12th Israel Film Festival

For the second time, I was able to attend the opening night of the Israeli Film Festival at the Greenbelt 3 Cinemas. The Embassy of Israel in partnership with the Ayala Cinemas presented this festival that showcased various aspects of Israeli life. The film that was shown during the opening night was the comedy Footnote.

Hannah Espia, Ambassador Menashe Bar-On and Madame Eti Bar-On

The gracious hosts during the opening night were Ambassador Menashe Bar-On and his spouse Madame Eti. Among the guests were producer Paul Soriano and director Hannah Espia whose movie Transit, was among the films screened for this festival.

Paul Soriano and Hanna Espia

Transit garnered most of the awards during the 2013 edition of Cinemalaya and was chosen as the Philippines’ entry to the foreign language film category in this year’s Academy Awards.

Footnote

Directed by Joseph Cedar, Footnote is a comedy that introduced me to the world of Talmudic studies. In the film, the rivalry between a father, Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar Aba) and his son, Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi), both professors of the Talmudic studies, gets fiercer when the father was announced to be the recipient of the very prestigious Israel Prize. The father’s recognition seems like a mistake since he is regarded as a stubborn purist, not well liked by his peers, and whose only noteworthy achievement was a footnote mention, while his son is not only popular and charismatic, but is also an up-and-coming personality in his field making him a shoo-in for the award.

Towards the end of the film, there was a very clever way of showing especially to those unfamiliar with it, what a scholar in Talmudic studies actually does through a nicely, choreographed sequence showing these professors in action. The film had an open ending which not only left Eliezer, but also the viewer, guessing. It was indeed an enjoyable film to watch since I never thought that the world of the academe deciphering ancient texts could be that exciting.