Israel’s Eurovision team have struggled to create a non-political song against the background of strong international feeling over the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.
20.02.2024 - 08:31 / variety.com
Siddhant Adlakha A loose adaptation of absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros,” director Amos Gitai’s “Shikun” unfolds in a multi-use housing project, where it follows the stream-of-consciousness travails of a diverse cross-section of characters in Be’er-Sheva, Israel. Bound by the French-language narration of Irène Jacob — a one-woman Greek chorus and de-facto liaison between sides of the fourth wall — the film embodies the struggle to reconcile learned anger with calls for peace, and it takes several steps to the left of the distant, “kumbaya” observationalism of some of Gitai’s previous work (like “Tramway in Jerusalem”).
However, despite its refreshing political outlook, “Shikun” is anything but radical in execution, and it’s rarely interesting to watch. Echoes of “Rhinoceros” remain in Gitai’s transposition from a small French town to an Israeli building and bus station.
The play saw numerous characters transform into rhinoceroses while others around them remained indifferent, a mass metamorphosis that mirrored the rise of Nazi fascism before World War II. However, the film’s approach to this “rhinocerization” — a term for nationalistic fervor that, as it happens, became popular in Israel after Ionesco’s play — ends up surprisingly slight.
A few scattered references to fears of rhinos outside the building’s walls give the unseen creatures a distinct political meaning (they appear to represent fears of the Palestinian “other”), though all that remains of the concept on-screen is an Arab resident wrapping a homemade rhino horn around her head as Jacob looks on. Jacob and other performers speak of these rhinoceroses with hesitance, constantly afraid of how they’ll be perceived, but these political musings
.Israel’s Eurovision team have struggled to create a non-political song against the background of strong international feeling over the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.
Eurovision 2024 following changes to its controversial lyrics.It follows the news that Israel’s public broadcaster KAN submitted a request to change the lyrics for its entry this year. ‘October Rain’, which will be sung by 20-year-old Eden Golan, appears to contain references to the victims of Hamas’ October 7 attacks.
American Dreamer deserves better than it has gotten. Shot three years ago during the pandemic this delirously black comedy premiered at Tribeca 2022 and got lost in the crowd. The filmmakers including first time feature director Paul Dektor and screenwriter/producer Theodore Melfi (Hidden Figures, St. Vincent) decided to then hold it back and recut and tighten it eliminating 10 minutes of the original running time. In early 2023 it turned up at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, still largely ignored, and then its distribution hunt was further delayed by the Hollywood strikes. Finally Vertical has wisely picked it up and it will be opening in theatres and VOD Friday.
Israel’s public broadcaster has reversed its previous stance and will request an alteration of lyrics to a song under consideration for this year’s Eurovision competition.
Eurovision Song Contest. The country’s preferred option for the contest is ‘October Rain’ by the 20-year-old Eden Golan. The song’s lyrics appear to contain references to the victims of Hamas’ October 7 attacks.
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Almost every person of Arab, Muslim and Jewish heritage working in TV and film has experienced a deterioration in their mental health following Hamas’ October 7 attack and the subsequent humanitarian crisis in Gaza, a leading charity has reported.
K.J. Yossman The U.K.’s Film and TV Charity has been liaising with Muslim, Arab and Jewish screen industry workers following the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and the subsequent war against Hamas.
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Eurovision Song Contest if the organisers attempt to censor their entry.Earlier this month, Israel selected the 20-year-old Eden Golan as their entry for this year’s contest. Her song is titled ‘October Rain’, and, as first reported by Israel Hayom (via BBC), the lyrics appear to contain references to the victims of Hamas’ October 7 attacks.The words to the song were leaked to the media earlier this week, and are said to include the line: “They were all good children, each one of them”.
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With terrible conflicts raging in the Middle East and Ukraine, the world has rarely felt so troubled and simultaneously intertwined with geopolitics.
the Israel-Hamas war rages on. The 44-year-old “Girls Trip” actress and comedian, who found out she was Jewish later in life and had her Bat Mitzvah at 40, went Instagram Live on Tuesday from her “business class” seat on an airplane, letting her 7.4 million followers know that she’s taking a “16-hour” flight from Los Angeles to Israel “to learn and see with my own eyes.”“I’m gonna go meet my future man out there. I’m out.
Hillary Clinton and Sharon Stone shared the stage at the annual Cinema for Peace funder raiser in Berlin on Monday night with the latter presenting the former U.S. secretary of state with the NGO’s Cinema for Peace Award.
Ben and Jackie Foden have some exciting news to share as they recently welcomed their second child together - another daughter who they named Olympia Halcyon Foden. The couple, who are already parents to three year old Farrah (and Ben also has two older children Aoife, 11, and nine-year-old Tadgh from his previous marriage with Una Healy), announced the birth of their daughter exclusively with OK!.
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Gene Simmons and Boy George are among the famous faces who have signed an open letter, urging organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest to allow Israel to compete in 2024.Despite not being a part of the continent, Israel made its debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 as the first non-European country granted permission to participate in the event. However, there have been widespread calls for the country to be banned from taking part in the contest this year given the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.Last month, an open letter was issued to the European Broadcast, signed by over 1,000 Swedish artists including Robyn, Fever Ray, and First Aid Kit – calling for Israel to be withdrawn from competing at the finale in Malmö, Sweden on May 11.“The fact that countries that place themselves above humanitarian law are welcomed to participate in international cultural events trivialises violations of international law and makes the suffering of the victims invisible,” it read.