The Circuit

Ali Jaffar has an article on the Berlinale's careful highlight of Israeli cinema, coinciding with the state's founding 60 years ago.  Throughout that time, the region's politics have established the region's style.  Filmmakers like Amos Kollek ("Restless", pictured) now weave it for themselves:

"For many years, all the Israeli films were either only about the army and politics or they ignored it completely and tried to make an American film, but it made it impossible to enjoy watching them," Kollek says. "But in the last four or five years, we've seen people just try to make films.

"It's like with 'Restless.' The character of the father has a lot of political opinions which he expresses at different times, but it's also a very personal film about a father-son relationship."

Full story here.