European 2024 Archives

Born for You

Please be aware – the screening is NOT in Tel-Aviv Cinematheque.

A film adaptation of a book by the same name, based on a true story.
We invite you to this moving new Italian film that is also very relevant to the current Israeli reality.

Luca Trapanese is a single Catholic gay man, who in 2017 wants to adopt Alba, a baby with Down Syndrome, who was abandoned at the hospital at birth. In the past, the Italian authorities have denied Luca’ requests to adopt a child or a baby. Alba was left at the hospital while 30 heterosexual families had rejected her. A meeting with a human rights lawyer encourages Luca to appeal to the court in hope they will agree to let him adopt Alba.
Today, thanks to the precedent set by Luca and Alba’s case, Italy allows single men to become foster families. Luca was the first single gay man in Italian history that managed to adopt a child. He didn’t do that to be a groundbreaker or to fight the authorities, he just wanted a family.

In 2017 TLVFest had screened an earlier film by director Fabio Mollo – “Il padre d’Italia”

“Love & Revolution” and panel

The screening will be preceded by panel and discussion “The LGBT struggle in Israel”
(app. 30 min)

The year is 1977 and Miguel is going to be the first one in his family to go to university. But Miguel has different dreams: to become a singer and take part in a popular TV competition. He’s exposed to social activists, finds himself doing drag in underground clubs and becomes an activist himself, all this in secret and against the will of his mother Reme, a 50 year-old woman, who works as a seamstress in a luxury suits shop.
In the 70’s homosexuality was still taboo in Spain, the police regularly used violence against the LGBTQ community and being associated with the gay community was an offence that could get you in jail. When Miguel is caught in drag by the police, his conservative mother decides to step up and join Miguel’s friends – other activists from the gay community, to fight the police, the court and the government in order to make Spain a better place.
In his debut film, director Alejandro Marín manages to get into the hearts of his audience with a thrilling and sweeping dramedy on the right to love. A film that is a salute to all those who fought and are still fighting to live in a liberal country with equal rights and no fear.
The film’s original name, “Te estoy amando locamente” (“I love you madly”), refers to the power of mother’s love to her son, and therefore it is also a film that honors all the mothers that support their LGBTQ children, and even if sometimes it’s hard for them, they would fight for their sons and daughters till the end.
The film is based on real events.

In association with the Embassy of Spain

Ella

France, 2024, 75 min, French and English with Hebrew and English subtitles

In the classic manner of “Sliding Doors”, please welcome the contemporary lesbian version.
Ella wakes up to a frightening number of unanswered calls and a very urgent message from her agent. She’s on a crucial crossroad – an audition that will determine her future. She has to race against the clock to make it on time to the audition, when every decision she makes has its own unique pros and cons, each road provides a different path with different potential to touch hearts, mend family ties, find unexpected romance, succeed or fail in the audition. Which way will lead Ella to her true self?
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Director: Antony Hickling
Script: Benedict Wells
Producer: Antony Hickling
Cast: Marie Chéru, Leonardo Can, Diana Steinmetz, Noée Andraos, Liia Kalindovskaia

Festivals:
Yellowstone International Film Festival 2024
Chéries-Chéris LGBTQI Film Festival 2024
Merlinka International Queer Film Festival 2024
Out On Film – Atlanta’s LGBTQ Film Festival 2024

What a Feeling

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With discount code TLVFEST ticket’s price is 30NIS instead of 48NIS.

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Marie Theres, a successful doctor has some very special plans for her 20th anniversary with her husband Alexander, but he has a completely different idea. He’s about to break up with her that very evening. Alexander wants to be happier, freer and doesn’t want Marie Theres in his life anymore. As a result of this very unpleasant turn, Marie Theres will do what every logical woman might do when everything in her life goes completely wrong: she goes drinking in a lesbian bar. There she meets Fa, who lives in order to enjoy life and prefers non committal relationships. After a night of heavy drinking Fa took Marie Theres home, but Marie Theres cannot remember if they’ve done “anything”.
Two women in their 40s, seemingly completely unrelated to each other, but new feelings make them rethink, is this love? The result is a heartwarming comedy that will make you believe again in love.

