“Some people believe in God,” declares Erez (an excellent Omer Perelman Striks) when he arrives at training camp to compete for Israel’s Olympic swim team. “I believe in Madonna.” And thus, both he and writer-director Adam Kalderon (“Marzipan Flowers”) announce their intentions with “The Swimmer”: neither plans to stay in his own lane.
Kalderon lingers so long on the swimmers’ bodies — in and out of their Speedos — that the movie could easily be taken for a cheerfully gratuitous indulgence. Which much of it is, and with no excuses. But if you can look past the shower scenes, it suddenly becomes clear that he’s telling just as much as he’s showing.
If Erez has staked his personal ethos on Madonna, his trainers are focused on other directions entirely. “Swimming is an individual sport,” his severe coach Dima (Igal Reznik) warns, when he notices Erez eyeing his competitor...
Kalderon lingers so long on the swimmers’ bodies — in and out of their Speedos — that the movie could easily be taken for a cheerfully gratuitous indulgence. Which much of it is, and with no excuses. But if you can look past the shower scenes, it suddenly becomes clear that he’s telling just as much as he’s showing.
If Erez has staked his personal ethos on Madonna, his trainers are focused on other directions entirely. “Swimming is an individual sport,” his severe coach Dima (Igal Reznik) warns, when he notices Erez eyeing his competitor...
- 10/6/2022
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
"Baba Joon," winner of five Ophir Awards from the Israeli Academy of Film and Television and Israel's 2016 Oscar submission, stars Navid Negahban ("Homeland") as Yitzhak, an Iranian immigrant in Israel who hopes his teenage son, Moti (Asher Avrahami), will take an interest in the family turkey farm. When Moti refuses, preferring instead to fix up junked cars, the ensuing conflict exposes the generation gap, as a son's demands for independence come up against his father's determination to honor tradition. The film is directed by Yuval Delshad and costars David Diaan ("The Stoning of Soraya M.") as Moti's uncle, Darius. The poster, following the film's appearance in Toronto, offers a glimpse of Ofer Inov's Ophir Award-winning cinematography, with a striking image of Yitzhak and Moti, eyes downcast, amid a sea of turkeys—and the trailer features a similar sense of inter-generational drama. "I want to do what I love," Moti tells his father.
- 10/5/2015
- by Matt Brennan
- Thompson on Hollywood
Baba Joon
Written by Yuval Delshad
Directed by Yuval Delshad
Israel, 2015
This year’s edition of the Haifa International Film Festival has a strong Iranian inflection, highlighting a Mohsen Makhmalbaf retrospective and Yuval Delshad’s Baba Joon, the first Farsi-language Israeli feature film. Baba Joon premiered internationally at this year’s Tiff and is Israel’s submission to the Academy Awards foreign language category. Yuval Delshad’s feature debut stars Homeland’s Navid Naghaban as Yitzhak and British actress Viss Elliot Safavi as Sarah, an Iranian-born turkey farming couple in an early 1980’s agricultural settlement somewhere in the Negev desert of Southern Israel, and newcomer Asher Avrahami as Moti, their only child.
The crux of the drama is a time-worn premise of inter-generational conflict and changing times – thirteen-year-old Moti’s distaste for turkey farming goes against his father’s and grandfather’s ambitions of continuing the family business. In fact,...
Written by Yuval Delshad
Directed by Yuval Delshad
Israel, 2015
This year’s edition of the Haifa International Film Festival has a strong Iranian inflection, highlighting a Mohsen Makhmalbaf retrospective and Yuval Delshad’s Baba Joon, the first Farsi-language Israeli feature film. Baba Joon premiered internationally at this year’s Tiff and is Israel’s submission to the Academy Awards foreign language category. Yuval Delshad’s feature debut stars Homeland’s Navid Naghaban as Yitzhak and British actress Viss Elliot Safavi as Sarah, an Iranian-born turkey farming couple in an early 1980’s agricultural settlement somewhere in the Negev desert of Southern Israel, and newcomer Asher Avrahami as Moti, their only child.
The crux of the drama is a time-worn premise of inter-generational conflict and changing times – thirteen-year-old Moti’s distaste for turkey farming goes against his father’s and grandfather’s ambitions of continuing the family business. In fact,...
- 10/2/2015
- by Zornitsa Staneva
- SoundOnSight
Yuval Delshad’s debut centres on a a family of Iranian immigrants.
Fresh from its Toronto world premiere and still unreleased at home, Yuval Delshad’s debut feature, Baba Joon beat all the competition in sight to be crowned Israel’s best film of the year at the annual Israeli Film Academy Awards ceremony.
As such, it will represent Israel for next year’s Foreign Language Oscars.
Delshad’s Farsi-spoken drama portraying the conflicts inside a family of Iranian immigrants living off a turkey farm in the south of Israel picked up five Ophir awards, including best film, best music, best cinematography, production design and casting.
Significantly, all three of the film’s adult leads, including Navid Negabhan (Homeland) are non-Israeli Iranian actors living in the West.
Sharing second place, Erez Tadmor’s Eretz Petzhuah (Wounded Land), took home three awards for best director, best actor and best make-up while Elad Keidan’s Hayored lemaala (Afterthought) collected...
Fresh from its Toronto world premiere and still unreleased at home, Yuval Delshad’s debut feature, Baba Joon beat all the competition in sight to be crowned Israel’s best film of the year at the annual Israeli Film Academy Awards ceremony.
As such, it will represent Israel for next year’s Foreign Language Oscars.
Delshad’s Farsi-spoken drama portraying the conflicts inside a family of Iranian immigrants living off a turkey farm in the south of Israel picked up five Ophir awards, including best film, best music, best cinematography, production design and casting.
Significantly, all three of the film’s adult leads, including Navid Negabhan (Homeland) are non-Israeli Iranian actors living in the West.
Sharing second place, Erez Tadmor’s Eretz Petzhuah (Wounded Land), took home three awards for best director, best actor and best make-up while Elad Keidan’s Hayored lemaala (Afterthought) collected...
- 9/22/2015
- by dfainaru@netvision.net.il (Edna Fainaru)
- ScreenDaily
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