My Israel – Revisiting the Trilogy

A film by Yulie Cohen

Israel | 2008 | 78 minutes | Color | DVD | Subtitled (Hebrew) | Order No. 09956

SYNOPSIS

Few filmmakers have probed issues of Israeli nationalism and Israeli-Palestinian relations more completely or intimately than Tel Aviv-born Yulie Cohen. In My Israel, Cohen revisits her acclaimed trilogy My Terrorist (2002), My Land Zion (2004), and My Brother (2007) with new footage, fresh perspective, and her trademark fearlessness.

For Cohen, Israel is the land of her ancestors, the land her parents fought for during the 1948 war and the land she herself served as an Air Force Officer during the Entebbe crisis. In 1978, working as an El Al stewardess, she survived a terrorist attack in London that killed a colleague and left her with shrapnel in her arm.

Embarking on a difficult and emotional journey, she attempts to free the surviving terrorist who attacked her, to question the myths of the state that she grew up in, and to reconcile with her ultra-orthodox brother after 25 years of estrangement. My Israel is an account of remarkable courage and understanding set against the last turbulent decade of Israeli history, successfully combining Cohen’s 10-year oeuvre in an incisive and refreshing new way.

PRESS

“Highly Recommended. …for students investigating Israeli nationalism, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, and responses to terrorism."

Maureen Puffer-Rothenberg Educational Media Reviews Online

“With a searing honesty, leads you through a personal and sometimes grueling process of trying to make sense of the relationship between past and present, the individual and the collective, the self and the ‘other.’”

Emily Gottreich Vice Chair, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley

“The ethic of dissent and its importance in remaking a world gone wrong is a core tenet of Judaism and one which is too often forgotten…. [Cohen’s] film shows why we must try to create a world where affirmation is possible and dissent is mandatory.”

Dr. Sarah Roy Senior Research Scholar Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University

“[Yulie Cohen’s] belief in love endure[s], a stubborn corrective to the politics of hatred and division swirling around her.”

Tim Teeman The Times

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

  • Int’l Women’s Film Festival, Rehovot
  • Adelaide Film Festival, Australia
  • Encuentro del Otro Cine Int’l Doc Film Festival (EDOC), Ecuador
  • Festival of Israeli Cinema in Paris

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Yulie Cohen

Yulie Cohen earned a degree in Sociology & Anthropology from Tel Aviv University (1981), and an MA with distinction in Communication Arts from the New York Institute of Technology (1984). She worked in films in New York and Los Angeles, returning to Israel in 1988 for the birth of the first of two daughters.

Since 1993, Yulie has directed and/or produced many documentaries, including:

My Terrorist (2002), financed by ZDF/ARTE, The Danish Film Institute, the BBC, YLE Finland, and TV2 Denmark, which received a special jury prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival, was Silver Wolf nominee at IDFA, was awarded the Provincia di Cuneo Prize (2003) and the European Prize Ilaria Alpi Journalistic Television.(2004) The film was translated into 20 languages, broadcasted in 21 countries and screened at more than 100 film festivals around the world.

My Land Zion (2004), financed by ZDF/ARTE, The Danish Film Institute, the BBC, VRT Belgium, YLE Finland, and TV2 Denmark was broadcast in more than ten countries, and screened at many film festivals. The Art of Film Prize was given to Yulie by the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2005.

My Brother (2007) premiered at Haifa International film festival and was transmitted outside Israel and by Channel 2 Israel with high ratings.

My Israel (2008), a compilation of the above mentioned trilogy produced and directed by Cohen, was commissioned by Nick Fraser for BBC4, Storyville, and was transmitted on Israel sixty's anniversary on May 2008. It was supported by Israel Gesher fund and transmitted at DRtv, DK and Israel's documentary channel- YesDocu. The four films have been shown in Israel and abroad followed by discussions.

A Minor Shrine For Our Love was curated by Adi Englman in 2014 for Dani Karavan's exhibition 50 years of the Negev Monument in The Negev Museum of Art.

Our Natural Right was created for Channel 12, Israel.

Since 2008, she has been teaching at Bezalel Academy of the Arts and Design Jerusalem. She is currently working on Who Killed Jessica? an animated documentary co-production with France, Belgium and Germany.

For more information visit yuliecohen.wix.com/yuliecohen. (07/19)

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