HJFF: Cinema Sabaya*

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Brown Auditorium Theater

Directed by Orit Fouks Rotem
Israel, 2021, 91 minutes
Language
English, Hebrew, Arabic with English Subtitles
Genre
Drama

Israel’s entry for Best Foreign Film at the 2023 Academy Awards portrays a fictional group of Arab and Jewish women, municipal workers in Hadera, taking part in a video workshop run by Rona, a young Tel Aviv filmmaker. The participants — all amateur actors — offer masterful performances as
they share raw footage of their disparate personal lives, alternatively supporting and criticizing one another as their dreams and travails as mothers, wives, and women come to light.

*Festival and Patron Passes are not accepted