Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema: Telling You Before It's Too Late

By Sarah Dahnke in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 8, 2006 7:45PM

Sometimes we at Chicagoist get busy with our day jobs and miss out on an opportunity to post breaking news. But when we come across a damn good event, we’ve gotta find a way to let you know about it, one way or another.

With that said, the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema kicked off yesterday with a limited screening of “Out of Sight,” a film about Ya’ara, a 24-year-old blind mathematics PhD student at Princeton, who embarks on a search to find out why her twin-spirited cousin committed suicide. We are sad we didn’t tell you about this screening sooner, but fear not, the film will show again on Sept. 14. at the Landmark’s Renaissance in Highland Park.

Some other highlights from the festival include:

"Chefzi on Air": A Cannes selection about a religious radio broadcaster who offers romantic advice on the air.

"Close to Home": A film about two 18-year-old female members of the Israeli military who patrol the streets of Jerusalem to stop Palestinians from passing through.

"Five Days": A Sundance selection that looks at the disengagement of the Gaza Strip and the removal of Jewish settlers from the area.

"Skin": A sexually explicit tale of Anat, a single mom and stripper who is involved with an unsolved murder case that “made waves” in Tel Aviv’s diamond exchange.

This short list of selections only includes a few of the intriguing movies scheduled for the festival, which is being held at Webster Place in Chicago and Landmark’s Renaissance in Highland Park until Sept. 17.
The mission of the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema is to increase understanding and awareness of Israeli people in a non-political, artistic way, but given the political climate in the region these days, we don’t mind if the discussion gets a little more heated than usual.