The Israeli actress and director Ronit Elkabetz, who died on April 19 at age 51, was noted for her masterful portrayal of tragic figures with few or no exit options. Yet in life she retained powerful optimism about the restorative value of drama for bringing people closer together. When she died prematurely of cancer, leaving…
The first time I saw Ronit Elkabetz in a movie, I didn’t find her beautiful. Her striking, sharp features seemed too strange and dark. And her intensity made me uncomfortable. A high school student at the time and an aspiring actress (a regrettable phase), I had bought into the beauty ideals the Israeli media had…
Ronit Elkabetz, a leading Israeli actress, director and scriptwriter, died April 19 at age 51 after a battle with cancer. Over the course of her career, Elkabetz won three Ophir awards – the Israeli equivalent of the Oscar – for best actress, for her performances in the films “Sh’Chur,” “Late Marriage” and “The Band’s Visit”,…
“Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem” is a plea on behalf of agunot, women whose husbands refuse to grant them a religious divorce. It is an indictment of the Israeli justice system, which doesn’t provide for civil marriage or its dissolution, and of the rabbinical courts that do hold such powers. Most of all, the…
There’s a very palpable “more is more” philosophy at Cannes: more glamor, more stars, more wasteful opulence. But while the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford and Robert Pattinson have graced the red carpet in the past 24 hours, my attention has been riveted by a couple of intimate Israeli films that premiered in the…
In the first of a two-part series, Lisa Traiger traces the growth of Israeli folk dancing from one dance — “Hora Agadati” in 1924 — to 4,678 in 2005. Jordana Horn surveys the career of the remarkable Moroccan-Israel actress Ronit Elkabetz, who was recently honored by the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival. Philologos is,…
Crossposted from Haaretz The University of Haifa will host a seminar next week on the Channel 2 hit sitcom “Arab Labor.” The series, now in its second season, is highly controversial in Israel’s Arab community and has engendered criticism in the mainstream Israeli press over its treatment of delicate issues of discrimination, religion and coexistence….
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