IN FOCUS: AVI MOGRABI

MASTERCLASS: SOLDIERS’ TESTIMONIES – TWO CASES
Monday, November 7th, After the screening of the film The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation
Venue: Yugoslav Film Archive in Uzun Mirkova

This year, as part of the In Focus program, we present Israeli documentary filmmaker Avi Mograbi, who has been openly criticizing Israeli politics and society with his films for more than three decades.

At the 18th Free Zone, as part of the In Focus program, Avi Mograbi will present his documentaries Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes, Between Fences and The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation, and the audience will be able to attend the master class that the director will hold via Zoom. Mograbi states that he shot two films that started from the same kind of material: Z32 (2008) and The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation (2021). Both films were derived from testimonies of Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories that were collected by Breaking the Silence. The two films ended up being extremely different in approach, cinematic language and tone. The masterclass will follow the evolution of those two different films.

DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY

Avi Mograbi, born in 1956 in Tel Aviv, is a film director whose projects, regularly centered on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, examine how violence impacts the individual. Mograbi frequently appears in his films, taking the position of both director and concerned citizen in seeking to understand what he witnesses. He studied art and philosophy and has made more than twenty films since 1989. Filmography: Between Fences (2016), Once I entered a garden (2012), Z32 (2008), Avenge but One of my Two Eyes (2005), August (2002), Happy Birthday Mr. Mograbi (1999), How I Learned to Overcome My Fear and Love Arik Sharon (1997), The Reconstruction (1994).