A still image from Film/Video faculty member Nina Menkes' 'Hitparkut (Dissolution),' which premieres in Jerusalem this month.
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As the CalArts summer hiatus continues, many faculty members stay incredibly active in their respective fields. Among them is Film/Video School faculty, Nina Menkes, who will be premiering a new feature film titled, Hitparkut, at the Jerusalem International Film Festival on July 13th.
Menkes’ films have shown widely in major international film festivals around the world, and have received much acclaim. This film, which was shot in black & white during the summer of 2009, was written in Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles.
A description of the film from the director:
Hitparkut (Dissolution) combines an almost surreal fairy-tale energy with brutal black and white realism to explore the condition of violence which permeates contemporary Israeli society. Shot in Yafo (the predominantly Arab area of Tel Aviv), the movie follows the moral collapse and first glimmer of redemption, of a young, morose Israeli Jew, played by non-actor Didi Fire.
Loosely inspired by Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the film is concerned with sin, understood as a profound inner alienation and violence, towards self and others…and the possibility of redemption or healing from sin by connecting to the power of faith or love within ourselves. This is a love without any object of desire—and so an illuminating and interior spiritual quality.
Menkes says that the work is about one man’s inner journey, but at the same time can be read as an allegory about Israel’s moral responsibility. “The film can also be understood as a portrayal of male violence towards a devalued Feminine,” says Menkes.
Watch a clip from the film below:
התפרקות (Dissolution), 87 Min., English subtitled.
The Jerusalem International Film Festival, Dramatic Competition, 2010
Tuesday, July 13th at 6pm
The Begin Heritage Center
6 S.A Nachon St.
Jerusalem, Israel
Tel. 02-565-2045
For ticket information, click here.