movies about israel ranked by release date
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- DirectorKing VidorStarsYul BrynnerGina LollobrigidaGeorge SandersAfter becoming king of ancient Israel, Solomon faces threats coming from his jealous dispossessed brother Adonijah, the Egyptian Pharaoh and the scheming Queen of Sheba.
- DirectorEphraim KishonStarsTopolGeula NuniGila AlmagorThe sharp, often hilarious satire that became the most successful film in Israeli history (until that time) is about new immigrants Sallah and his family, who are left in a shack near their promised apartment and are abandoned for months. A Yemenite Jewish family that was flown to Israel during "Operation Magic Carpet" - a clandestine operation that flew 49,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel the year after the state was formed - is forced to move to a government settlement camp. The patriarch of the family, portrayed by Chaim Topol, tries to make money and get better housing, in a country that can barely provide for its own and is in the midst absorbing hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
- DirectorIsaac Zepel YeshurunStarsYaron London
- DirectorMelville ShavelsonStarsKirk DouglasJohn WayneFrank SinatraIn 1947, following the U.N. decision to split British Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, a former U.S. Army officer is recruited by the Jews to reorganize the Haganah.
- DirectorAlbert KnoblerFrédéric RossifStarsGeorges DescrièresBérangère DautunMichel BouquetA brilliant documentary about the growth of Israel into the Jewish homeland. Seventy-three years of struggle for religious freedom is vividly recorded using rare archive film footage and photographs of historic events in the development of 20th century Israel. Beginning with the Dreyfus Affair in 1894, the film covers Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism; the earliest immigration and settlements; the formation of kibbutzim; the Balfour Declaration; the rise of European anti-Semitism; the British occupation of Palestine; Arab confrontations; the United Nations resolution; the "Exodus" incident, and the Six Day War.
- CreatorYigal LossinStarsYossi BanaiIan McKellenDocumentary mini series about the History of Zionism.
- DirectorAlan GibsonStarsIngrid BergmanNed BeattyFranklin CoverThe story of the Russian-born, Wisconsin-raised woman who rose to become Israel's prime minister in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
- DirectorAntoine SallahStarsGedalia BesserEzra KafriMoni Moshonov
- DirectorUri BarbashStarsKelly McGillisJohn SheaArnon ZadokA commune of young Jews from Europe establish a settlement in the Sinai Desert after World War I.
- DirectorAsher Tlalim
- DirectorMohamed MalasStarsNezar AbohajarSabah Al JazaeryFares Al-HelouThe Night is set in the village of Quneytra, which borders on the Golan, a key battlefield in the 1967 war between Syria and Israel. We are led to the grave of the filmmakers' father, an old Syrian fighter who joined the volunteer armies in Palestine in the Great Revolt of 1936. Trying to exorcise feelings of shame and humiliation that have long accompanied the image of his father and the village occupied by Israelis during the war of 1967, Malas tries to restore his father's history and give him a more honorable death. But tracing the outline of a memory tortured by burning questions finds only bitter answers.
- DirectorIlana TsurStarsItzik WeingartenThis documentary examines the 1948 episode of the Altalena, a ship whose fate nearly incited civil war in the newly-established State of Israel. Immediately after Israel attained statehood, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion established a national army into which several independent Jewish defense forces, small armies with their own political philosophies, were supposed to unite. However, on June 20, 1948, the Altalena arrived off Israel carrying 930 World War II refugees and a stockpile of ammunition amassed by the Irgun (one of the independent defense forces) in direct violation of Ben Gurion's new military chain-of-command. In the midst of the ship's landing and a cease-fire in the War of Independence, Ben Gurion gave the order to shell the ship, forcing Jews to fire on Jews and almost sparking a civil war. The late Yitzhak Rabin was one of the participants in this event and is interviewed here along with many other eye witnesses. The controversy surrounding the Altalena affair continues to reverberate in current Israeli politics.
- CreatorEsther DarStarsIgal NaorJoanne LaraMichael GreenspanThe story of Israel's first fifty years of statehood, TKUMA brings to the screen the tragedies and joyful milestones of Israel's first half century.
- DirectorAmos GitaiThis is the story of how Israel's orange groves developed, with an emphasis on the relationship between employers and employees, Jews and Arabs, manual labor and technology.
- CreatorUri BarbashAvi ToledanoStarsSasson GabayLevana FinkelsteinIgal NaorThe story of the ship Egoz that carried Jewish emigrants from Morocco to Israel, at a time when the immigration of Moroccan Jews to Israel was illegal.
- DirectorOded RuskinStarsLior AshkenaziVered FeldmanVladimir FriedmanThe Battle of Tel Hai (1920) is one of the best-known legends of Jewish settlement in Israel.
- DirectorRadu MihaileanuStarsYaël AbecassisRoschdy ZemMoshe AgazaiA Christian boy escapes to Israel from famine-stricken Ethiopia by pretending to be Jewish.
- DirectorYael Katzir
- DirectorJim LongStarsAllen FarmerIn 1952, a mysterious scroll fashioned from the purest of copper is found in a cave along the shores of the Dead Sea. The discovery launches a search for sacred treasures from the ancient Temple in Jerusalem.
- DirectorYehuda Kaveh
- DirectorAlan RosenthalStarsMurray GreenfieldHarold KatzInterviewees, supported by authentic documentary footage, reminisce about defying the British blockade to bring Jewish refugees into the future state of Israel.
- StarsTal FriedmanGabi GazitShifra HornEach episode focuses on one public figure and follows the protagonists' journeys towards their families' pasts, a journey that takes place between countries, people and historic periods in time. The private past of each of the protagonists has an affinity to our national history. Their personal stories provide us with a view into the national past and fascinating historic issues and events. One of the more prominent characteristics of the State of Israel is its ingathering of immigrants and thus provides fertile ground for the series. The roots of the family tree of each of the Israelis can be found in various countries around the world and are endowed with stirring tales of wandering, surmounting hardships, separations and encounters. Each of the six episodes is devoted to one public figure who embarks on a journey across borders to the unknown. The public figures include - Gabi Gazit - Radio show host, Yoram Yovel - Psychoanalyst, Tal Fridman - Comedian and Actor, Ohad Knoler - Actor,Shifra Horn - Novelist, Michal Yanai - Actress. The series is being produced according to the British Format "Who Do You Think You Are?" of "Wall To Wall Television" Company.
- DirectorYoav ShamirStarsYoav ShamirAbraham FoxmanBob WolfsonIntent on shaking up the ultimate 'sacred cow' for Jews, Israeli director Yoav Shamir embarks on a provocative - and at times irreverent - quest to answer the question, "What is anti-Semitism today?"
- StarsBernard CampanMarie-France PisierJocelyn QuivrinThe story of the illegal immigrant Yehuda Halevi ship that brought immigrants to Israel from Morocco in 1947. On her way to Israel stopped in France to collect holocaust survivors.