Israeli films - 1970s

Based on a novel by Amos Oz. A couple in Jerusalem before the six day war in 1967, fall in love, get married, have a child and drift apart. With Michael away at war, his wife starts fantasizing about twin Arabs she used to play with as a child.

Not everyone is born to be a soldier. Not even in Israel, where universal conscription is the tradition. This movie is about a Sad Sack in the Israeli army, incompetent to complete training and yet incompetent to extricate himself.

One of Israel's most beloved films, this film centers around the policeman Azulai, who is as kind as he as inept.

Sergio Konstanza, in debt to Mr. Hasson, flees to join an Army reserve unit led by a Sergeant interested in one of Hasson's daughters. However, Hasson demands his older daughter marries first before allowing the younger one to wed.

Charlie passes himself off as a rich businessman but gets by through fleecing suckers with 3-Card Monte. Miko is a street kid who spends his time with Charlie instead of going to school; his sister unsuccessfully tries to raise him on her own. The plot follows Charlie's attempts to conquer the heart of Gila, a rich girl whose parents are trying to get her married to an American millionaire, something she doesn't want.

An embittered gang leader seeks the respect of his neighbors and the love of a young woman.

In the easy-going, sexually-liberated 1970's Tel Aviv, three young friends, struggling filmmaker Nati, his impressionable girlfriend Ossi and his geeky friend Mushon, move in together in a small apartment in Dizengoff Street number 99. By day, they work a boring desk office job but by night the city is their playground. Their overall goal is to make their way into the commercial movie making business, but harsh realities and romances often sidetrack them. Their fourth friend and Nati's older other girlfriend is aspiring musician, Miri.

Benny Furman is a basketball headcoach who can't decide what he realy wants.

A lifeguard lives an ideal life with his wife and children. When his father-in-law begins to think he's cheating, the man sets up a scam to catch Zohar in the act. The plan works, but things get complicated when it appears the father-in-law may have had a case of mistaken identity. Or did he?

Ami Sus'etz, an Israeli artist, abandons his wife and daughter in New York, and comes back to his home land after years of absence. Sus'etz wishes to decipher his constant feeling of failure as a human being, as a family man, as an artist. His best friends were killed in war, his paintings were burned not without intent. He has no past and no future. Back home Sus'etz reunites with his dying father, with his mother, who unsuccessfully tries to understand her son, and with a childhood friend, Ansberg, now a philosopher/homeless. Ansberg has adopted unusual methods in order to bring love back to Tel Aviv and expects "conscientious" Sus'etz to assist him in that. Sus'etz cannot be a "conscientious", or anything else for that matter, not before he resolves his own personal fate: who is he, why was he born, why does he live. Ami Sus'etz decides to make a movie, about himself, his parents, his hometown Tel Aviv, and about all that constitutes the puzzle we call human life. His movie fails in resolving the pattern but ironically becomes a commercial blockbuster. At the end of the day, the movie gets burned, just like the paintings, not without intent.

A mother comes to her son's base to keep him fed.

Vered, an attractive blind singer, meets and is befriended by three students. The trio decides to save enough money for the surgery which may restore Vered's sight. After many attempts, two of them commit petty theft and are sent to prison. The third takes Vered to the surgery which is successful. Although Vered regains her sight, she losses her friends...

Based on the novel "The Story of Hirbet Hizah" by S. Izhar (S.Yizhar).

A story of a street walker, who tries to leave the world of prostitution when she gets pregnant.

10 years after he left Israel and "played it big-time in America", Benny Shpitz returns for a visit, self-exploring his youth, friends, dreams, beliefs and idol, Daniel Wax, who symbolized the "beautiful Israeli". Shpitz finds out his friends are melancholic, unsatisfied with marriage life, hiding a vast hole in their sole. In a wider context, Israel post 67' will no longer be the society that it was meant to be.

Floch, a seventy year old man loses his son, daughter in-law and grandson, who are all killed in a car accident. He goes into deep depression and feels that he can't leave this world without leaving an offspring, a descendant to carry on his name. He divorces his wife Gerda who is too old to bear him a child and sets out to find a younger woman with whom he can fulfill his dream.

Amitz Dolniker, an Israeli politician who speaks way to much has a heart attack in the middle of his speech. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital the doctor orders him to "go someplace quite, rest, and don't make speeches". His young assistant immediately suggest they go to Switzerland, however Dolniker had taken a vow not to leave Israel unnecessarily, so he comes up with a different idea - going to a remote village where they have never heard of him, so he would not be asked to make any speeches. As they arrive, it turns out that not only the villagers have never heard of Dolniker, but they have also never heard of running water, electricity, phones, and most importantly: TV, Radio, and newspapers... so its only a matter of time before Dolniker or the villagers go bananas....

Tiki Dayan is an overweight girl who gains the attention of singer Pik. He wants only a professional relationship with her, she wants romance.

Shoshana, a rich young woman from Tiberias loves Moshe, a poor truck driver from Tel Aviv. They intend to marry, but Nissim, her father, forbids it. They intend to take advantage of Nissim's business trip to Argentina to fulfill their romantic wishes. But an unfortunate mishap happens when Shoshana hears on the radio that Moshe has been involved in an accident and she thinks he was killed. She travels to the Sea of Galilee wishing to commit suicide like her mother did years ago. At the last minute she changes her mind. She is hit by a car driven by three strange man and is blinded. The three men take care of her and Nurit, her young baby from Moshe. They become a street entertainment group: the three men play music, Shoshana sings and Nurit dances. After eight years, Moshe changes his name to Mike and becomes a famous singer, while Shoshana has eye surgery and regains her eyesight, and then Mike marries Shoshana.

The film is about a successful actress who gets pregnant from a man whose family thinks she is not right for him and he begins another relationship. She murders him and is in prison while her newborn son placed for adoption with a wealthy family. When she is released from prison she wishes to visit the son whose adoption was arranged by her friend in acting days. The 18 year old young man does not know he is adopted and is pampered. He gets a young and beautiful woman pregnant but ignores her because he is carefree and his wealthy mother does not approve of him marrying or losing focus from studies. His biological mother gets a job as nanny in their home and makes efforts to correct her sons callous behavior towards his pregnant girlfriend and convinces the adoptive mother to accept the woman who has his child but never reveals her identity so to prevent the adoptive mother feeling exposed or disrespected. It's a film about sacrifices of motherhood from an adoptive and biological perspective and reckless youth.