Two popular Israeli films are to be screened at the annual Kino pavasaris [Spring Film] festival from August 6-13: the comedy Zero Motivation (2014) directed by Talya Lavie and the drama Dancing Arabs, aka A Borrowed Identity (2014), directed by Eran Riklis.

Dangerous Paperclips

Zero Motivation director Talya Lavie has been watching war films were the main focus is on fighting since childhood. After she was graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in 2005, the idea occurred to her to make a film about the other side of war, the administrative apparatus, whose most dangerous weapon is the paperclip. What came forth is a comedy portraying mainly female officers at desks, but one that cuts deep to the heart of the country’s problems. Beyond the office jobs of the female conscripts in the Human Resources Office at a remote desert base there is a war going on in which people are dying, throwing in sharp contrast the rivalries and intrigues among the young girls which seem petty in comparison. By showing the consequences of the Israeli war machine against the background of a comedy, these consequences also seem all the more disturbing.

Staff from the Israeli embassy in Lithuania shared some of their thoughts on the films with Lithuanian reporters.

“Do you what the true weapons of the Israeli Army are? They’re paperclips, paper shredders and a certain specific sense of humor. It was this latter which led to the film … about the female officers serving in the Israeli desert. The goal of one of the main heroines of the comedy Zero Motivation is to be transferred to Tel Aviv. Will she win her battle against the military administration? Watch the film and find out,” deputy chief of mission Yehuda Gidron offered.

A Conflict between the Individual and His Surroundings

Noted Israeli actor Ali Suliman who acted in Dancing Arabs visited the Kino pavasaris film festival and said this drama is based on a true story centered around not being to be oneself openly due to an environment of racial and ethnic hatred. The main character in Dancing Arabs goes back and forth between being an Israeli and a Palestinian.

“The feeling of the loss of individuality is a very current problem today among young Palestinians in Israel. An Arab who tried to enter university, find work or buy a home in a Jewish area often finds himself banging his head against the wall. For the Jews the Arab is a second-class citizen. And I myself have experienced this numerous times. Some people I know actually change their names to be accepted in society. At home the dreams of the Arab person frequently are quite limited,” Suliman said in presenting the film Dancing Arabs at Kino pavasaris. In this film he plays Salah, the father of a young Arab named Eyad who rejects his own identity. Salah’s main weapon for saving the Palestinians is learning and education. He is therefore happy when his son is accepted to study at a prestigious boarding school in Jerusalem where he will be the only Arab.

For more information about showings, see: http://kinopavasaris.lt/en/