Israeli Films of the 1970s

Israeli cinema entered the 1970s as a small but commercially vigorous industry, producing an average of ten to fifteen films per year.[1] Its principal tendencies included Class Cinema and Personal Cinema—the latter also called the New Sensitivity—alongside the commercially dominant bourekas genre. Popular bourekas films generally used comedy or melodrama to explore tensions between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews, often through neighborhood rivalries or mixed marriages.[1]

Cinema also benefited from government encouragement, including substantial tax rebates. For much of the decade it held an advantage over television, whose black-and-white technical limitations made theatrical color and scale especially attractive.[5] Western cultural influence became increasingly visible as more productions focused on interpersonal and romantic relationships; youth films such as Eskimo Limon and Dizengoff 99 exemplified the growing emphasis on private experience and personal ambition.[6]

By the decade's end, filmmakers and policymakers had established a funding structure intended to encourage quality cinema and move beyond established commercial formulas. Approved sources date related developments to 1978 and 1979, a discrepancy discussed below.[3][4]

The decade's competing styles developed from changes already visible in Israeli cinema during the 1960s. Heroic-national narratives gradually gave way to Class Cinema and Personal Cinema, while the success of films such as Sallah Shabbati demonstrated the size of the domestic audience for locally produced comedy.[1][3] Government tax incentives helped turn filmmaking from a largely promotional enterprise into an industry with commercial potential.[2]

Personal Cinema drew inspiration from European modernism and the French New Wave, whereas popular films relied more heavily on familiar theatrical, musical, and ethnic-comedy traditions.[1] The resulting tension between commercially accessible stories and auteur-oriented work shaped much of the 1970s.

Israeli filmmaking of the 1970s was closely intertwined with the popular music industry. A recurring commercial strategy involved casting well-known singers in fictional roles rather than as themselves. George Ovadia cast Sassi Keshet in Rchov 60, Yigal Bashan in Sarit, Tzvika Pik in Badranit BaChatzot, and Ofra Haza in Na'arat HaPrvarim.[5]

Soundtracks also became tools for reaching audiences at home and abroad. Kazablan was filmed simultaneously in English in an effort to enter foreign markets. Don't Ask Me If I Love had a soundtrack divided between Hebrew recordings and English versions of the same songs, while Dizengoff 99 received separate Hebrew- and English-language soundtrack releases.[5]

The late 1970s were particularly active for Israeli musical films. The Troupe integrated performance into a story about an army entertainment band, while Schläger parodied internationally popular musicals with music composed by Tzvika Pik.[5]

The bourekas tradition and related popular comedies produced some of the decade's most widely remembered films. Ephraim Kishon's The Policeman Azulai starred Shaike Ophir as an inept policeman whose criminal acquaintances try to improve his arrest record so that he will remain on the beat.[7] Ophir played the pure-hearted Avraham Azulai, and the film's emotional climax shows him returning a salute as he is dismissed from the force. It won a Golden Globe and received an Academy Award nomination.[8][9] Its theme song, "Balada LaShoter," was written by Ehud Manor and Nurit Hirsh and performed by Oshik Levi.[8]

Ophir also appeared in Kishon's The Blaumlich Canal and The Fox in the Chicken Coop, as well as Abual Benat, which was not a Kishon film.[7] Boaz Davidson's Charlie and a Half starred Yehuda Barkan as a hustler caring for a child while pursuing a wealthy girl and Ze'ev Revach as a local thug. Its egg-eating contest became especially famous.[10] Davidson also directed Snookerfest; both films became cult works associated with neighborhood life, matchmaking, and ethnic and class-based comedy.[1][8]

Menahem Golan's Kazablan was a large-scale, Hollywood-style Israeli musical adapted from a stage play and filmed simultaneously in English to pursue foreign markets.[5] Starring Yehoram Gaon, it was among the country's most-watched productions. Golan and Haim Hefer wrote the screenplay, Dov Seltzer composed the music, and the film featured the song "Rosa Rosa."[8] Golan's Katz and Karasso likewise drew on popular ethnic comedy.[5]

George Ovadia was among the most prolific directors of popular Israeli cinema during the 1970s. His 1972 film Norit starred Sassi Keshet and Yona Elian, who made her first film appearance in it.[11] Critics attacked the film severely; critic Aharon Dolev reportedly wrote that he felt as though he were in Baghdad or Damascus rather than Tel Aviv and refused to call what he saw "cinema." Audiences responded differently: Norit drew 900,000 viewers and became one of Israel's largest box-office successes.[11]

Keshet and Elian fell in love on the first day of filming. Ovadia later joked that after filming a love scene they had "entered the bed and have not come out of it to this day."[11] His output also included Ariana, Fiske in Reserves, Sarit, Yom HaDin, Rchov 60, Badranit BaChatzot, and Na'arat HaPrvarim, the last of which featured Ofra Haza.[11][5]

