Ronit Elkabetz

Je t’aime Ronit Elkabetz

An archival montage of late Israeli director and actress Ronit Elkabetz, as told through the radical collection of her extraordinary wardrobe. A cinematic essay about the power of cinema, the power of clothes, and one unforgettable woman standing for and embodying the deepest human desire for freedom and liberty.

Black Notebooks

With this two-part feature documentary, Shlomi Elkabetz shares a poignant love letter to his sister, the late actress and director Ronit Elkabetz, and delivers a rare cinematic experience.

French Cinema Mon Amour

French Cinema Mon Amour is an ensemble film in which each contributor brings their own voice, their own particular approach, their culture, and their language to produce a portrait of French cinema.

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

The trial story of Viviane Amsalem's five year fight to obtain her divorce in front of the only legal authority competent for divorce cases in Israel, the Rabbinical Court.

Zarafa

Inspired by the true story of the first giraffe to visit France, Zarafa is a sumptuously animated and stirring adventure, and a throwback to a bygone era of hand-drawn animation and epic storytelling set among sweeping CinemaScope vistas of parched desert, wind-swept mountains and open skies. Under the cover of darkness a small boy, Maki, loosens the shackles that bind him and escapes into the desert night. Pursued by slavers across the moon-lit savannah, Maki meets Zarafa, a baby giraffe – and an orphan, just like him – as well as the nomad Hassan, Prince of the Desert. Hassan takes them to Alexandria for an audience with the Pasha of Egypt, who orders him to deliver the exotic animal as a gift to King Charles of France.

The Flood

At the age of 13, Yoni is growing up. Fast. But not fast enough for this diminutive young man who is obsessed with getting bigger, taller and stronger. On the eve of his Bar Mitzvah, Yoni has no choice but to “become a man” when he’s faced with the unexpected return of his autistic brother who he has not seen for almost ten years.

Invisible

Two women meet by chance and discover they were both raped by rapist. Individually and together they must confront the past and finally integrate the long repressed trauma into their lives.

Free Hands

Barbara is a filmmaker who has been working in the prison environment for a few years now. She is preparing a film written and directed by long-term inmates in a prison in the projects around Paris. Twice a week, Barbara goes to the prison where she shoots interviews with the inmates which will serve as a basis for the writing of their screenplay.

Turk's Head

A 14 year old boy, an ER doctor, a cop looking for revenge, a mother fighting for her children and a man distraught by the death of his wife see their destinies come together. As the doctor spends several days in a coma, events keep on happening and all will be swept by the shock wave.

Ashes and Blood

Exiled from her country since her husband's murder ten years earlier, Judith lives in Marseille with her three children. After having refused to see her family for years, Judith, in spite of her fears and secrets, allows herself to be influenced by her children's wishes and accepts an invitation to their cousin's wedding. They set off to spend a summer in the old country, discovering their roots and their past. But Judith's return revives old hatreds between rival clans. The spiral of violence is inexorably set in motion, blood will tell...

Jaffa

In the city of Jaffa; a young girl plans to run away with her secret lover, when a tragedy forever changes the course of their lives. Jaffa is a mixed Arabic - Jewish seaside city near Tel Aviv, where Reuven Wolf (Moni Moshonov) has a garage for repairing cars. His wife Ossi (Ronit Elkabetz), a vain, self-centered woman, just makes everybody's life difficult. The couple's daughter, Mali Wolf (Dana Ivgy), has secretly fallen in love with her childhood friend, the young Toufik (newcomer Mahmud Shalaby), a hard-working youth who has come as a helping hand to his Israeli-Arab father Hassan, a long-time mechanic working for Reuven.

The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train is a 2009 French drama film directed by André Téchiné. Jeanne is a young woman, striking but otherwise without qualities. Her mother tries to get her a job in the office of a lawyer, Bleistein, her lover years ago. Jeanne fails the interview but falls into a relationship with Franck, a wrestler whose dreams and claims of being in a legitimate business partnership Jeanne is only too happy to believe. When Franck is arrested, he turns on Jeanne for her naivety; she's stung and seeks attention by making up a story of an attack on a train. Is there any way out for her?

