, who died at age 51 in 2016, gave one of her greatest performances in the lead, a character she has said was based on her mother. In the opening scene, she tells her husband and a roomful of male relatives that she wants a divorce; and is bullied into staying in her marriage. No one around her understands why she wants out since her husband has a job and doesn’t beat her. But he is a reserved, unimaginative man, and she is bursting with life. It’s a uniquely Israeli story of Moroccan immigrants that resonated with audiences around the world. The movie won the Audience Award at the Venice Film Festival where it received a long standing ovation. 

5. The Syrian Bride – When director Eran Riklis collaborated with Suha Arraf on the screenplay for this drama, he made the best movie of his long career. It tells the story of a young Druze woman (Clara Khoury) who is about to go to Syria to enter into an arranged marriage, and will never be able to return to Israel. The movie is about her and her family, all of whom have memorable stories. Hiam Abbass is a standout as her sister, who wants to study social work but whose husband forbids her, and Ashraf Barhom gives an enjoyable performance as her womanizing brother. Makram Khoury, one of Israel’s greatest actors and her real-life father, plays her father in the movie, a man who has been in trouble with the Israeli authorities. The movie finds drama and humanity in a community most of us know little about. 

6. Ushpizin – Shuli Rand co-wrote and stars in this drama about a childless, ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem couple who are hoping for a miracle pregnancy but instead get a visit from the husband’s former criminal associates, whom they are obligated to host because it is a religious commandment to do so during the Succot holiday. Rand was born religious but became an actor in Tel Aviv and lived a secular lifestyle, only to become ultra-Orthodox later in life. He knows this world, and the director, Gidi Dar, respects it. The criminals who try to tempt the hero back into a life of crime and violence are menacing and comical at the same time, and Rand’s character faces a very relatable dilemma in this modern-day fable of redemption. 

7. Atash (“Thirst”) – Tawfik Abu Wael’s movie debut was a moody, atmospheric look at an Arab family living far from their village and eking out a living selling charcoal, completely subservient to their tyrannic father (Hussein Yassin Mahajne). It’s a slow-burn story of how the son (Ahamed Abed Elrani), who desperately wants to go to school instead of working all day, finally rebels. Many saw in it a metaphor for the oppression of a patriarchal system. Years later, Abu Wael collaborated with Joseph Cedar (and Hagai Levi) on the HBO series, Our Boys. 

8. Watermarks – 2004 was also a banner year for documentaries, and Yaron Zilberman’s film is one that you will never forget. It tells the story of the Hakoah Vienna women’s swim team in the 1930s and how they were forced to stop competing due to the Nazi takeover of Austria. The director brought all these women who survived back to Vienna to swim in the pool where they used to train, and you will never see stronger, or more charming, women.

9. Metallic Blues – Dan Verete’s buddy comedy-drama about two down-on-their-luck friends who go to Germany to sell a vintage limousine, in a deal that they hope will solve all their money problems, has had a big influence on today’s comic filmmakers. Avi Kushnir and Moshe Ivgy played the two old friends who deal with the shadow of the Holocaust on their trip and also have to handle less weighty situations, like discovering that the tasty dish they are eating is eel.

10. Or – Keren Yedaya’s story of the daughter (Dana Ivgy) of an HIV-positive prostitute (Ronit Elkabetz) tells a heart-breaking story set in a tough Tel Aviv neighborhood of a family that has fallen through the cracks. Elkabetz gives a magnificent performance as this self-destructive but loving mother, and it’s one of the roles that the actress will always be famous for. It was also a breakthrough for Ivgy as her daughter. The movie won the prestigious Camera D’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival.