Jan 25, 2018 in Informative

The Cinema Industry in Israel

Israel being a young country the cinema industry is also young

The affiliation between Israeli cinema and its organization has been a perturbed one. Nevertheless, the cinema industry’s history in Israel mirrors the history of the Israel nation.

The first-ever motion cinema was filmed in Ottoman Palestine. The movie popularly known as Train Station in Jerusalem (1896) has alien and panoramic views which are attention-grabbing today as they were when first produced for the European audience.

Cinema productions made before and during the first the years of Israeli statehood, tried to stress Zionist ideals. This was aimed at encouraging the Jews to fight for survival amid heightened animosity from the Arab states.

Most prominent Israeli cinemas manifest the theme of nationality. For example, the cinema by the name Hill 24 Doesn't Answer shows that the Israeli fighters were willing to pay with their lives for their country. In the 1990s, the Israeli cinema matured in many ways. The expanded population and improved economy, together with a less defensive perspective of the Israeli society contributed to an explosion in quantity and quality of films.

Finally, most Palestinian and Israeli films correspond to societies and parties in conflict. For example, the movie the Divine Intervention and Waltz with Bashir. Through the study of style in portions of the movies and the documentaries bring out various social-political themes.

Social-political themes in Palestinian and Israeli cinemas

This section represents the various relevant theories cited in these cinemas. It also portends the critical analysis of the various films. An example of a book that shows this is Dreams of a Nation. It is a collection of essays and interviews in which filmmakers, scholars and, critics reflect on its production and impact. It is the most comprehensive book on Palestinian cinema in any language.

A dialogue of the public aspects of theater requires various notional and procedural assumptions with the most important referring to the stage as in lieu of a social experience. It is acknowledged that as much as theater does not reflect the social reality, it at times fashions it to its own particular needs thus enables the over-the-top disclosure hidden conflicts and clear disagreements. A vital aspect of the theater’s advance towards “public thought” is the one of “the public nature of drama”.

An additional factor addressing the problem or opinionated argument is presented before audience whose numbers can reach tens of thousands. Therefore, plays taking a position on a conflict central to the Israeli society may have powerful ideological effects. From the 1980’s particularly during the Lebanon war the Hebrew theater started to feature biting revelations of hostilities and contradictions, presenting the conflicts among Israel and Palestine as insoluble. This created way for issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict in cinemas. Majority of plays reflect the wish of their developers who at times take a stands attempting to influence the situation.

The cinema industry in Palestine and Israel portrays various social-political themes is symbolic and at times vividly to express various ideas to the society. These social-political themes include;

Patriotism and nationalism

Many cinemas in Palestine and Israel portray the theory of patriotism and nationalism .This is aimed at rallying support towards the respective countries. For example in the Israeli movie “Hill 24 does not answer (1955)”, the cinema portrays patriotism in a significant way.

In this movie the soldiers involved show extreme courage and dedication to fight for Israel. Although the soldiers die their life’s are not lost in vain since Israel is granted ownership of the particular hill. The release of the movie during the Israeli-Egyptian skirmishes gives the Israeli soldiers extremist confidence. This move tries to imply that despite dying during the war their lives would not be a loss but would be beneficial to the future Israeli generation.

In Palestine the theme of patriotism and nationalism is greatly depicted in the cinema industry. For example, in the Palestinian cinema “The Great Liberation” Palestine seek to push the social-political theme of nationalism. Through this movie, the movie developer seeks to unite Palestinian soldiers against a common enemy Israel. This movie seeks to demystify the idea that Israel is a non-confront able state giving the fighters more hope of victory.


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