Zion and His Brother

Zion, 14, and his brother Meir, 17, are facing a crisis in their relationship after a terrible accident. They keep the secret to themselves and it haunts them until, finally, Zion re-examines his loyalty towards his older brother and decides that he is ready to take responsibility for his own life.

The Seven Days

The Ohaion family is mourning the death of one of their relatives. In keeping with tradition, they gather together in the home of the deceased and stay there for seven days. Forced to put up with one another day and night, the brothers and sisters soon let their bitterness and arguments override the sense of communal reverence. The atmosphere becomes unbearable and long-buried truths finally surface.

The Band's Visit

A small Egyptian police band travels to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves stuck in the wrong town.

Or (My Treasure)

Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.

To Take A Wife

The story takes place in Haifa, Israel, in 1979, during three days before the Shabbat. A young woman trying to raise three children, work from home, and observe the strict Moroccan traditions of her family finds herself at constant odds with her husband and her brothers, who want her to stay married and leave behind the notions of being loved and free.

Alila

Life in a Tel Aviv apartment complex, an urban mosaic whose seedy characters, try as they might, can't get out of one another's faces. Gabi, a bobbed haired sexpot, and her lover Hezi—who's older, balding and married—rent a room to have an affair, while Ezra, a pot bellied divorcee, supervises an illegal construction site next door. All this racket drives Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor, to a mental breakdown. Other characters include illegal Chinese immigrants, a teenage boy who's afraid to serve in the army, and a corrupt police detective.

Late Marriage

Zaza is a 31-year old Israeli bachelor, handsome and intelligent, and his family wants to see him married. But tradition dictates that Zaza has to choose a young virgin. She must be beautiful and from a good family, preferably rich. Zaza's parents, Yasha and Lily drag Zaza to meet potential brides and their families. Zaza has no choice. He plays along with his family, advocates of the suffocating traditions of their Georgian Jewish heritage. But Zaza always manages to somehow get out of being engaged. What his parents don't know is that Zaza is already in love. Judith is sensuous, strong and intriguing. She's also a divorcée with a 6-year-old daughter. So Zaza has kept Judith a secret from his family. He will have to choose between respect of the strict confines of family and tradition, or the love of his life.

Made in France

Patrick Morel has his limits tested when he's thrown in jail after a misunderstanding with the lovely Sonia and the brash Youssef, all three of them bound for deportation until a last-ditch escape frees them in more ways than one.

Short Stories About Love

Israeli short films mini-series.

Scar

Scar holds a special place in the development and oeuvre of Ronit Elkabetz: it’s her first work as a co-screenwriter, and her sole work for someone other than herself or her brother, Shlomi.

Sh'Chur

A Jewish Moroccan immigrant family living in Israel is nearly destroyed by conflicts resulting from generational differences in this arresting Israeli drama. It begins as Cheli, a successful but emotionally troubled talk show host who has been unable to deal with her traumatic childhood is traveling to attend her father's funeral. She is accompanied by her mentally ill sister Pnina and her adopted estranged daughter. It is a hellish trip and as they travel, flashbacks chronicle their painful youth. Rachel had always wanted to break away from her family's Moroccan heritage and so spent much time trying make herself fit in with her Israeli peers. She was humiliated by her poor, ignorant family. Her father was an overbearing, blindly religious fanatic and their mother was a witch who manipulated the family by casting spells. She feared her mother, and despised her insane sister, to whom she was very cruel.

Eddie King

Eddie, an unemployed actor gets in troubles with a group of criminals.

The Appointed

Shmaya (Shuli Rand), a small-time magician whose career consists of gigs at local venues in the north of Israel, meets Oshra (Ronit Elkabetz) at one of his shows, who possesses genuine mystical powers. Shmaya makes Oshra part of his act and together, they perform real-life feats of magic and miracles before their slack-jawed audiences. Meanwhile, Shmaya’s father – a holy man with his own loyal following, is dying. He asks his followers to bring him his estranged son, so that he can take his place after his death and lead their community. Shmaya does just that and goes on to become a spiritual leader. However, his ongoing attraction to Oshra is now on a collision course with his new calling.