With Hasan in Gaza (2025)

I went to Gaza to search for a friend without an address- end crawl 

Shot on MiniDV in 2001 by the director Kamal Aljafari when he went in search of a friend he knew in prison WITH HASAN IN GAZA is a look at the way Gaza used to be. In it we can see the roots of todays disaster with evidence of bombing and of Israeli control. Its a film that shows us what has been lost.

As timely as the film is, and as bittersweet as the film is, the film has one key problem and that the film's slice of life construction isn't always compelling. While some sections are more interesting than others, a bit too much of this comes off as watching someone's home movie. While I completely understand why that is, we are supposed to see life in Gaza a quarter century ago, it doesn't always work as intended and we drift in and out.

The truth is the most moving section of the film is the long crawl that ends the film. While it is enhanced by the footage that went before, it is strong enough that even if you just see that section of the film you are going to feel gut punched.

I like the film, and I love what it is trying to do, but I wish it was more compelling. 

Far From Maine (2026) plays the Atlanta FIlm Festival 2026 tomorrow

Filmmaker Roy Cohen  tells the story of his life in Israel with his partner and son in the wake of the October 7 attacks.  The couple had moved there because it was a good place to be a same sex couple starting a family. However, as violence escalated in the wake of the attacks, Cohen and his husband are forced to make some serious choices about their future, as he remembers a friend who he met in Maine, and was lost to the violence.

This is a gut punch film. A story with no easy answers and no easy through line, it’s a film that makes it very clear that what we are seeing on the TV news is nowhere near the whole story. There is more going on than can be covered in a two-minute news clip.

I’ve been wrestling with this film for a couple of weeks now. I mean that in the best sort of way. This is not a film that you can simply see and then move on. Instead this is a film that raises a ton of issues and thrashes about trying to sort them out. None of the answers, when we get an answer, are easy. Even the simplest and most basic such as “we agreed to leave if the violence came back, and it has. Are we actually going to leave?” isn’t simply answered since things have changed from when that agreement was made. This is a film that very clearly shows that even the simplest most obvious choices are not something that can be made simply.

I was and I am rocked. I am rocked so much that I have been staring at a blank screen for weeks now trying to explain how magnificent this film is. This is one of the best films of the situation is Israel because it doesn’t sugar coat anything, nor does it come in with any agenda except that of a family trapped between warring factions.

An absolute must see film, FAR FROM MAINE is highly recommended.

Holy Ghetto (2026) Dances With Films New York 2026

Life in the fringes of society in Tel Aviv, in particular the ghetto and red-light district of the city.

This is a film that is going to open your eyes to a part of Israel you probably haven’t considered, those of the poor and the fringe. Centered around the Door of Hope Shelter, run by a man named Dave wo is trying to do the right thing. In and around the shelter come Ohad, a man trying to make good on his misdeeds, Olga who was forced into prostitution, Yanna who is just trying to survive the storm of her life as well as others. It is a bumpy ride that doesn’t go as planned and doesn’t feel as though director Ilan  Azoulai stage managed anything. This is life as lived which makes things rocky… which is fine because the lives of the people on screen are not smooth.

I was moved. I was delighted because this is a film that isn’t your typical cinematic portrait polished and clean and perfectly told. If cinema should reflect life as lived then this film does that better than almost any film you’ll see.

Highly recommended.

holding liat (2024) opens tomorrow

This is the story of the family of Liat Atzili, an Israeli/American kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. We are focused on Liat's parents who try to push for her release through channels in the US and Israel.

I have been wrestling with this film since I saw it. While I absolutely love the way that this film shows the complicated path that families have to walk to get their loved one's back, and I love how the film doesn't  shy away from showing feelings critical of Israel and the countries handling of the hostage situation, I am not certain that the pacing works as well as it could.  There is a long section where very little happens. While I intellectually like the slow pacing because it mirrors the waiting of the families, it makes it kind of hard to stay fully engaged. My dislike of the pacing/construction is due largely because I know it's going to be make or break for people who are seeing the film. Some people are going to walk away, which is a sad thing.

