March 29, 2024

Please follow & like us :)

Twitter
Facebook
RSS

Mizrahi:’Israel’s critiics did not understand my films’

http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2018/08/mizrahiisraels-critiics-did-not.html

Revealing article by Uri Klein in Haaretz about the late Moshe Mizrahi, the only Israeli film director to win an Oscar. The Israeli establishment excluded Mizrahi’s films from Israeli cinema, and its output of 1960s bourekas films, such as Sallah Shabati, were ‘disgusting’ in their representation of Jews from Arab countries, in Mizrahi’s opinion.

 “Since my films tackled relations between Ashkenazim and Sephardim differently [referring to European Jews and those of Spanish, Middle Eastern or North African origin, respectively], I suffered throughout my career from a lack of understanding on the part of both the Israeli establishment and the critics.

“For years, I wasn’t included in the narrative of Israeli cinema – and I really have no idea why. I have no idea how one can speak about the history of Israeli cinema without including my films. It’s possible that because of my biography, which led me from Alexandria to Jerusalem to Paris, I appear to be a foreigner. But, unless I’m mistaken, the films I make aren’t foreign.” 
Moshe Mizrahi: bourekas films were disgusting
No, Mizrahi was not mistaken. The films he directed in Israel – of which there are many, but especially “I Love You Rosa” (1972), and “The House on Chelouche Street” and “Daughters, Daughters” (both 1973) – are milestones in the history of Israeli cinema. Their quality even heralded the revolution in Israeli cinema in the present century. 
They were created in the midst of a wave of comedies dubbed “bourekas films” – comedies that flooded Israeli movie theaters at the time and were mostly concerned with relations between Ashkenazim and Sephardim.
But there was a huge difference between Mizrahi’s films and those movies. In the same interview, he told me that the manner in which Sephardim – now more commonly known as Mizrahim – were presented during that period actually deterred him. He said it was “a disgrace” that they became cult films. 
“What does [Budapest-born filmmaker Ephraim] Kishon know about Mizrahim?” he asked, adding that “Sallah Shabati” – about a Yemenite Jewish family immigrating to Israel – was “a disgusting film in the way it presented Jews from Arab countries.” 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*