There can be a raw and refreshing feel to first fruits. Yes, the product of a budding artist’s early work can sometimes be a little simplistic or naïve, but there is often a devil-may-care ethos to the creative efforts of the younger generation that can lead to thrilling results.

You would expect that, for instance, of offerings by students. That is certainly the case with filmic work and can be seen in the output of the Maaleh Film School in Musrara, located right on the physical, cultural and political seam between east and west Jerusalem. That informs East Side, a new TV series that started on the KAN 11 channel this week which, it is fair to say, would have not made it to our screens without the school’s help.

“Yael Rubinstein-Nitzan, who wrote the script for East Side, studied at Maaleh and now teaches here,” says Omri Levy, who serves as the institution’s academic director. Levy notes that the school is doing its bit to provide the industry with freshly trained talent. “We are very proud that Yael has taken her place in the sector. I think we have a lot to offer.”

A school with a lot to offer

That belief features prominently in the school’s outlook. Maaleh recently promulgated the idea that community centers, and other facilities around Jerusalem and the country in general, could benefit from sampling some of its yield by screening student films, on a wide range of topics, to locals. That was touted as a special way to mark the country’s 75th anniversary which, after all, is an opportune juncture to take stock of where we currently are at. 

By all accounts, Maaleh is at a particularly robust stage of its 33-year time line. In addition to the KAN 11 series, last July Maaleh alumnus Shulamit Lifshitz, in collaboration with animator Oriel Berkovitch, added a prestigious feather to the school’s global cap by winning the live action in the student category of the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards. 

The prize was for live-action cinematography and animation movie Girl No. 60427, based on Lifshitz’s complex relationship with her Holocaust survivor grandmother. The BAFTA jurors praised the work, describing it as “a deep and emotional film, which brings to extraordinary artistic expression the experiences of the third generation of Holocaust survivors.”

A young girl’s attempt to come to terms with her traumatized grandmother’s take on life, and Palestinian-Israeli sociopolitical flash points, make for a pretty broad artistic and conceptual purview. And there is much more betwixt and between.

Anyone who has lived in Israel for any stretch of time beyond a brief vacation will probably have sensed that this part of the world, to say the least, is not always at its most tranquil. That isn’t always a matter of regional or ethnic sectarian conflict. 

It can also relate to interfaces between communities with divergent cultural aspects, such as that which forms the core of The French Revolution, a drama written and directed by Maaleh graduate Hai Afik. “It was nominated for an Oscar,” Levy says. “That was wonderful for Hai and for us, too.” 

No doubt. The French Revolution was also nominated for three awards at the 2016 Nice International Film Festival.

An all-embracing thematic approach and focusing on “smaller” stories

THAT’S NOT bad going for a college in Jerusalem, and it appears to reflect an all-embracing thematic approach and, in particular, a propensity for focusing on “smaller” stories about everyday sentiments and sensibilities and street-level events. Presumably, that featured in the backdrop to the school’s screenings project. 

Levy feels it comes with the educational territory. “I think that in general, artists and certainly film students bring their own life stories. That produces something heterogeneous. We have people [at Maaleh] from all sectors of Israeli society, and that adds up to something very interesting. You can have something based on the Holocaust and something on aliyah from France. It is an interesting mix.”

The former is central to the storyline of The Little Dictator, turned out around 10 years ago by then-students siblings Nurith and Emanuel Cohn. It is an entertaining, compelling and ultimately life-affirming piece that touches on all sorts of emotional, socio-political and philosophical bases. 

Emanuel studied scriptwriting and used his acquired toolbox and familial history – his German-born grandmother was a Holocaust survivor – to address relevant social taboos, deftly working in some farcical elements that lighten the emotional load and tickle the funny bone. 

The title of the short references Charlie Chaplin’s brave landmark 1940 movie The Great Dictator. The trademark toothbrush mustache, sported by both the fabled comedian and Hitler, provides a neat linchpin for friction and fun, and negotiating axiomatic clashes. 

Cohn also sets out to settle an account on behalf of his grandmother and fellow German-born Holocaust survivors who made aliyah. “The yekkes spoke German and were steeped in German culture. That was denigrated here back then,” he says. “That was the language and culture of the enemy from the Holocaust.” 

He manages that particular sticking point well in The Little Dictator, presenting himself as something of a bumbling, henpecked anti-hero who eventually comes good.

Cohn is happy with the school’s community screening initiative and says his alma mater brings considerable rewards to the artistic and societal fray. “I think Maaleh offers added value on two levels. The first is the encounter between the teachers and the students. Many of the students come from religious or traditional homes. So the interface between them and the staff members, who are predominantly secular, is mutually inspiring.”

The Jewish educational content at the school, Cohn posits, also enhances the study dynamics and creative process. “There are courses on, for example, midrash or Hassidism that bring some inspiration from our own Jewish sources. That sort of thing might even become a movie. There is no reason why that shouldn’t happen.”