The truth of the matter this film is infinitely better than any coverage of the hostage situation in the media. Not having to rely on clicks or soundbytes or a definite political position, the film gives us a deeper and more resonate look at the situation in Israel and Gaza.  Things are not black and white but gray. Members of Liat's family question the Israeli hard lining.

Sitting down to write this piece a week after seeing the film, and dozens of others, I find I am still wrestling with how I feel about the film. As I said I love that this film does not dumb anything down.  I love that we get a fuller version of the truth. I love it so much that I have taken almost a week and a half to try and work out what to say. I'm still not certain I'm expressing myself correctly.

Ultimately, this is an important film. Its a film that has makes the situation in Israel much more real and relatable. If you want increased insight, see this film.

Recommended.

Children No More - "Were and are Gone" (2025) DOC NYC 2025

Moving portrait of the people in Israel who are holding regular silent protests holding pictures of Palestian children killed in Gaza, those who were and are now gone. We watch as thery plan the protests and execute them, often taking abuse from other Istraelis who object to the children being mourned because they are the wrong nationality.

This film will rock you. Sure, its easy to think about the number of children lost, but to see dozens of their faces all in one place makes the loss much more affecting. Its a brilliant protest since the names have smiling faces instead of blank slates or those of "terrorists". 

I was moved.

Recommended.

Shoshana (2023) opens Friday

 

SHOSHANA is loosely based on the life of Shoshana Borochov who became involved with a member of the British forces watching over Palestine in 1938.

One part thriller and several parts romance SHOSHANA is a solid entertaining drama.  I don’t know if it aspires beyond that, but on a basic level it’s pretty good.

You’ll forgive the lack of wild enthusiasm for the case but there are times the film seems to want to be more than just a romance (it gives us a long set up of the Jewish migration into Palestine as a lead up) but the film always swings around back to just being romantic drama. Yes, there are political over tones and historical significance , but the film feels like a Hollywood romance. As I said it entertains, but I kept feeling like it should give me more.

If you are in the mood for a historical romance with just a hint of modern day politics, give it a shot.

Holding Liat (2025) Tribeca 2025

This is the story of the family of Liat Atzili, an Israeli/American kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. We are focused on Liat's parents who try to push for her release through channels in the US and Israel.

I have been wrestling with this film since I saw it. While I absolutely love the way that this film shows the complicated path that families have to walk to get their loved one's back, and I love how the film doesn't  shy away from showing feelings critical of Israel and the countries handling of the hostage situation, I am not certain that the pacing works as well as it could.  There is a long section where very little happens. While I intellectually like the slow pacing because it mirrors the waiting of the families, it makes it kind of hard to stay fully engaged. My dislike of the pacing/construction is due largely because I know it's going to be make or break for people who are seeing the film. Some people are going to walk away, which is a sad thing.

The truth of the matter this film is infinitely better than any coverage of the hostage situation in the media. Not having to rely on clicks or soundbytes or a definite political position, the film gives us a deeper and more resonate look at the situation in Israel and Gaza.  Things are not black and white but gray. Members of Liat's family question the Israeli hard lining.

Sitting down to write this piece a week after seeing the film, and dozens of others, I find I am still wrestling with how I feel about the film. As I said I love that this film does not dumb anything down.  I love that we get a fuller version of the truth. I love it so much that I have taken almost a week and a half to try and work out what to say. I'm still not certain I'm expressing myself correctly.

Ultimately, this is an important film. Its a film that has makes the situation in Israel much more real and relatable. If you want increased insight, see this film.

Recommended.

Tatami (2023) opens Friday

Leila, an Iranian Judo champion, travels to Georgia with her team for a competition. When the possibility of her having to compete against an Israeli athlete arises (something forbidden by the government) she is ordered to fake an injury. When she refuses she and her family are threatened.

This solid political thriller is based on actual events. The Iranian government has been manipulating things for ther own ends for years and we can feel the real world tension bleeding off the screen. You can sense how this is going to go. What sets the film apart, though, is that there is a point where the film turns. The film doesn't take the expected route to the end, and we are better for it.  I say that because when the film turned the film lifted up a couple points in my eyes.

