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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 3 April 2008

Pick of the Indies

EVER get the feeling you are being watched?
Well, frankly, you are. The beady eyes of CCTV track your moves as you trundle about London on your daily business. Apparently we are the most watched society in the world: from buses and Tubes, street corners and traffic cameras.
Rather than bang on about civil liberties, Indies has discovered a film-maker finding a good use for these invasive lenses and it comes in the form of a remarkable story by Israeli director Dani Rosenberg.
The Red Toy tells of Mohamad, a Palestinian boy who misplaces a favoured possession. It is then passed through the backstreets and alleyways of the ancient city, and tracked by police surveillance cameras. Warm and original, it is just one of the offerings in an Israeli Cinema Showcase of films being shown in Hampstead and Swiss Cottage this month.
The season kicks off a week on Saturday with a screening of Noodle. It’s a good tale of El Al flight attendant Miri who has to return an abandoned Chinese boy to Beijing and help him find his mother.
The Israeli film industry is booming, and making high-quality features. Comic tales such as the excellent Metallic Blue – about a used car salesmen trying to flog a Lincoln limo – show that, despite the conflict, film-makers can find humour and human stories.
The festival is all-encompassing. Recognised tells of the culture of the Bedouin community in Israel, while Children of the Sun speaks of the first generation of Kibbutzniks to grow up in Israel.
And here is a quick, unrelated heads-up: the Barbican are screening ET in their Saturday morning film club at 10.30am April 19.
DAN CARRIER

* Noodle will be shown at The Screen on the Hill on Saturday, April 12 at 8.45pm. www.ukjewishfilmfestival.org.uk/Events/Israeli-Cinema-Showcase-Guests/

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