[A-List] Israeli Movie Makes Tehran Film Festival

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467830242&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull>
Israeli film to be featured in Iranian festival
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST 	Jan. 28, 2007

An Israeli documentary film will be featured at the Teheran Film
Festival, Army Radio reported on Sunday.

The documentary Yoter Me'elef Milim (More Than a Thousand Words)
directed by award-winning filmmaker Solo Avital, follows the work of
news photographer Ziv Koren in Israeli-Palestinian conflict zones and
his struggle to find a balance between his work and his personal life.

In an interview with Army Radio, Koren said that the curator of the
Teheran Film Festival requested permission to show the film from the
German distribution company which held the rights to the film. Koren
said he was not sure whether the curator knew he was requesting to
show an Israeli-made film, but added that there was no doubt the
curator knew that the subject of the film was an Israeli photographer.

Koren emphasized that the film was not a co-production between Israel
and another country but a completely Israeli creation.

<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3357921,00.html>
Israeli movie makes Tehran film festival

'More than 1000 words,' an Israeli-German film portraying life in
Israel under current state of conflict, has been requested to
participate in 25th annual film festival in Tehran

Eldad Bek
Published: 	01.29.07, 00:33

Israeli-Iranian history was made when an Israeli director received an
invitation to participate in the annual Iranian film festival in
Tehran this week.

The film, an Israeli-German collaboration titled "More than 100
words", follows Israeli photographer Ziv Koren over a two-year period,
as he documents different aspects of the Middle East conflict.

In a special event marking the 25th anniversary of Tehran's annual
festival, a series of movies dealing with the second Lebanon war and
the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation will be screened.

More than 1000 words, an award-winning movie directed by Solo Avital,
will be displayed alongside these movies in the festival opening this
Thursday.

The movie was filmed in the midst of the second intifada and scenes
from the second Lebanon war were also filmed.

The invitation to the festival was sent to the German distributors of
the movie, saying "in light of recent events in Beirut, we are
planning a special program titled 'Beirut in the eyes of movie
directors' where we will screen movies dealing with Beirut and the
struggle of the Palestinian people. I feel that the movie 'More than
1000 words' would be a very good choice for our program."

Avital was very surprised by this, and said in an interview to Yedioth
Ahronoth newspaper that "the movie is not pro-Palestinian, and it is
clear that it was made by an Israeli. It's a very balanced movie."

Avital's initial reaction to the invitation was that there was no way
he would send his movie to Iran after Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's recent statements and the second Lebanon war.

"Afterwards, things Iranian friends told me in Berlin started to sink
in, that there's another side to Iran, and that many Iranians oppose
the current regime. After hearing about the students' rally at the
University of Tehran, and that they prevented Ahmadinejad from
speaking, I decided there is no reason why I should keep them from
seeing the movie," explained Avital.

Koren, the photographer starring in the movie said, "This is an
extraordinary opportunity to show the Iranians a movie about life in
Israel… The movie is a mirror to the Israeli society and presents my
feelings as a man living in Tel Aviv. I hope the human message will
get through."

Unfortunately, Avital and Koren will not be able to attend the
festival in person, since they both hold Israeli passports and would
not be allowed in Iran.

More Than 1000 Words:
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--
Yoshie
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