Presented by IsraFest Foundation, Inc., the Israel Film Festival runs Saturday through Thursday, April 28 through May 3, at Landmark’s Century Centre, 2828 N. Clark. Tickets for most programs are $9, $6 for seniors; weekday shows before 6 PM are $6. Festival passes, good for five screenings, not including special events, are $35. For more information call 773-248-7744 or 877-966-5566. Films marked with a 4 are highly recommended.
Clean Sweep
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Based on Limor Nachmias’s best-selling novel Tweedle’dee, this slick 2000 police thriller emulates both Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard with its numerous plot twists and double-crosses and its decidedly amoral collection of criminals, eccentrics, and cops. Like Tarantino, director Oded Davidoff mixes comedy, intense violence, and moments of outrageous sexism in this story of a murderous crime lord (Gal Zaid) who runs afoul of an attractive if slightly neurotic undercover agent (Yael Hadar). At times the heroine seems more obsessed with finding the perfect orgasm than with bringing the villain to justice, yet the film may offer enough cheap thrills to keep you entertained for 90 minutes. (Jack Helbig) (9:30)
Kippur
A good-hearted Israeli soldier becomes enmeshed in a radical rabbi’s plot to blow up the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Though this 2000 political thriller is based on a true story, it’s overwhelmed by movie cliches: the soldier and his best buddy, a sensitive yeshiva student trying to make himself over into a soldier, both fall for the rabbi’s daughter, who rebels against her father’s plan. Worse yet, the story unfolds so slowly that every plot twist is telegraphed well in advance. Even the action-packed ending, in which the rabbi’s militia clashes with the Israeli army, falls flat. Joseph Cedar directed; with Aki Avni, Assi Dayan, and Tinkerbell. 100 min. (Jack Helbig) Tickets for this “opening-night” screening are $100; regular ticket prices apply at repeat screenings, Tuesday through Thursday, May 1 through 3. (7:30)
Two films made for television, each running 50 minutes. In Dror Shaul’s comedy Grandma Operation (1999) everything that can go wrong does as three brothers try to arrange a funeral for their grandmother. In Sharon Amrani’s Farewell My Cousin (2000) an army officer convicted of treason for selling military secrets to Iran escapes from prison and returns home looking for hidden money. (3:00)
The Bourgeoisie
