Wall-E, vampires and John Malkovich: The Jerusalem International Film Festival marks 25 years - Travel Features - Israel travel and tourism

The 25th annual Jerusalem Film Festival, in full force this week, is offering up to a total of 200 local and international films. A wide range of genres will be highlighted, within categories such as new features, acclaimed documentaries, avant garde films, shorts, animation, retrospectives and classics. Special focus is placed on new directors, films that capture the Jewish experience and French cinema, among other areas of interest.

Alongside screenings, the festival hosts meetings with filmmakers, conferences, lectures, master classes and panel discussions, boasting an impressive roster of guests that includes actor John Malkovich and director Michael Winterbottom. Among the other attractions at the event are outdoor moonlight screenings and live music performances offered free of charge.

The festival has its base at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, with additional screenings taking place at other venues close by. July 10-19, Jerusalem Cinematheque (02) 565-4333 or www.jff.org.il

Festival highlights:

24 City (Er shi si cheng ji)
(China/Hong Kong/Japan, 2008)
Drama about an immense factory facing closure in order to make space for a luxury housing complex.
Dir: Zhang Ke Jia
Sunday at 14.00, Cinematheque

Synecdoche, New York
(USA, 2008)
Comedy drama - A theater director pours his whole being into creating a new play that celebrates the mundane elements of life, but the more he puts into his art, the more his art comes to uncannily resemble his life.
Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams and Catherine Keener
Sunday at 22.00, Cinematheque

Of Time and the City
(UK, 2008)
Documentary - Director Terence Davies presents a melancholy love song for his childhood town of Liverpool, showing all of its rough beauty and decay.
Sunday at 10.00, Cinematheque

7 Days (Shiv'a)
(Israel, 2008)
Drama - A death in the family, at the time of the Gulf War, brings six brothers and two sisters together for the traditional seven days of mourning, and their loyalty to one another is put to the test.
Directors: Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz
Saturday at 21.45, Cinematheque

Rosario Tijeras
(Columbia/Mexico/Spain/Brazil, 2005)
Thriller - A young assassin employed by the drug cartels of Medellin, Columbia, seeks a way out of her "day job."
Director: Emilio Maille
Sunday at 21.30; Monday at 10.00, Cinematheque

On the Move (Hayav Lazuz)
(Israel, 2008)
Documentary - Traces Ehud Banai's early years on the music scene, through the struggle, musical passion and deeply rooted friendship he shared with members of his first band, "The Refugees."
Director: Avida Livny
Monday at 20.15, Cinematheque

Be Like Others
(Canada/Iran/UK/USA, 2008)
Documentary about young men in Iran seeking to undergo sex reassignment surgery.
Director: Tanaz Eshaghian
Tuesday at 22.15, Beit Shmuel

Jodhaa Akbar
(India, 2008)
Biographical epic about Mughal-dynasty emperor Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar and his inter-religious marriage to the Rajput princess Jodhaa.
Director: Ashutosh Gowariker, with Aishwarya Rai
Wednesday at 20.30, Beit Shmuel

Let the Right One in (Lat den ratte komma in)
(Sweden, 2008)
Horror drama - Coming-of-age vampire story about a morbid, oft-bullied 12-year-old boy who falls in love with a girl his age who, among other strange habits, has a curious aversion to sunlight.
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Thursday at 14.15, Cinematheque

Opening Film: Wall-E
(USA, 2008)
Animation - A lone robot, deserted after Earth's humans were forced to leave the planet, goes on a trans-galactic journey to follow a "female" robot who was sent by the humans on a mission to Earth.
Director: Andrew Stanton
With voices by Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, John Ratzenberger and Sigourney Weaver.

Into the Wild
(USA, 2007)
Adventure drama - A middle-class young man gives his savings to charity and goes to live a relationship- and possession-free existence in the Alaskan wilderness, which proves more treacherous than his romantic notions prepared him for. Based on a true story.
Directed by Sean Penn
With Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt.

King of Ping Pong (Ping-pongkingen)
(Sweden, 2008)
Drama - An overweight teen turns to ping pong to drown out thoughts of unpopularity and family troubles.
Directed by Jens Jonsson
With Jerry Johansson and Hampus Johansson

Brand Upon the Brain!
(USA/Canada, 2006)
Fantasy - A man returns to his childhood home, an orphanage that his parents ran on a remote Canadian island, a place that hides dark family secrets.
Director: Guy Maddin
With Sullivan Brown, Maya Lawson and Katherine E. Scharhon, narrated by Isabella Rossellini