Questions of Identity Posed in Israeli Films

Winning entries in the fifth annual Israeli Film Festival, which plays through next Thursday at the Fairfax Cinemas in Los Angeles, are to be announced tonight at a dinner gala at the Century Plaza Hotel.

It might be hard to select a winner from among the 11 films that range from the comparatively big-budget, English-language “Unsettled Land”--the festival’s opener last week, about the idealistic Europeans who settled in Palestine in 1918--to a small-scale and intimate portrait of childhood like Tamar Paul’s “On My Own.” There are powerful dramas such as “Tel Aviv-Berlin” and comic fare like “Tel Aviv-Los Angeles.”

What they all share, however, is a questioning of Israeli identity, much of it critical. The films provide a cross-section of the complexities of contemporary Israeli life.

“The first standard (for inclusion in the festival) is quality,” said 37-year-old festival founder and executive director Meir Fenigstein, “and we usually include some lighter films in addition to the serious ones.”

The festival, which opened in New York in late April, has been marked by political controversy that began with a prepared statement by directors attacking the Israeli government’s crackdown on Palestinians, and the appearance, for the first time, of three films by young Israeli women directors.

Although some of the directors did not sign the petition, it led to a discussion of the responsibilities of the Israeli artist.

“Making films has as much to do with ethics as aesthetics,” said director Ram Loevy--whose festival entry “Bread” (winner of the Prix Italia for Best Television Film of 1987) confronts unemployment, sexism and possibilities for family unity amid the disintegration of values.

Fenigstein said he does not believe that this year’s films are more political than those of previous festivals.

“Last year, they were more anti-Israel or pro-Arab, like ‘Smile of the Lamb,’ ‘Avanti, Popolo’ or ‘Beyond the Walls,’ ” he said. “This year, there’s no film about Arab-Israeli relations; instead, the directors came out with a statement in New York. It’s funny. One year, the films are political; the next year, the directors are political. Maybe next year, the audience will be political.”

A major change in the festival this year, Fenigstein said, is the inclusion of women. “It’s the first year that three women directors are in the festival, and two women producers,” he said.

“Tel Aviv-Berlin,” a first feature by Tzipi Trope, is a portrait of a young Holocaust survivor who realizes after World War II that his German roots are stronger than his Israeli identity.

Nirit Yaron Gronich’s “Big Girl” and Ayelet Manahemi’s “Crows” are one-hour short features made by students of Beit-Zvi, an Israeli film school. Both films explore young female protagonists coming to terms with sexuality, rebellion, and adolescents who can’t be accommodated by bourgeois society.