Kim Mordaunt’s award winning film (Berlin, Tribeca) The Rocket will open Films in the Arava Desert. Now in its second edition, the international film event, under the auspices of the Haifa International Film Festival, will take place in the unique atmosphere of the desert, under the stars, from November 21 – 23, 2013 in Tzukim. Enjoy nature by day and movies by night!
Set in Laos, The Rocket tells the story of ten year old Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe), who has been labeled “bad luck,” making it easy to blame him for anything bad that happens, as when the family loses their home and has to move. Ahlo has one friend, Kia, an orphan with an eccentric uncle named Purple – an ex-soldier with a purple suit, and a love for alcohol and James Brown. A Rocket Festival gives Ahlo the opportunity to prove himself, but the task is both difficult and dangerous. The film will be screened at the festival courtesy of Lev Theatres.
The Arava festival features new international films, classic cinema and new Israeli films. Recommended in the international program are films from the Haifa International Film Festival:
My Sweet Pepperland (Kurdistan/France/Germany 2013), directed by Hiner Saleem is provocative and fun – a Wild West adventure set on the Iraq-Turkish border, complete with honest new-sheriff-in-town and former fighter for Kurdish independence Baran (Korkmaz Arslan), fiesty, dedicated, and drop-dead gorgeous schoolteacher Govend (Golshifteh Farahani), and requisite assortment of bad guys, headed by Aziz Aga (Tarik Akreyi). My kind of movie – funny, insightful and smart.
Shell (UK 2013), director Scott Graham’s debut feature, acutely observes Shell (a striking performance by Chloe Pirrie), a young woman helping her father run a gas station in the Scottish Highlands. The ambiguity and interdependence of the father/daughter relationship, the desolate landscape, loneliness and yearning are moving and compelling.
Also featured from Haifa (haven’t seen these): Just A Sigh (France 2013) directed by Jérôme Bonnell, starring Gabriel Byrne and Emmanuelle Devos; Just Like a Woman USA/France 2012), directed by Rachid Bouchareb, starring Golshifteh Farahani and Sienna Miller.
Classics – those films that we love to see again, and again, and again! Two of my favorite musicals will be shown at the festival. Stanley Donen’s Singin’ in the Rain (1952), has just about everything I love – staying up all night, dancing in the rain while singing, and the hilarious bouncy “Make ‘Em Laugh.” Oklahoma (1955) – Shirley Jones film debut with songs by Rogers & Hammerstein!
Connecting people, the Arava desert and film, is the project “Katzar BaMidbar” – short films inspired by and shot in the Arava. Inaugurated last year, the project brought 15 young film school graduates to become acquainted with the people and landscape of the Arava. They all wrote screenplays for short films, inspired by these experiences, three of the scripts were selected for production and will be screened at this year’s festival. The films are: Bor HaMayim by Gan de Langa; Hatulot BaHallal by Amit Eyni, and Tiftufim BaMidbar by Roman Krotter.
Films in the Arava Desert is under the artistic direction of Pnina Blayer, Artistic Director of the Haifa International Film Festival, and produced by Eyal Shiray, Producer of the Haifa International Film Festival. The festival is jointly produced by Golden Cinema Productions, the Arava Regional Council, the Haifa International Film Festival and the Merage Foundation.