Moshe Mizrahi's I Love You Rosa and The House on Chelouche Street both received Academy Award nominations.[9] I Love You Rosa is set in Jerusalem at the beginning of the twentieth century and concerns a boy expected to marry his late brother's widow under an ancient religious law. The House on Chelouche Street follows a sensitive teenager from an Egyptian immigrant family in the 1940s who defies his widowed mother and becomes involved with pre-state militias fighting the British.[9] Another source identifies the latter as an important milestone in Sephardic-themed cinema that did not receive sufficient public attention.[12]

Mizrahi also directed Madame Rosa, a French production starring Simone Signoret as a former prostitute and Auschwitz survivor. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film while representing France and therefore belongs to Mizrahi's 1970s career rather than to Israeli production as such.[9]

Operation Thunderbolt, directed by Menahem Golan, was an Oscar-nominated dramatization of the 1976 Entebbe hijacking and rescue. Yehoram Gaon played Yoni Netanyahu, and the cast included Assi Dayan, Gila Almagor, Shaike Ophir, and Klaus Kinski.[13]

Director Uri Zohar and actor Arik Einstein formed one of the decade's most celebrated creative partnerships. Peeping Toms, released in 1972, starred Einstein and Zohar as Tel Aviv beach bums and was described as one of their best collaborations.[9] Later critical interpretation treated it as an early depiction of the internal crisis of the classical Israeli sabra ideal, while expressions from the film entered everyday Hebrew.[8]

Big Eyes was another major Einstein-Zohar production. Zohar played a self-centered basketball talent scout whose growing guilt over his egoism becomes the film's emotional center.[9] Zohar also directed HaHitromemut, for which Shalom Hanoch composed the title song.[5]

Boaz Davidson's Shablul featured Einstein playing himself alongside Shalom Hanoch, Josie Katz, Miki Gavrielov, and Zohar. Heavily influenced by The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, it combined songs and sketches by members of the Lool group.[10] Avraham Hefner's Lan Ne'elam Daniel Vax, a nearly plotless film centered on anti-heroes, initially attracted few viewers despite critical praise but was later reassessed as a major Israeli film and a reflection of the anxious period before the Yom Kippur War.[8]

The second half of the decade produced screen works that engaged military mythology, political conflict, and historical trauma. Three late-1970s productions are commonly identified as precursors to the political cinema of the 1980s.[14]

Paratroopers, directed by Judd Ne'eman and released in 1977, was described as the first anti-heroic army film in Israeli cinema. Ram Levy's 1978 television drama Hirbeth Hiz'ah dealt with the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 1948. Rove Hulliyot, known in English as Wooden Gun, was directed by Ilan Moshenson and examined the Holocaust's shadow over Israeli society.[14][1]

Givat Halfon Eina Ona, or Hill Halfon Doesn't Answer, offered a comic satire of the aura surrounding the Israel Defense Forces. Directed by Assi Dayan and written by Dayan and Naftali Alter, it was developed after Dayan's extended reserve service following the Yom Kippur War and filmed in the Nitzanim dunes as a substitute for Sinai.[8] Its plot follows a sergeant ordered to bring the gambler Sergio Konstanza to a desert outpost. Exploding grenades, bulldozed privies, and other slapstick scenes lampoon the gap between Israeli informality and military demands. Ruth R. Wisse writes that the film became "a staple of Israel Independence Day entertainment."[15]

Assi Dayan also directed Schläger, a 1979 parody of internationally popular musicals with a soundtrack composed by Tzvika Pik.[5]

The late 1970s saw a surge in youth-oriented films reflecting Western cultural influence and a new focus on romantic, personal, and generational experience. Eskimo Limon, internationally known as Lemon Popsicle, was produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.[16] Set in the late 1950s, it follows three teenagers through their early sexual experiences while depicting a divide between Holocaust-survivor immigrants and Israeli-born youth. Its treatment of sex, unwanted pregnancy, prostitution, and nudity was considered daring for the period.[8]

The film sold 1,350,000 tickets. In 1978, the year with which it is associated in two of the approved accounts, Israeli cinema recorded more than three million ticket sales overall.[8][2]

Avi Nesher's Dizengoff 99 followed three young people sharing a Tel Aviv apartment and pursuing romance and personal ambitions rather than acting as patriotic heroes.[9][8] Its principal cast included Gidi Gov, Anat Atzmon, and Gali Atari, and the film later acquired cult status, partly because of its soundtrack.[8]

The Troupe, released in 1978, was one of the decade's biggest Israeli hits and Avi Nesher's directorial debut. A comedy-drama-musical set in a military entertainment troupe, it followed rivalries, pranks, romance, and revenge as its characters rebelled against their commander.[10] The cast included Gidi Gov, Meir Suissa, Dafna Armoni, Sassi Keshet, Gali Atari, Tuvia Tzafir, Gilat Ankori, Kobi Recht, Eli Gorenstein, and Hali Goldenberg.[10][8] The film was set during the War of Attrition and later became a Habima stage musical in 2006.[8]

