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CultureSchool, the future looked bleak. “The Israeli industrywas a desert,” says Levi. “There was only one state-runtelevision channel and it was very poor. We were thefirst class to grow up in the industry.”The situation was to deteriorate even further.In 1995, the government cut public funding for cinemain half. This translated into producing only five films ayear. Depression set in, reflected in the revelation thatonly 0.3 percent of Israeli moviegoers were purchasingtickets to see Hebrew-language cinema. “In otherwords,” recalled Katriel Schory, Executive Director ofthe Israel Fund, “36,000 tickets out of 10 million.”The industry had hit an all-time low.The enfolding ‘fight back’ drama now took on the scriptof ‘an all-action movie’.The national film body changed their fund’s name, tothe Israel Film Fund, and in 2000 it appealed to theKnesset (Israeli parliament) for nothing less than the“salvation” of Israeli cinema. The Knesset responded likethe cavalry arriving in the nick of time in a Hollywoodwestern, boosting the budget to $10 million a year forinvestment in feature films. Furthermore, the Knessetmandated that “young filmmakers” must be affordedthe opportunity to make a name for themselves.It worked!This changed scenario gave Joseph Cedar, the Israelidirector of the Oscar-nominated films ‘Footnote’ and‘Beaufort,’ his first big break. Fresh out of film school,the Israel Film Fund supported his first feature, ‘Time ofFavor’, which débuted in 2000.“We didn’t know him, but he had enthusiasm. There wassomething about his passion,” said Schory. “We took achance.”It was a chance that paid off handsomely.The boost in public funding snowballed with investmentsin Israeli cinema coming from European and Canadianproducers increasing the number of films Israel puts outannually from five to nearly twenty.A New DawnIsrael’s television industry has also blossomed in recentyears. After cable channels and a commercial TV stationbroke the monopoly and monotony of a lone state-runchannel in the early 90s, there was a sudden interestfor new TV content, spurring competition and creativityamong local screenwriters. One person who returned toIsrael from New York to be a part of this new trend wasDawn Leuchter, a graduate of New York’s prestigiousSchool of Visual Arts where the film she produced forher thesis went on to take top prize at a film festival.This led to her working in New York for seven years asa First Assistant Director for a number of independentfilms, a position she now holds when on productionin Israel. The first set she worked on when returningto Israel in 2009 was Dover Kashashvili’s HitganvutYechidim (‘Infiltration’), “which did not make it abroad,but was a big hit locally winning the Israel Film Center’sKazablanWhen Bourekas is a Rare DishAlthough categorized as a Bourekas film, because ofits content and stereotypical characters, the 1974 movieadaptation of the runaway hit musical, Kazablan,directed by the legendary Menahem Golan, stands headand shoulders above the rest. It proved an internationalsuccess and made the young Jerusalem-born singer,Milner Moshe, The National Photo CollectionYehoram Gaon, not only an overnight singing sensation,but also a figure of solidarity and pride for people ofSephardic origin.Described as a Jewish adaptation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’,and the musical version of ‘West Side Story’, the plotinvolved a man and woman who fall in love acrossdifferent cultures - Kazablan the Sephardic Jew fromMorocco in love with Rachel, an Ashkenazi Jew fromEurope. While the two lovers share religion, theircontrasting cultures and ethnicities fuel communityscandal and a bitter family feud.The movie transcends time and is still watched enthusiasticallytoday.Director and producer of ‘Kazablan’, Menahem Golan is alsobest known for his 1977 film Operation Thunderbolt aboutthe successful Israeli raid on Entebbe airport also starringYehoram Gaon. Golan, together with his cousin Yoram Globus,produced many Hollywood action movies starring the likes ofSylvester’s Stallone, Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris, and isremembered too for the 1978 cult movie, Eskimo Limon (LemonPopsicle) which spawned a number of sequels.Spring-Summer 201212