Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Does the ‘Neighborhood’ Film Represent a Social Revolution?

Crossposted from Haaretz

Filmmakers Yamin Messika, left, and Yarmi Kadoshi. Image by Daniel Tchetchik

Local residents had no idea what hit them — one morning they were informed that everyone was being vacated from their homes. Real estate sharks had designated the neighborhood as the next luxury complex and thanks to their connections to the mayor their venture succeeded. Liat (the singer and actress Liat Banai), a local resident, wife and mother, decides to go to war after her husband, who launched the opposition, is murdered in mysterious circumstances. She battles the establishment and at the end of an aggressive campaign is victorious.

That, in a nutshell, is the plot of “The Big Lie,” the 12th feature film by Yamin Messika and Yarmi Kadoshi, the owners of Hamizrah Productions. In addition to Banai, the film also features Yankele Ben Sira, Eran Levy, Beber Yoko and even Yaron London playing himself. But besides the feature films, the two say they have also directed and produced hundreds of clips, discovered singing stars (Sarit Hadad, for example), and produced documentary films and children’s videos. They are also responsible to a certain extent for the rising use of VOD (video on demand ) cable services and at HOT they acknowledge that the addition of Hamizrah Productions has brought them audiences.

Read more at Haaretz.com

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.