The Troupe departed from familiar formulas by lacking a conventional love story, tribal conflict, or single large-scale plot. It included a positively portrayed homosexual character, an unusually bold choice for Israeli cinema of the period. General Rehavam Ze'evi opposed its production because he regarded the depiction of army rebellion as subversive.[17] Its musical authenticity was attributed partly to casting performers known from actual military bands and to integrating the performances organically into the story.[5]

Shorter and more experimental productions also appeared during the period. Milk and Honey Experience, directed by Yehuda Judd Ne'eman, was a 34-minute film about American Jewish students during their 1970–1971 year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[18] It combined fictionalized characters with a real visit to former prime minister David Ben-Gurion at his Negev home, using their experiences to examine the competing attractions of Israel and the United States. Rachel Ne'eman, the director's sister, wrote the screenplay, and the film premiered in 1971 in a Hebrew University dormitory social hall.[18]

An early scene shows an American woman recounting harassment by Israeli men, particularly soldiers. Her female classmates agree, while male classmates make light of the experience; the journal article states that the fictional sequence closely resembled experiences reported at the time.[18]

The following selective overview is drawn from the approved sources and is not a complete filmography.

1970: HaPritza HaGdola, a war film directed by Menahem Golan; Lupo, which helped establish Yehuda Barkan as a star; Shablul, directed by Boaz Davidson; and HaHitromemut, directed by Uri Zohar.[19][10]

1971: The Policeman Azulai, Katz and Karasso, Ariana, Queen of the Road, and Fiske in Reserves. The National Library record confirms Fiske in Reserves as a 1971 film, while its account of Ovadia identifies him as its writer-director.[20][11]

1972: Norit, Peeping Toms, Lan Ne'elam Daniel Vax, and I Love You Rosa.[11][9]

1973: Kazablan, The House on Chelouche Street, and Abual Benat.[16][7]

1974: Charlie and a Half and Big Eyes were released, while Walla lists Ovadia's Sarit among the year's musically notable productions.[10][5]

1975: Snookerfest and Ovadia's Yom HaDin.[1][5]

1976: Givat Halfon Eina Ona and Rchov 60. Mishpacha Tzanani, written and produced by Golan and directed by Boaz Davidson, was another popular ethnic comedy.[8][19]

1977: Operation Thunderbolt, Madame Rosa, Kuni Leml in Tel Aviv, The Uranium Conspiracy, and Badranit BaChatzot.[16][5] Kuni Leml in Tel Aviv adapted Abraham Goldfaden's The Two Kuni-Lemls.[15]

1978: The Troupe, Eskimo Limon, Hirbeth Hiz'ah, Paratroopers, The Fox in the Chicken Coop, and Don't Ask Me If I Love.[14][5] Two distinct films should not be conflated: Rove Hulliyot, or Wooden Gun, was directed by Ilan Moshenson, while Sus Etz was directed by Yaki Yosha and featured Shmulik Kraus.[14][5]

1979: Dizengoff 99, Na'arat HaPrvarim, Schläger, and Going Steady.[5][16]

The decade joined unusually large domestic audiences with expanding artistic range. The commercial high point of 1978 included more than three million ticket sales, two major popular hits, and international award recognition.[2] At the same time, Personal Cinema and the late-decade political works expanded Israeli film's vocabulary beyond heroic-national narratives and broad ethnic comedy.[1][14]

The creation of a quality-cinema fund at the decade's end institutionalized the demand for more ambitious production and helped prepare the second wave of Kayitz filmmakers in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[3]

Approved sources disagree about several release dates. Maariv dates The Policeman Azulai to 1970, while Walla, the Jewish Virtual Library, and The Jerusalem Post identify it as a 1971 release.[8][5] The Golan-Globus filmography lists Eskimo Limon in 1977, while Maariv associates it with 1978 and Ynet discusses it as a 1979 international breakthrough.[16][8] The House on Chelouche Street is dated 1973 in the Golan-Globus filmography and The Jerusalem Post, but 1975 by My Jewish Learning.[16][12]

Ruth R. Wisse's discussion calls Hill Halfon Doesn't Answer a 1975 parody, while the bibliography in the same work dates it to 1976.[15] Kazablan is dated 1973 in the Golan-Globus filmography and Maariv material but 1974 in another approved account.[16][8] These differences may reflect production, domestic-release, international-release, or cataloguing conventions, but the reviewed sources do not settle them conclusively.

Moments, directed by Michal Bat-Adam, depicted a developing romantic relationship between Yula, an Israeli woman played by Bat-Adam, and Anne, a French woman played by Brigitte Catillon. The women meet on a train and deepen their relationship during three days in Jerusalem. The film included declarations of love and a threesome involving Yula's husband, played by Assi Dayan; it caused a scandal and was censored after its release.[21]

The film list in this article remains selective. The cited guides, retrospectives, and reference entries do not constitute a comprehensive registry of every Israeli production released between 1970 and 1979.