15th edition of Israeli fest celebrates ties that bind

Scene from “Saving Neta”

The 15th Israeli Film Festival introduces four contemporary films whose thematic persuasions are just as universal as the issues their Filipino counterparts find appealing.

Take Jonathan Geva’s “Abulele” and Noam Kaplan’s “Manpower,” which will be screened today at 4 and 7 p.m., respectively, at Bonifacio High Street Cinemas. The former is about a grief-stricken teenage boy (Yoav Sadian) who befriends a bear-like creature that helps him cope with the unspeakable death of his older brother.

The latter production muses about exile, racism and immigration as it follows a decorated policeman (Yossi Marshek) caught in a moral dilemma involving the brutal deportation of African labor immigrants.

But it’s the films on view tomorrow, Nir Bergman’s “Saving Neta” (at 4 p.m.) and Jacob Goldwasser’s “Laces” (7 p.m.), that have particularly struck a chord with us because of Bergman’s bold attempt to examine the ties that bind us with one another, and how Goldwasser utilizes man’s constant need for connection to examine the repercussions of sin, culpability, forgiveness and redemption.

“Saving Neta” is a complex cinematic confection, inventively stringing together the interrelated stories of Dalia (TV star Rotem Abuhab), Ruti (Naama Arlaky), Miri (Irit Kaplan) and Sharona (Neta Riskin).

Benny Avni in “Saving Neta”

Sadian (left) with the creature

Each woman’s story couldn’t be as disparate as the next: Dalia is a training officer in the military who’s having difficulty juggling her job while dealing with a quarrelsome daughter.

While Miri’s picnic with her family goes bust after it suddenly rains, cellist Ruti has a more urgent concern. She wants to get pregnant with her lesbian lover Noga (Kim Gordon), but the sperm injections have not been successful so far.

Sharona is a New York-based interior designer who grudgingly comes home when her mother dies in her sleep. But she finds herself stranded in Israel after her special needs sister Dan-Dan (Nuria Dina Lozinsky) goes missing.

There’s nothing much that connects the quartet on focus, except their brief encounters with the rock-climbing and homeless former engineer, Neta Harlev (Benny Avni).

When Dalia, Miri, Ruti and Sharona are made to gather for the movie’s unexpected finale, the seemingly insignificant scene eventually makes viewers realize that the world isn’t really as big as it sometimes appears.

Glickman (left) and Kimchi

Yoav Sadian in “Abulele”

For its part, the universal pertinence and relatable appeal of “Laces” grows on you as it examines the complex relationship of 60-year-old mechanic Ruven (Doval’e Glickman, who won best supporting actor at the Israeli Film Academy in 2018) and his estranged 35-year-old special needs son Gadi (Nevo Kimchi), whom he abandoned as a young boy.

Neither man has any intention of reestablishing any form of connection with each other. But they are forced to meet again when Gadi’s sick mom Rachel dies—and the “intellectually challenged” Gadi has no choice but to live with his now apologetic dad while he awaits acceptance into a special needs facility.

Little does the father-and-son pair know that they would soon find comfort, friendship and fondness for each other when they realize they have more similarities than differences.

But a scary complication threatens their newfound affection for each other when Gadi finds out that his aging and increasingly frail father has been keeping his failing kidneys under wraps.

Will it be another case of “happiness interrupted” for Gadi?

Doval’e Glickman (left) and Nevo Kimchi in “Laces”