Shot in a moody black and white with a deliberate aspect ratio that creates a sense of claustraphobia TATAMI grabs us early and drags us along.

Recommended

Thoughts on Rose (2021) which opens Friday

Ten minutes into ROSE I realized that I saw this film several years ago when the film was playing the festival circuit. I was going to pull out my review and repost it but I’m not certain I actually wrote it up. I am telling you this because what follows is less a review and more a pointer.

ROSE is the story of a 78 year old woman who has to come to terms with the sudden death of her husband. Not feeling that it would be right to close herself off from the world she decides to live life to the fullest, thus making her kids crazy.

Yes we’ve been here before. This is a story that has been told in one form or another since the movies began. At the same time it’s rare to get a version that is as warm and inviting as this one. Yea, we know the tale, but we haven’t met these people. It’s the cast, headed by the great Françoise Fabian, that make this film work gloriously. Because of them we are among friends and not just watching a movie.

This film is a delight, and it was a joy to unexpectedly revisit it. See it and make new friends.

Recommended.

The Other (2024) NYJFF 2025

This was the first great film I saw in 2025.  In a world being broken by hatred, the film makes clear that the only way to begin to end the madness is to meet and open lines of communication.

Filmed before the October 7 massacre and the madness that followed, THE OTHER is a series of interviews with both Palestinians and Israelis telling the story of how the conflict between them directly affected their lives. Largely the stories are a catalog of loss chronicling how they lost a loved one to the violence.  Then over time the film begins to turn and become something else. It becomes and exploration of people reaching out  and trying to bridge the gap.

I was deeply moved by this film.  When it ended I was  left wiping tears from my eyes and trying to find words to express how much this film means to me.

Go see it. This will be one of the best films you see this year.

Highly recommended.

From Ground Zero (2024) opens Friday

Oscar short listed documentary is the collection of short films set in Gaza. The films show what life is like in the contested area at the present time.

This is a very good, and very up to the minute look at the situation in Gaza since the Israelis started leveling the  area in the wake of the October 7 attacks. It’s a heart breaking look at what life has become for the Palestinian population in the area. If you want to know what life is like right now this is the film for you since what you see here is not what you are going to see on American news services.

I like this film a great deal. At the same time the film is a bit of sensory overload. This is a film that makes clear what is going on and it overwhelms you, more so if you are seeing several of the other recent films on similar subjects.

Recommended – but bring tissues.

Under a Blue Sun (2024) DOC NYC 2024

This is a look at the making of Rambo 3, colonialism  and the state of the Palestinians. I know they don’t seem like they belong together but they do since Rambo 3 was shot in the deserts of Israel. How we get to the other subjects is because while visiting the locations of the film the changes that have occurred in the last three and half decades.

This is a film you have to go with.  When I started the film I wasn’t certain what I was getting. Set up as a journey the film starts as a look at the Rambo film  before shifting gears into another direction. The shift works because we have a context for it to happen. The result is a film that is covering the notion od colonialism, particularly in regard to Israel, in a way that isn’t like any other and in a way that forces us to consider points that are not being made by other films.

This film is a kick. It’s a film that sneaks up on you and gets under your skin. I say that because I thought that I had pretty much seen and heard everything there was to say and now I’m sitting here trying to sort my thoughts enough to get them on paper.

I’m not certain what else to say except see this film.

NO OTHER LAND (2024) NYFF 2024

HARUN (a qudraplegic man crippled by an Israeli bullet): Is anyone coming?
HARUN's MOTHER: No, no one is coming

Exchange in a tent between parent and child after they are left alone for the night

As people move to close down this year's NYFF because of the financial support from Israeli sources, they seem to be completely unaware that NO OTHER LAND is playing the festival  and that with in it's crushing 95 minutes is an emotional bomb that is going to change hearts and minds in ways that protests will never manage.

The film a record of the systematic destruction of an West Bank community from 2019 until 2023. It's a document of how the Israeli government is using the military and the settlers to drive out the Palestinians so that they can claim the land.

Finished literally days before the October 7 attack, the film is a blistering explanation of where the anger that spawned that attack came from. It's a film that broke the audience of writers at NYFF and was the first in 10 films screened to get long applause from most of audience.

