Solidarity

Leading Israeli artists take part in a protest concert against the Lebanon War, a North Korean woman is sold in the middle of the night to a Chinese farmer and becomes a seasoned drug dealer, the unknown story about an architect of the cultural revolution of techno around the collapse of the Soviet Union – this is just a taste of the existential reality around the world and in Israel featured in the movies being screened at the festival.

The Solidarity Festival is a significant event in Israeli cinema and human rights. This year’s program combines award-winning narrative and documentary films, providing contexts for issues related to social-political struggles, among them: globalization, refugees, the occupation, hunger and poverty, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights and environmental protection.

The Festival’s opening film is “The Nile Hilton Incident” by the Swedish director Tarik Saleh, recipient of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival in the category of dramatic film in world cinema. A political thriller set in Egypt during Mubarak’s last days in power. An investigator with the Cairo Police, who is looking into the murder of a famous pop star in a prestigious hotel, discovers that what appears to be a crime of passion is corruption in the upper echelons of Egyptian government.

Several films in the International Program will premiere at the festival, among them, “Licu, A Romanian Story” which won the DOK Leipzig Award in 2017; “Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas,” winner of the 2017 IDFA, which presents the dark face of globalization in Ethiopia; “Bones of Contention,” screened at the 2017 Berlin Festival, which documents the current struggle to honor in memory of LGBTQ victims in Spain; “69 minutes of 86 days,” which follows the journey of Syrian refugees through the eyes of a charismatic 3-year old girl. The Festival screens these groundbreaking films and holds discussions about them with the audience in an effort to raise awareness of these struggles and create a unique space for dialogue that promotes peace, social justice, freedom and human rights.

Alongside the International program, the Israeli program, includes premiere screenings of documentary films, among them, “Yesh Gvulstock,” a movie including never-before-seen footage of a concert organized by the Yesh Gvul Movement in 1982 against the First Lebanon War, which included appearances by Israel’s leading pop stars (among them, Shalom Hanoch, Chava Alberstein, Benzin, David Broza, etc.); “Divine Daycare,” a moving story about the people involved in a preschool for the children of refugees in south Tel Aviv and what they went through after a firebomb attack was hurled at the nursery; “The Ramadan Cannon of Jerusalem,” which takes a fascinating look at what happens on both sides of the barrier in Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan; and some of the best Israeli films on human rights, including works by Palestinian filmmakers. A significant number of screenings will include panels with the filmmakers, political activists and press.

The Solidarity Festival was founded and is run by Dani Vilenski and produced by the Solidarity for the Arts, Activism and Human Rights Association. Artists, journalists and political activists who take part in the organization and the festival include Israel Prize recipients Professor Judd Ne’eman and Professor Ram Loevy, Alon Garbuz, Gidi Avivi, Julie Shles and Noam Sheizaf.

Selected works from the festivals will be screened throughout the year during a series called “Solidarity in the Periphery,” organized in cooperation with MAZON and other social justice organizations, which includes a series of panels and lectures.

The Solidary Association, which produces the festival, does not get any support from the Ministry of Culture or state funds. The festival is made possible thanks to donations, grants and volunteer work.

The festival supporters list:

Tel Aviv Municipality, Tel Aviv Cinematheque, MAZON, EV Foundation, The New Israel Fund, The Goethe Institute, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Swedish Embassy in Israel, Norwegian Embassy in Israel, Cinema for Peace.

April 26-May 1 2018