Wonderful film by well known Israeli filmmaker - Duki Dror. The Darwish brothers immigrated from Iraq to Israel in the 50*s and established a menorah factory. For 50 years they designed, manufactured and shipped Chanukiyot all over the world. Now the factory is closing.
Not just a Chanukah story. A story of Iraqi immigrants to Israel. Read below details. For more information please contact the film's distributor Hedva Goldschmidt - [EMAIL PROTECTED] MY FANTASIA English Title: MY FANTASIA Hebrew Title: FANTASIA SHELI Documentary, 54 min., 2001 (Hebrew with English subtitles) Directed and produced by: Duki Dror, Zygote Films Ltd. Funded by: Israel Broadcasting Authority-Channel 1 & Makor oundation Synopsis The three Darwish brothers, who immigrated from Iraq to Israel in the 50*s, established the family factory *Fantasia* - a menorah factory. For a time period of 50 years they designed, manufactured and shipped Chanukah menorahs for the entire world and now*the family factory is about to close down. >From this point in time, the director, who is the son of the youngest brother, is starting to embark on a journey that unravels the history of his family, going back 100 years. The story weaves memories from Iraq and Israel - two homelands, two languages, two identities, two enemies. The director is trying to reconstruct the narrative of his family, a narrative that has disappeared in the silence and shame that followed the family move to Israel. The father*s silence is finally broken by the director*s relentless inquiries, which reveal a story about 5 lost years of his father in the Iraqi prison. It is a diary film shot over a period of 10 years. *My parents generation is longing for their old country - Iraq but at the same time they hate it. They are foreign to mainstream Israeli culture but they want their kids to assimilate. Growing up in this paradox, I was expected to become a proud Sabra exemplar. I assume that I failed.* Duki Dror FILM FESTIVALS Encounters International Documentary Film Festival, Johannesburg and Capetown, South Africa Leipzig Documentary Film Festival Germany San Francisco Jewish Film Festival USA Montreal Jewish Film Festival Canada Vancouver Jewish Film Festival Canada Sephardic Film festival New York USA Sephardic Film festival Los Angeles USA Warsaw Jewish Film festival Poland * Part of the curriculum in Cinema studies at Tel Aviv University TELEVISION BROADCAST Channel 1, Israel MAIN CREDITS Director Duki Dror Producer Duki Dror Zygote Films Ltd. Cinematography: Duki Dror, Philippe Bellaiche Writer: Duki Dror Editing: Sara Salomon PRODUCTION / TECHNICAL DETAILS: Year of Production: 2001 Running Time: 54 min. Original Format: Digital Video Preview Tape: DVD/VHS/PAL with English subtitles Screening Format: Beta SP PAL/NTSC with English subtitles REVIEWS *A moving and Sharp video-diary that moves in several layers, and comes to an end in a climatic dual between the director, armed with his microphone, and the father, armed with his silence.* Ma*ariv *Duki Dror employs his highly original documentary style to reveal the painful story of his family immigration to Israel and the racism of the Ashkenazi society they found there.* Judy Gelman Myers, Hadasa Magazine The Jerusalem Post Lighting up the darkness By Aryeh Dean Cohen Sometime this week, the lights will go out for the last time at the Fantasia hanukkiya factory in south Tel Aviv - its careful, loving workmanship replaced by cheaper, faster factories abroad after 50 years. But though the process of closing the shop marks an end of an era for Aboudi Darwish (Dror), one of three Iraqi immigrants who founded the factory, it also helped him and his filmmaker son, Duki, cast a different light on both father and son's experiences as immigrants in a new land. Duki Dror's documentary My Fantasia, is not so much about tracing the family history from its origins in Iraq to its arrival here in the 1950s, as about seeking to resolve what he calls "certain matters in my life that remained unresolved. The main thing that was driving me... was to resolve this issue of why I feel like a stranger in Israel, why I ran away to the US and lived there for nine years, and why my father felt like there was nothing worth fighting for." Finding himself in California and then Chicago, Dror got a helping hand with his project from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Operation Desert Storm, which helped stir thoughts about his family's roots. A trip home for a family wedding, the events in the Gulf, and his wife Galia's desire to return, finally took Dror back to the cramped hanukkiya factory and the past, parts of which had remained an unsolved mystery for him for years. Dror had seen a picture of his father in jail in Iraq, a skinny man alongside two others, their feet in chains, but never knew why. There were rumors of some criminal activity, but the proud, taciturn Aboudi resisted his son's proddings to hear about that part of his life. Indeed, much of the family's past had been erased