The filmmakers make clear that the people in the village have been there for generations with some families living there since 1830. This is not a reclaiming of land the Palestinians took for a new settlement but the removal of a people who had been there since the beginning of time.

My attitude toward the film as a film was, for a certain amount of time, that the film was a solid retelling of Israeli human rights violations and then the story of Harun takes center stage an the film drops the gloves and it makes clear, in no uncertain terms, that the treatment of the Palestinians is nothing short that genocide. My heart, and the hearts of those around me were crushed.

Harun was shot for defending his home and then left for dead. He survived but as a quadriplegic who had to be cared for my his mother, because there is no medical help for him and literally moved around in a cart. It's no wonder seeing things like this day after day that the light in director Bael Adra's eyes dims and fades over the course of the film.

Let me make clear that is not a statement directed at all Israelis but the government under Netanyahu, they are criminals. 

Many will call this a political film, but it is not. It is made by a group of directors and reporters who are both Israeli and Palestinian. There is no side. Frankly it is simply a document of a great wrong against humanity. The only politics in the film is that it's Israelis with guns and heavy machinery against Palestinians with cameras.

A week before I saw this film I saw the film WE WILL DANCE AGAIN, about the October 7 attack and was shocked at the brutality of what happened, and then I saw NO OTHER LAND and my single thought was of course the October 7 attack happened...but why didn't it happen sooner?

This film is an absolute must see.

Easily one of the best and most important films of not only the festival but 2024 as well.

We Will Dance Again (2024)

A look at the October 6 attack in Israel told by the survivors and the footage that was shot that day.

First up I’m not going to get into the politics of this. The sheer loss of life and the brutality of the attack trump any thought of the amorphous and intellectual notions of the Israel/Palestine conflict. By the standard of any living and breathing human with any shred of moral decency it was an horrific sequence of events that simply proves that too many people think violence will solve problems.

As a film documenting the events that played out one morning in October this film is a punch in the face. It doesn’t matter which side you are on, or think you’re on, the film will make you truly consider the cost of violence. Made up of footage shot by the victims as well as by the attackers, WE WILL DANCE AGAIN never looks away. We see it all, from the end of the over night rave which stopped when the missiles were seen in the sky, to the attacks where few were left alive onward to the aftermath. It’s all here and I’m certain you will look away.

Yes the footage is choppy at times. Considering how it was shot, it’s amazing that any of it survives. The images will burn into your brain. Strangely the most problematic is the footage from Hamas which was shot via body cams and so is very unsteady. That’s probably a good thing since we don’t need to see all the death and destruction.

While not for all audiences those wanting to know what happened that day will end up well informed. 

Come Closer (2024) Tribeca 2024

This is the story of a young woman named Eden. When her brother is killed in a car crash she spirals off. Realizing her brother had a whole other life which she knew nothing about she begins investigating and begins a relationship with his brothers girlfriend.

This film really didn't work for me. Blame it on Eden, a character who is either badly acted or badly written, or both. The problem begins before the accident where we see Eden smothering her brother as if he was a needy lover rather than his sister.  Its the wrong sort of creepy. Watching her spiral out after that distances us as she doesn't seem anything other than nut. What makes it worse is the performance is so ungrounded that the character seems like she is in another film entirely. That isn't a bad analogy- this is a film where everyone except Eden is in another film entirely.

I was disappointed

THREE PROMISES (2023) opens tomorrow

Yousef Srouji takes a collection of old VHS tapes and creates a look at his family and life in the Palestinian West Bank in the early 2000’s.

This moving portrait of life in a war zone is even more so owing to events happening in Israel. While the film would have been good before the insanity, the film now takes on a deeper resonance as a reminder that there are good people lost in the madness. (The final piece of text made me gasp-something it was never intended to have happen)

You will forgive me if I don’t say much more, but world events are coloring ny thoughts on the film so anything I have to say doesn’t feel truly right.

Do yourself a favor and just see this.

