AICE Israeli Film Festival 2013

Overview

This year, the AICE (Australia Israel Cultural Exchange) Israeli Film Festival, the only country-wide event to focus on Israeli film, celebrates ten years of bringing assumption-shattering documentaries and controversial features to Australian audiences.

Opening night will see the national premiere of The Ballad of the Weeping Spring, nominee for nine Israeli Academy Awards and winner of four. Stylistically influenced by both spaghetti Westerns and samurai epics, it explores the often blurred lines between life and art in its portrayal of the emotional reunion of a once legendary band torn apart by tragedy.

Other highlights of the fortnight-long festival include The Gatekeepers, an Oscar-nominated documentary in which six ex-leaders of the Shin Bet (Israel's internal secret service) discuss their success and failures in "overseeing Israel's war on terror"; Good Garbage, winner of Best Documentary at Shanghai's Magnolia Film Festival, which depicts the hardships of 200 Palestinian families who depend upon the Hebron Hills garbage dump for survival; and Zaytoun, a drama about the development of an unusual friendship between a Palestinian orphan and an Israeli fighter pilot.

"The festival continues to highlight not only the breadth and strength of the Israeli film industry, but also presents the broad spectrum of Israeli society and everyday issues," explains co-curator Keith Lawrence. "A common thread in many of the films this year is that of the concerns of young adults — social, sexual and political — whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim."