THE Israeli Embassy, in partnership with the Film Development Council of the Philippines, will be showing four Israeli films in the two-day Israeli Film Festival, to be held on March 13 and 14 at the Bonifacio High Street Cinemas in Taguig City. This is the 15th year of the film festival.

The first film, Abulele (2015) by Jonathan Geva, tells the story of a boy who befriends a huge, friendly, invisible ancient monster named Abulele. After Abulele is captured by the government’s special forces unit, the boy takes it upon himself to rescue and return Abulele to its family. Abulele screens on March 13 at 4 p.m. The movie is Rated PG.

Manpower (2014) by Noam Kaplan is about a decorated, yet destitute, police officer who is assigned to deport African migrant workers from Israel, an experience that taught him that foreigners aren’t the only ones who have no future in his country. Other stories intertwine with his including that of an Israeli-Filipino boy fighting for recognition, a taxi driver whose children are migrating to a distant country, and a veteran migrant worker who is forced to decide whether to leave or to hide until trouble passes. Manpower screens on March 13 at 7 p.m. It is Rated G.

The second day of the festival opens with Saving Neta (2016) by Nir Bergman. Saving Neta is an anthology drama about four women with nothing in common — one is a police officer, the others are a lesbian cellist, a struggling mother, and a businesswoman — who each find their lives altered by an encounter with a mysterious drifter struggling with his own personal crisis. Saving Neta screens on March 14, 4 p.m. It is Rated G.

The last film to be screened is Laces (2018) by Jacob Goldwasser. This family drama is about the complicated relationship between an aging father and his special-needs son who he abandoned. The father’s kidneys are failing and his 35-year-old son wants to donate one of his to save his father’s life, but he is not allowed to do so by the transplant committee and thus starts the son’s fight to make a meaningful sacrifice, not only for his father, but also for himself. Laces screens on Match 14, 7 p.m. It is Rated G.

The films are all in Hebrew with English subtitles. Tickets are priced at P150 via sureseats.com or at the BHS cinema ticket booth. For more information, visit the Israeli Embassy’s official Facebook page. — ZBC

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