Film about Bat Yam gang to be screened at Cannes
Meni Yaesh's movie, "God's Neighbors," will be one of the seven films to be screened at the 2012 Critics' Week of the Cannes Film Festival opening on May 17, the festival management said yesterday. The movie, written by Yaesh, is about a gang of Breslau youngsters who violently attack Russians, Arabs and anyone whose religion is different from theirs in their Bat Yam neighborhood. After the gang leader falls in love with one of the victims the gang is torn apart. (Nirit Anderman )
Sa'ar apologizes for students who cheered Nazis at 'Ghetto' play
Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar yesterday apologized to the Cameri Theater for the disturbance caused by high school students during the performance of the play "Ghetto" on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Dozens of students applauded and cheered the Nazis and shouted encouragement at a Kapo beating another Jew in the play. "You have shamed the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust," actor Oded Leopold said at the end of the play. Sa'ar wrote to theater director Noam Semel that the students' conduct was "a disgrace that sears the heart." (Zipi Shohat and Talila Nesher )
Author launches Facebook campaign against book chains
Author Alex Epstein launched a Facebook campaign yesterday to boycott bookstore chains. "Support small businesses," he said in the appeal, "support writers, translators, editors, proofreaders and graphic designers. Don't support corporations." Epstein added that private bookshops love books, whereas chains like Tzomet Sfarim and Steimatzky "only love money." The page soon received hundreds of comments, "likes" and shares. "Maybe now Tzomet Sfarim and Steimatzky will realize that there's a price to pay for destroying our culture," Epstein told Haaretz. (Maya Sela )