A focus on religious Jewish themes

The religious leanings of the student body also inform the way the cinematic final result is presented, which can add to the universal appeal and user-friendliness of the movies. “Most of the movies focus on a personal story, some kind of conflict. I think it is very important to maintain dialogue with our [Jewish] treasure.”

Cohn notes that the Musrara-based school does not have a monopoly on the former, but he points to the “kosher” parameters that are an integral part of the students’ lifestyle and work. “All film schools address social matters, and students frequently feed off their own experiences. That is not exclusive to Maaleh. But you won’t find any sex and violence in Maaleh student movies. And there is quite often some Jewish element, which can include halachic conflicts and dilemmas, as well as national issues.”

That, Cohn suggests, also makes the treatment of specifically Jewish-religious topics more convincing. “If the creator comes from a religious or traditional background, the presentation of things like that is necessarily more authentic. When a filmmaker who has not come into serious authentic contact with the Jewish world makes a movie that engages in that, it often comes out shallow.” 

The scriptwriter says it is not just a matter of being professional and doing one’s best to research the relevant subject matter. “There are all sorts of smaller details that a secular filmmaker just won’t get.”

He says one of our most celebrated directors has fallen into that trap. “It is no coincidence that the creators and scriptwriters of [globally syndicated TV series about the hassidic sector] Shtisel all come from the religious community. They know that world so well and get all the minutiae spot-on.” 

Not so, he claims, with Amos Gitai’s 1999 drama Kadosh which, like Shtisel, centers on Mea She’arim. “It is full of religious stereotypes, bordering on the antisemitic. It is so shallow and untrue and unauthentic. It is very disappointing.” 

Tackling Israeli social issues and the Palestinian conflict

There is plenty of conflict, in all sorts of senses, in another community-targeted Maaleh item called Barriers by school graduate Golan Rise. Anyone who has served in the IDF, at a checkpoint, should be able to identify with the situation that arises in the Barriers narrative.

But there is a lot more to the delineation divide suggested by the film’s title. Rise, now an established filmmaker, got down and dirty with all kinds of national, regional and individual raw nerves. The events take place at a checkpoint manned by three very different characters who feed off divergent strata of Israeli society. 

“The protagonist reflects the idea of the ultimate Israeli hero who was portrayed at the dawn of Israeli cinema,” Rise explains. “In the 1950s, the Israeli [cinematic] hero was a blue-eyed Ashkenazi who knows exactly what to do. Then the hero evolved into ‘shooting and crying,’” he says, referencing the ethos embraced by the Left wing during the First Intifada in the late 1980s, which implies a sense of remorse felt by IDF soldiers who carried out orders with which they did not feel comfortable. 

“Then there was the Sephardi hero, and then we get to the millennial Ashkenazi hero who has absolutely no clue about what he should do. He is a deliberating figure.” Barriers also looks at how new immigrants integrate into their new country and new mentality, particularly in military situations when there is no wiggle room. 

Rise says his five years of studies at Maaleh helped to shape him as a filmmaker but also as a person. “It is not the only experience that impacted me, but it made a significant contribution to who I am and how I work,” he says. “The studies, the people who studied with me, the teachers and the practical work – all of that has affected me as an adult, as a parent, and as a professional.”

Like Cohn, Rise feels that Maaleh has not cornered the market when it comes to looking at a spread of social issues. “I think all film schools in Israel do that. I don’t think, in that regard, that Maaleh is unique,” he states. 

Still, he does see some extra dimensions to the school’s activities. “I think the human interface there definitely generates a special texture, and they look at subject matter that is a little different. And there is the freedom to operate with various paradigms that can yield significant benefits. 

“Personally, I got a lot of support and encouragement all along the way. That persuaded me that this is the profession I want to work in, despite all the difficulties and challenges.”

THANKFULLY, QUITE a few Maaleh students and alumni have managed to negotiate those obstacles. Levy believes the school has plenty to offer in the way of silver screen material that can resonate with Israelis of all walks of life, social strata and personal backdrop, and shed some light on Israeli society three-quarters of a century after the state came into being.

“The films by Maaleh students echo where we are at today, and also resonate with Jewish Israeli tradition with stories from the past. There are all sorts of personal and other prisms that reflect different layers of our society,“ he says.

Levy firms up on the school’s eclectic approach to the prevailing multifaceted zeitgeist. “The school has been through all sorts of changes over the years. I think that comes through in the students’ work. And there are no taboos, other than things that may be detrimental to the other classmates. Other than that, they have carte blanche.”

The idea of getting a handle on at least some of the flow of events and thinking in these parts over the years by watching a slew of envelope-pushing, non-commercial movies is an intriguing one. ❖

For more information: maalexperience@maale.co.il and www.maale.co.il/en