The Arava International Film Festival will return to the Central Arava from November 4 to 14 for its 15th edition, with an expanded program presented on two outdoor screens for the first time. Held near Tzukim, the event will combine new Israeli and international films, visiting filmmakers and classic cinema in a desert setting overlooking the Arava mountains.
Producer Eyal Shiray established the festival in 2012 with the Central Arava Regional Council. A donation from the Vidor family has made the second screening venue possible this year, providing room for a program that includes nine Israeli premieres, work by internationally known directors and a tribute to Billy Wilder.
The November 4 opening evening will spotlight productions supported by the Negev Film Fund and filmed in the Israeli desert. Among them is Ruthy Pribar’s What is to Come, starring Ronit Yudkevitch as a woman rebuilding her life after finding herself alone following 40 years of marriage. Ya’akov Zada Daniel, known for Fauda, plays her boss and a possible romantic partner.
Reed Van Dyk’s Atonement, scheduled for November 5 and 12, examines the aftermath of the Iraq War through a former US Marine and an Iraqi family. Based on a true story reported by Dexter Filkins in The New Yorker in 2012, it centers on a 2003 incident in Baghdad in which American troops fired on vehicles carrying an Iraqi Armenian-Christian family, killing three men. The film premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight program at Cannes.
Boyd Holbrook plays Lou D’Alessandro, a Marine who seeks forgiveness from surviving relatives nearly a decade after the killings. Hiam Abbass portrays Mariam Khachaturian, the family matriarch, who has settled in California while continuing to face the tragedy’s consequences. Kenneth Branagh plays Michael Reid, a journalist who helps organize their meeting. The film is Van Dyk’s feature directing debut, following his Academy Award-nominated short DeKalb Elementary.
Georgian filmmaker Levan Koguashvili is expected to attend screenings of Guria alongside members of its cast and crew. His comedy-drama takes place in a western Georgian village in the early 1990s after the Soviet Union’s collapse. It follows an indebted farmer and a friend trying to find him a new romantic partner, with traditional Georgian polyphonic singing playing a significant role.
Other selections include Florian Zeller’s psychological thriller Bunker, starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Paul Dano, and Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, about the making of the boxing film that brought Sylvester Stallone stardom. Cédric Kahn’s A Place to Heal follows two teenage girls undergoing psychiatric treatment. Sandra Wollner’s Everytime, which received this year’s Un Certain Regard award at Cannes, addresses grief and loss.
New films by Nanni Moretti, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Cristian Mungiu and Pawel Pawlikowski are also on the schedule. A retrospective dedicated to the late film journalist and festival adviser Edna Fainaru will present four Wilder films: Double Indemnity, Sabrina, Some Like It Hot and The Apartment.