MOURNING IN LOD (2023)

MOURNING IN LOD is a tough film to watch. Yes the subject of the cost of the war between Hamas and Israel has been done too many times, however it’s focus is such that it strips away the politics and focuses purely on the very human cost of the people caught in between the warring factions.  And when I say the film focuses on the people caught in between, I mean both Israeli and Palestinian civilians who are caught between their leaders who see them as expendable. 

Laying out the experiences of three families we come to understand how something so terrible can happen. That isn't to excuse it, but we see how the both sides, whipped into a frenzy about the alleged terrible things happening by these others, these labels, turn on the people who a short time before were their friends and neighbors. People they lived with in peace until the madness was introduced. 

I was moved. I love that director Hilla Medalia doesn't do anything fancy. She let's people talk and so we get to know the people before us. We learn of their lives and what their loved one means to them.

You need to see this film. It is one of the best film not only on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict I’ve run across but also the best films on the cost war. 

 Opening Friday in theaters, the film will stream next month.

NINA IS AN ATHLETE (2024) Slamdance 2024

This is a portrait of Nina Gorodetsky a world champion badminton player. As she heads toward her first, and possibly last, Paralympics in Tokyo she also has to consider that at 40, she maybe running out of time to have a second child.

This is a very good look at what it means to be a top athlete who has to decide how to order the things that are important to her in life. While the fact that Nina is in a wheelchair colors the story, the truth is that this is, unfortunately a choice that many women have to make. 

Is it possible to do everything? Nina is going to give it a try, and the result is an engaging sports biography that lifts us up and carries us along.

This is not your typical by the numbers tale and as such it's absolutely worth your time.

KARAOKE (2022) Opens November 17 NY/LA

Charming comedy drama about an older couple who are stuck in a rut. When a new neighbor moves into their building he begins to re-spark their life- even as he turns everyone upside down.

This is a good little film that doesn't really do anything we haven't seen before. It works because it goes through its paces really well and because  the two leads are real enough that we fall in love with them. We connect with them wonderfully and they make the ending something moving.

And the end is moving. I love it when a good but not great film suddenly sticks the ending and you get misty. Karaoke, which is a solid if unremarkable comedy drama ends with a moving ending that is good enough that I think the film is absolutely worth taking a ride. 

Worth a look.

Blue Box (2021) Open August 25 at The Film Forum

 Blue Box is a great film that transcends it’s stated subject to speak volumes about how we see the past. In an age where we are reevaluating our history Blue Box  forces us to realize that the stories we have been told may not be the whole unvarnished truth.

The film is the story of director Michal Weits looking at the story of her great grandfather, Joseph Weits. Weits was the legendary man who started building Israel decades before the creation of the state by the UN. What he did was to buy up lands in Palestine create forests and places for Jewish people to live.  The story goes is that he bought up lands no one wanted or lands where no one was living and started to turn them into productive communities. It’s a story that Weits family tells with great pride.

However Michael Weits digs deeper. Looking into official records as well as her great grandfather’s papers the reality she found that the truth was considerably different. Her grandfather most certainly bought up land with the intention of giving the Jews a foothold, however the deals he was making to buy the land more often than not ended up displacing families who had been living there as tenants of landlords scattered across the globe who sold the land out from under them. While it was all legal, many of the deals could be seen as morally questionable. If nothing else the lands were not uninhabited. The revelations alter the way how Michal and her family now see their history.

This is a beautifully made film. It’s a film that carries us long with its revelations and makes us thinks about our own history.

This forcing of us to reconsider our history is what lifts the film up to be something more. I say this since where we are in the United States we are struggling to deal with our past. Really looking at our founding fathers and those that followed  them has revealed them to be something much more complex, an not always as pretty as we would like to think. This is especially true in regard to the confederate heroes whose statues are being removed at a record pace. While many people have been taught that they were all good men fighting for a question of State’s rights, the examination of their personal papers and the records of the time are painting them in a damning light. In light of how we see the world today they were not nice guys but rather bad guys. It wasn’t state’s rights but racism that drove many of them to fight.  For many these revelations have shaken their  beliefs

I really loved this film. Not only does it tell one hell of a story, but it also shows us on a large level how we got here and how we have ordered the world to make it so.

Highly recommended

The Blue Box is playing at the Film Forum starting August 25