What will we see at the Haifa Film Festival?
Israel's premiere cinematic celebration has begun: Here are some of the big films you might see (and some you won't).
As far as the international film scene goes, cinematic events on the scale of the Haifa Film Festival are a type of summation of the larger festivals such as Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Karlovy, ARY, and of course – Cannes, the world’s premiere film event.
This leads to a certain feeling of disappointment for those who read the program for Israel’s leading festival. Films such as Son of Saul by Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes, Carol by Todd Haynes and Youth by Paolo Sorrentino, all three of which were contenders for the Palme D’or, will not be screened during the event. Neither will the film that won that highest Cannes award, Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan. Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, winner of the Berlin festival’s Golden Bear won’t be there either.
These films weren’t intentionally excluded by the Haifa festival’s committee or its veteran artistic director Pnina Blair. However, for some reason, they won’t be coming to Israel’s green mountain city, That leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth, but audiences will still be able to see most of these films, as they are likely to get theatrical releases in Israel.
What we will be seeing in the festival is a rich collection of films from all over the world, many of which are likely to be candidates for best foreign language film in the next Academy Awards ceremony, one of which is Israeli Filmmaker Yuval Delshad’s Baba Joon, which recently won the Ophir Award (the Israeli equivalent to the Oscar).
One of the prominent films in the festival is Italian director Matteo Garrone’s English-language film Tale of Tales. The film, which stars actors such as Selma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones, and John C. Reilly, interweaves three separate fairytale-like stories into one. Based on the book by Giambattista Basile, Tale of Tales was looked at strangely by those at the Cannes festival. Now Israelis will be able to judge for themselves.
Another interesting entry will be The Program, Director Stephen Frears’s biopic of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong. The film portrays Armstrong’s doping, as well as the tensions between him and investigative journalist David Walsh. Its stars Ben Foster as Armstrong, Lee pace as Armstrong’s cycling team manager Bill Stapleton, and Chris O’Dowd as Walsh.
