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Seret: London Israeli Film Festival Announced

SERET ANNOUNCES DATES FOR THE LONDON ISRAELI FILM & TELEVISION FESTIVAL

Third Annual Festival to be held June 15 – 22 2014

Israeli films and documentaries are winning international audience approval and festival awards.  To see the very best of them in the UK, SERET 2014 – The London Israeli Film and Television Festival, will take place from 15th – 22nd June at cinemas across London.

Screening films and documentaries created by Israel’s growing group of talented directors, SERET, in its third year, reflects the current maturity of Israel’s film industry.  “There’s a lighter touch shown in many of the feature films, a humorous element, sometimes of the blacker variety, that shows Israeli film makers are confident they can entertain, as well as inform,”  say the founders of SERET; Odelia Haroush, Anat Koren and Patty Hochmann.

A prime example of this is Kidon, a French/Israeli co-production written and directed by Emmanuel Naccache, which will have its UK premiere at the closing gala of the Festival. The spy caper brilliants sheds a comic view over the work of Mossad agents said to be involved in the assassination of a Hamas operative.

The week-long Festival will kick off at its Opening Gala at the Bafta on June 15th with the first UK screening of Bethlehem, Israel’s most ambitious thriller to date, ‘Bethlehem’ has an Israeli director Yuval Adler and Palestinian scriptwriter.  The film reveals the complex relationship between an Israeli Secret Service officer and his teenage Palestinian informant, and is directed by Yuval Adler and co-written with Ali Vakad.

Screenings during the Festival will be held across London at Bafta, Cine Lumiere, Odeon Swiss Cottage, Odeon Panton Street, Soho Hotel, the LJCC, and the JW3 Jewish cultural centre.

The SERET 2014 line-up includes:

  • Bethlehem a raw portrayal of characters, an Israeli Secret Service agent and his teenage Palestinian informant, torn apart by competing loyalties and impossible moral dilemmas.  Directed by Yuval Adler. Feature film. Winner of the  Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, as well as six Ophir Awards including Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Film.
  • The Good Son – Or finances his sex change operation by lying to his conservative parents. Documentary. Nominated for IDFA 2013 Official Selection, Mid Length Competition.
  • Life Sentences – an Arab man married to a Jewish woman take separate paths when his father’s role in terror attacks are revealed.  Directors Nurit Kadar and Yaron Shani. Documentary. Winner of the Van Leer Group Foundation Award for Best Documentary Film at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
  • Hunting Elephants 12 year Jonathan needs to find money fast, and robbing the bank which is trying to take away his home, with the help gang of three senior citizens (including UK’s Sir Patrick Stewart) seems his only solution.  Director Reshef Levy.
  • Six Acts – a realistic portrayal of teenage sexual abuse directed by Jonathan Gurfinkel
  • Kidon – Bar Refaeli, Israeli supermodel and actress, makes a seductive appearance in this spy caper which re-imagines the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in 2010

www.seret.org.uk  / @seret2014

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