In association with the Austrian Cultural Forum

Block Pass

A breathtaking drama that was shown during the Critics Week at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival
Director Antoine Chevrollier’s first full length feature explores masculinity and sexuality in rural France, and particularly in Longué-Jumelles, the director’s home town, where the film was shot.
Willy and Jojo are best friends, sharing a joint passion for motorcycles. Jojo is a motorcycle racing driver on the way to become famous in the scene and Willy is there to help him live his dream.
When a secret from Jojo’s past is revealed, his fast track to fame crumbles. The two friends embark on a self discovery journey neither of them wanted.
Young stars of the film, Amaury Foucher and Sayyid El Alami, present impressive, authentic and brave performances.
Viewing is 18+ due to explicit sexual content and violence.

Contains depictions of homophobia and self harm.

The Life and Death of a Porno Gang

Winner of the Best Film award at the 2010 TLVFest, this is one of the most powerful films you’ll see this year.
Director Mladen Djordjevic created a biting commentary on post Milosevic Serbia. This film brings together horror, social and political satire, dark humour and lots of sex and violence.

Local criminals hire Marko, a young, artistic and ambitious filmmaker, to make for them porno films. They don’t really appreciate his artistic approach, and after a violent attack, Marko decides to go underground and travel with a troupe of outcasts who participate in a live pornographic theatre production that travels through conservative Serbian villages.
Warning! Not suitable for the faint of heart!

Viewing is 18+ due to explicit sexual content and violence.

Gondola

In the mountains of west Georgia, a rural community relies on a pair of cable cars that connect two sides of a steep valley. Iva returns to her home village following the death of a relative and takes up a job operating one of the cable car gondolas. She forms a long distance friendship with Nina, the operator of the other gondola. In time, those aerial meetings turn to naughty flirting between the two young women and then deepen into love.
This strange romance is wordless, but has a very unique and original cinematic vision from writer/director Veit Helmer. It is a delightful piece, very visually pleasing, full of fun and charming cinematic ideas. 82 minutes with no dialogue but with a lot of love for the art of cinema as well as its two wonderful heroines. In “Gondola” love truly floats between heaven and earth, and it is simply a film of pure fun.

Additional screening: Haifa Cinematheque, 8.11, 18:00

In association with the Embassy of Germany

“Mascarpone: The Rainbow Cake” & show by Tom Schneid

8.11 – Before the screening: Musical performance by Tom Schneid

Italian director Alessandro Guida returns with “Mascarpone: The Rainbow Cake”– a sequel that doesn’t fall short from its predecessor.
Antonio and Luca reunite for the first time after three years since the death of their good friend Denis. Luca had to close his bakery, and now works as youth counsellor, with his partner Tancredi, at an LGBTQ youth shelter. Antonio focused on his job and meaningless flings, and is now a celebrity chef. The meeting reignites their special relationship and Antonio realizes, for the first time, what a mistake he’s made leaving Luca behind.
“Mascarpone: The Rainbow Cake” manages to surprise and be a mature film about how to free oneself from the shackles that tie us to the past, so that we can look forwards to the future. The cast is wonderful, the plot is moving and of course there are a few delicious baked treats.

It is not vital to watch the first film in order to enjoy the sequel.

Tom Schneid IG

Fragments of a Life Loved

For over thirty years, both in Rome and in Paris, Chloé Barreau filmed her relationships. When she’d enter a relationship she made sure to shape her memory with videos, stills and writing. But how do her exes remember her and their experience from the relationship with her? How close is their version to Chloé’s version?
“Fragments of a Life Loved” builds up a mosaic of a woman’s life, the film’s creator, based on interviews with those who loved her. Intimate memories and private materials are woven together to expose the universal sides of relationships and the way we experience love stories through the years’ perspective.

M

Menachem Lang left the orthodox Jewish world years ago. As a child, he was a dedicated Yeshiva boy, applauded for his melodic voice and promising cantorial skills. But behind the scenes, a dark secret lurked: for years, he had been sexually abused by rabbis and other adults in the community. Now, 35-year-old Menachem returns to the scene of the crime, where random encounters reveal similar stories from the past and present, and, together with his own personal account, shed light upon a repressed and particularly disturbing phenomenon.
Esteemed French director Yolande Zauberman’s documentary, filmed entirely at night, won many awards and was screened at dozens of festivals to outstanding critical acclaim.

Scene from “M”

Two more movies by Yolande Zauberman are screened at the festival.