Israeli Cinema Day celebrates creativity amid Israel-Hamas war

Israeli Cinema Day, on which recently released and upcoming Israeli movies will be shown around the country for NIS 10 per ticket, returns on June 5 to encourage audiences to support Israeli creators during the war.

Fittingly, one of the movies will be the documentary #Nova, about the October 7 massacre at the music festival in Re’im.

#Nova is comprised of cellphone videos, texts, footage from first responders, and a small amount of video shot by the terrorists themselves. It’s a well-produced and obviously extremely disturbing film, which was created by yes Studios.

29 films are set to be screened 

Altogether, 29 films will be shown, including two recent dramatic films about Israel at war, Roy Hornshtein’s Air War, about the Israel Air Force around the time of the Six Day War, and Lior Chefetz’s The Stronghold, about an IDF outpost on the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War, both of which really should be seen on the big screen; Asaf Saban’s Delegation, about an Israeli high school trip to Poland; and Matan Yair’s A Room of His Own, the story of a troubled teen.

Upcoming movies that have been generating buzz include Shemi Zarhin’s Hemda, starring Sasson Gabay, about a struggling couple in the Upper Galilee, which was filmed last year in areas that are mostly evacuated now; Hanan Savyon and Guy Amir’s latest comedy, Cat’s Luck; Erez Tadmor’s drama Soda, starring Rotem Sela; and Kissufim, by Keren Nechmad, the story of a group of young volunteers in Kibbutz Kissufim decades ago, which was filmed on the real kibbutz, in which residents, workers, and soldiers were killed and kidnapped on October 7.

Israeli Cinema Day is sponsored by the Culture and Sport Ministry.