Two Israeli movies to be screened at London Film Festival
Two Israeli films, "Fill the Void" and "Zaytoun," will be screened at the London Film Festival in October, the festival management announced on Wednesday. "Fill the Void," ultra-Orthodox filmmaker Rama Burshtein's first movie, won rave reviews at its debut at the Venice Film Festival earlier this week. "Zaytoun," directed by Eran Riklis and written by American-Palestinian scriptwriter Nader Rizq, is an Israeli-British coproduction. It depicts the friendship between an Israeli pilot whose plane was shot down in 1982 and a Palestinian boy who dreams of visiting his father's home village in Palestine. The lead is American actor Stephen Dorff and one of the producers is Gareth Unwin, who produced "The King's Speech." (Nirit Anderman )
Citing Ariel performances, director Peter Brook pulls out of Cameri Theater festival
Theater director Peter Brook has canceled his participation in the Cameri Theater's international theater festival in Israel. An official from the Tel Aviv-based theater told Haaretz on Wednesday that the cancelation statement said Brook's Bouffes du Nord theater group will not appear at the festival because the Cameri performs in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, and appearing there could be interpreted as though "we support the brutal colonialism in the territories." Brook was supposed to arrive with his Parisian theater group in December and appear in the festival with the play "The Suit." (Zipi Shohat )
Dozens of rock, blues and jazz musicians to perform at In-D-Negev happening
More than 70 bands and musicians will take part in the sixth In-D-Negev music festival to be held on October 18-20 at Mitzpeh Gvulot, near Kibbutz Gvulot in the Negev Desert. The line-up includes Israeli rock band "Habiluim," reunited after five years, Jazz musician Daniel Zamir, blues-rock guitarist Lazer Lloyd, Amit Erez & the Secret Sea, and singer-songwriters including Noam Rotem, Ram Orion, Shalom Gad and Alon Eder. The festival will also feature electronic music performances, interactive art presentations and movie screenings. (Uri Zer Aviv )
Israel Bar Kochav and Miron Izakson scoop Hebrew-language poetry prize
Poets Israel Bar Kochav and Miron Izakson will receive the Natan Yonatan prize for Hebrew poetry this year. The prize, a NIS 15,000 grant for each poet, was founded to preserve Yonatan's legacy. Forty-five poets contended for the prize this year. The panel of judges consisted of poets Ran Yagil, Dr. Dana Amir and Prof. Orzion Bartana. The judges said Izakson's poetry was characterized by "incessant dismantling and assemblage, like Cubism or a collage, and with continuous syntactic fracture," and that Bar Kochva's poetry has "some ironic, magical, sharp-sighted restraint" and he "sees ... to the core of people and situations." (Maya Sela )
