Free Zone (2005)

Recommended

Israel/Belgium/France/Spain
Feature Film
Director: Amos Gitai
Writers: Amos Gitai, Marie-Jose Sanselme
Cinematographer: Laurent Brunet
Cast: Natalie Portman, Hanna Laszlo, Hiam Abbass, Makram Khoury

Although the dialogue at times is a little didactic, this much maligned film (panned almost universally by critics and public alike), a talky, languorously paced, minimalist look at the middle eastern troubles through the eyes of an American outsider, is a frustratingly brilliant example of brave, uncompromising film-making, filled with excellent performances and dazzling formal experiments. Iain.Stott

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The Baby and the Buddha (2008)

Recommended

UK/France/Denmark/USA/Israel
Feature Documentary
aka Unmistaken Child
Director: Nati Baratz
Cinematographer: Yaron Orbach
Composer: Cyril Morin

Delicately presenting a picture of a process that could easily be seen as anything from mystically beautiful to something akin to child abuse, Baratz’s fascinating documentary chronicles a devoted Nepalese monk’s quest to find the reincarnation of his former Tibetan master, Lama Konchog, a journey that takes him to a number of remote Tibetan and Nepalese villages, which have barely been touched by the 20th let alone the 21st century, in search of this holy child. Iain.Stott

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The Band's Visit (2007)

Highly Recommended

Israel/France/USA
Feature Film
Original Title: ביקור התזמורת
Writer/Director: Eran Kolirin
Cinematographer: Shai Goldman
Composer: Habib Shadah
Cast: Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri, Khalifa Natour, Imad Jabarin, Tarak Kopty, Hisham Khoury, Francois Kheel, Eyad Sheety, Shlomi Avraham, Rubi Moscovich, Hila Surjon Fischer, Uri Gabriel, Ahouva Keren

An Egyptian police band, invited to perform at the Arab culture centre in Petah Tiqva, end up stranded in the tiny, little backwater of Beit Hatikva, and tentatively begin to interact with the local populace, in Kolirin’s gently droll, deeply affecting, and really rather beautiful exploration of the bitter-sweet universalities of human experience. Iain.Stott

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