Hollywood Studio Magazine (January 1972)

ISRAEL: A NEW FILM FRONTIER A vital young industry for a young country- moving into high gear and learning very fast by SAUL KAHAN When Los Angeles film exhibitor Max Laemmle visited Israel in 1961, he looked around for films to import. “About all they could show me at that time were shorts, puppet films, and documentaries,” he recalls. “Now there is a full-fledged Israeli film industry.” This year Laemmle had plenty to choose from when he programmed America's first Israeli Film Festival at his Monica II theatre in Santa Monica. The series was a success and will be repeated with a more extensive selection at the end of the year at the Los Feliz the Promised Land has started to fulfill its filmic promise. With the same confi¬ dent pragmatism that has brought suc¬ cess to this tiny country in every field from aviation to fashions, the Israelis have nurtured their highly popular do¬ mestic cinema-and carried out a long- range campaign to rival Spain, Italy, England, and Yugoslavia as a new pro¬ duction center. Israel's entry in the recent Berlin Film Festival was “BLOOMFIELD', the story of a soccer star, produced in Israel by Britain's John Heyman ("OLIVER") "JUDITH” in Israel in 1964, will scout locations there at the end of the year for “THE SHATTERED SILENCE", based on the recently published book. The American-Canadian-lsraeli co- production will be shot entirely in Israel with Israeli cities doubling for Syria. The screenplay by Albert Maltz con¬ cerns Israel's most illustrious spy, Eli Cohen, an Egyptian Jew who became Syrian Minister of Defense. His intelli¬ gence is said to have been instrumental in Israel's victory in the Six-Day War. Caught by a freak radio accident, Cohen (LEFT) Israel's top actress, Gila Almagor, and popular young Israeli leading man, Assat uayan ison ox uerense m from the dramatic feature "SPY STORY". Miss Almagor won the nation's highest acting award in 1970 for her performance in SIEGE . (R !Z. tUX eteran oi many American and international films, also plays a leading role in -SPY STORY . Res,den, actors, many haymg come originally from other countries and speaking a variety of languages, are available in Israel. theatre in Hollywood. Laemmle's first choices were “EVERY BASTARD A KING”, a Six- Day War story with production values worthy of Hollywood; “MARGO”, a sentimental romance set in Jerusalem; and “LUPO”, a cheerful comedy about an Israeli junk dealer with a daughter in the Army. The latter film is the most popular movie ever to play Israel. At last count it had been seen by over 25% of the population and was still running to bookings weeks in advance. Laemmle hopes that his showcasing /will help clear the way for increased distribution of Israeli films, now that and Wolf Mankowitz. The film stars Richard Harris and Romy Schneider and marks Harris' debut as a director. Heyman and Israeli director Mena- hem Golan are now preparing “THE GREAT WIND COMETH”, the story of Israeli agent Hannah Senesch, who para¬ chuted into Eastern Europe in World War II. She will be played by Mia Farrow. Otto Preminger, who made “EXO¬ DUS” in Israel in 1959, will return to shoot "GENESIS 1949", reporter Dan Kurzman's account of the first Arab- Israeli war. was hanged in Damascus despite world¬ wide pleas for mercy. "Although Cohen was perhaps the best spy in the world,” Mann points out, “This will not be the conventional espionage saga of one side's victory over the other. It's the story of a man who worked for peace." The story of Masada, the mountain- top southeast of Jerusalem where Jew¬ ish martyrs held out for years against the Romans, is one of those rare tales that deserves the label “epic” and is, therefore, continually discussed as a film project. Los Angeles' Israeli cultur¬ al consul Naomi Gann reports a steady December 1971.) Daniel Mann, who directed (Reprinted by permission from American Cinematographer,