from conversations, although it lived on in pictures and artifacts kept in drawers or albums, in family members' memories, and in attempts by the family "to create a little Iraq for themselves" around them in order to survive, as Duki explained in an interview. The threat of closure hangs over the factory in the film, begun in 1991, during Duki's visits. Hearing stories in the shop from his affable uncle Kadouri, who founded the place two weeks after his arrival in Israel, Duki continues to press his father for more information about the past, but Aboudi will have none of it. Meanwhile Galia, a sabra, wonders aloud whether the whole effort is worthwhile, saying the only benefit might be that "your children will eat kubbeh for a few more years." Duki disagrees, worrying that if he stops, it would be like watching the writing slowly fade off the gravestones in Iraq bearing his forebears' names. Interspersed with interviews, we see snapshots of Iraq and hear one fellow merchant describe anyone who left that "Garden of Eden" as "nuts." Kadouri paints a slightly different picture, remembering life in the Iraqi public schools as hell, with Jews caught in the middle of any conflict in the classroom. THEN, AT a regular card game involving the brothers and other friends from the old days, a hole is finally punched in the wall of silence. Shimshon, who was in jail with Aboudi, finally provides Duki with more stories and pictures about his father's imprisonment - for attempted illegal emigration to Israel, after he, Shimshon and Menashe were fingered by an illegal emigration activist who allegedly got drunk and betrayed them. His secret finally out, Aboudi decides to share it with his son, showing him the Prisoner of Zion medal he'd received from the state, but which still lies unworn inside its case. Duki comes to realize that the prison experience and what followed made it difficult for his father to ever feel a part of Israel, especially after being betrayed by one of its representatives. He reflects feeling like a stranger in a strange land. PRODUCTION: Duki Dror - Zygote Films Ltd. 4 Hatiltan St, Pob 333 Binyamina, 30500 Israel Tel: ++972 54 931740 / Fax: ++972 4 6388833 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / Website: www.zygotefilms.com SALES & DISTRIBUTION: Maria Campana - Zygote Films Ltd. 4 Hatiltan St, Pob 333 Binyamina, 30500 Israel Tel: ++972 54 931740 / Fax: ++972 4 6388833 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / Website: www.zygotefilms.com DIRECTOR*S FILMOGRAPHY Born in Tel Aviv, educated at UCLA and Columbia College in Chicago, Duki Dror has been examining Israeli society, disassembling it with powerful stories triggered by cultural, political and ethnic dilemmas. His films are parables of identity in the 21st century*s merging world. Among his recent award winning films: *Raging Dove* (2002), *Paradise Lost* (writer-producer) and *Mr. Cortisone, Happy Days* (2004) - all had a wide international distribution and are critically acclaimed in the press. Shortlist filmography: Mr. Cortisone Happy Days, co-directed with Shlomi Shir, 2004 The isolation room, where Shlomi Shir stays for radioactive-iodine treatment, becomes an inspiring cinematic location. Audience Award, Seoul Documentary film Festival, Gandi Award, Documenta Madrid Raging Dove, 2002 Palestinian-Israeli-American world boxing champion Johar Abu Lashin and his struggle to reconcile a fragmented identity in and out of the ring. Best Documentary, DOCAVIV Documentary Film Festival, Tel Aviv Best Documentary, Valley Film Festival, Los Angeles My Fantasia, 2001 A family portrait revolving around 3 Iraqi-born brothers, beginning with the 1991 Gulf War and ending with the closure of their menorah factory. Red Vibes, 1999 A punk group, a porn artist, and the Church of Black Communism: the underground culture of Russian immigrant youth. Taqasim, 1999 The search for a missing radio recording from the 1930s takes us on a voyage through the streets of Cairo, where we discover the Arabic musical heritage of many Israeli Jews. Stress, 1998, co-directed with Rashid Mashrawi An impressionist look at the stress factor in Israeli and Palestinian societies. The first Palestinian-Israeli co-production. Cafe Noah, 1997 Jewish Arab musicians and the legendary club they played in Tel Aviv. Jury's Choice, Meridiens Film Biennale, France Best documentary, Berkley Jewish film Festival Warp & Weft, 1997 A giant textile factory closes down, leaving hundreds without a job, and destroying the fabric of an immigrant company town. Special mention, Berkley Jewish film Festival Radio Daze, 1996 The unusual life of a radio quiz game champion at the height of Israel's consumerist craze. Sentenced to Learn, 1993 Prison inmates sentenced to life replace teachers to educate illiterate fellow inmates. Best Documentary, Athens International Film Festival Silver Plaque, Chicago International Film Festival. Coming up in 2005 The Journey of Vaan Nguyen Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
