Best Israeli drama movies
A curated collection of popular drama movies from Israel.
Yossi & Jagger (2002)
Yossi & Jagger (2002)
A sociological study of two men in the Israeli army who are lovers. The others in the unit react to their situation, suspecting, but not always understanding. One will leave the military soon, a few months away, as a snowy and desolate outpost is guarded from attack.
Beaufort (2007)
Beaufort (2007)
BEAUFORT tells the story of LIRAZ LIBERTI, the 22 year-old outpost commander, and his troops in the months before Israel pulled out of Lebanon. This is not a story of war, but of retreat. This is a story with no enemy, only an amorphous entity that drops bombs from the skies while terrified young soldiers must find a way to carry out their mission until their very last minutes on that mountaintop.
Image of Victory (2023)
Image of Victory (2023)
1948: an Egyptian filmmaker is creating newsreel stories about a volunteer force tasked to liberate Palestinian farmers. The journey propels him towards a chance encounter with a tenacious young leader of a nearby commune that will set in motion events that will change their lives forever.
Avanti Popolo (1986)
Avanti Popolo (1986)
A beautiful anti-war movie. It describes the surreal journey of two Egyptian soldiers as they're coming back to Cairo from the Six-day War of 1967. One is an aspiring actor, whose biggest role so far was that of Shakespeare's Shylock (the irony of fate), who contributes the role of the sad clown (played by the Arab-Israeli actor Salim Daw).
Hill 24 Doesn't Answer (1955)
Hill 24 Doesn't Answer (1955)
In 1948, immediately before a ceasefire takes effect, four volunteers fighting for Israel are ordered to take Hill 24, overlooking the road to Jerusalem.
Offside (2006)
Offside (2006)
One fence, four fans, and the game of their lives. This is a story about 4 men and a radio.
The Seven Days (2008)
The Seven Days (2008)
The Ohaion family is mourning the death of one of their relatives. In keeping with tradition, they gather together in the home of the deceased and stay there for seven days. Forced to put up with one another day and night, the brothers and sisters soon let their bitterness and arguments override the sense of communal reverence. The atmosphere becomes unbearable and long-buried truths finally surface.
Bethlehem (2013)
Bethlehem (2013)
Bethlehem tells the story of the unlikely bond between Razi, an Israeli secret service officer, and his Palestinian informant Sanfur, the younger brother of a senior Palestinian militant. Razi recruited Sanfur when he was just 15, and developed a very close, almost fatherly relationship to him. Now 17, Sanfur tries to navigate between Razi’s demands and his loyalty to his brother, living a double life and lying to both men. Co-written by director Yuval Adler and Ali Waked—an Arab journalist who spent years in the West Bank—Bethlehem gives an unparalleled, moving and authentic portrait of the complex reality behind the news.
The Man in the Wall (2015)
The Man in the Wall (2015)
One night, one apartment and one mystery. Shir wakes up in the middle of the night. Her husband hasn’t come back after taking the dog out. The dog has. But where is Rami? Friends, relatives, neighbours and police come round and with each visit more marital secrets are revealed.
Frozen Days (2005)
Frozen Days (2005)
Meow is a young woman roaming the streets and nightclubs of Tel Aviv. She lives in empty apartments and surfs the internet chat rooms. She decides to meet Alex, her chat buddy. They plan to meet in a nightclub but a suicide bombing prevents their meeting. She survives the attack and after she finds Alex in the hospital, in a coma, she moves into his empty apartment. Gradually, the tenants start referring to her as Alex, and as she assumes his identity, she finds herself sinking into a dangerous and deluded reality.
The Debt (2007)
The Debt (2007)
The year is 1964. Rachel Brener is one of 3 young Mossad agents teem who caught "THE SURGEON OF BIRKENAU" - a Nazi monster who was never brought to trial in Israel. The official reason was that he was shot to death while trying to escape from Israeli captivity in a safe house somewhere in Europe. 30 years after, the well communicated death story of the monster could be questionable, a small article appears in a local unimportant paper in a small town in Ukraine. Surprisingly the Surgeon is ALIVE and is willing to admit his crimes against the human race and especially the Jews. The 3 older x Mossad agents who are in their late 60th became aware to this unfortunate threatening knowledge. The fact was that the "Surgeon" managed to escape from his guards 30 years ago.
In Bed (2022)
In Bed (2022)
28-year-old Guy and his best friend, Joy, are enjoying the gay pride parade to the fullest when their bliss is abruptly put to an end by a deadly shooting that occurs during the event. Fleeing the scene into the safety of Guy’s home, they take along a fellow pride goer, Dan, who seems to be in shock. With the shooter still on the run, Guy and Dan fall into a night full of sex, drugs and paranoia.
Silent (2022)
Silent (2022)
The life of Avihao (Morris Cohen), a television personality with an excessively big mouth, is getting more and more complicated: his mother Sarah (Levna Finkelstein) stopped talking, fell into complete silence and his father does not understand why. Aviv (Oshari Cohen), his beloved former student, unexpectedly becomes the leading candidate in the prime ministerial elections even though no one knows what he has to say. He doesn't give interviews, doesn't talk, doesn't give speeches - he just stays silent all the way to victory, a silence that challenges Avihao to the point of risking his career and his family.
Strangers (2003)
Strangers (2003)
A short story of two strangers meeting in a train journey, not knowing that something stranger is coming their way.
Eyes Wide Open (2009)
Eyes Wide Open (2009)
A middle-aged Orthodox Jew, Aaron, living and working in Jerusalem with his wife and children, meets a homeless 19-year-old student. Aaron offers to give Ezri work as his assistant at his family's butcher shop. The two men grow close and their attraction becomes sexual. Aaron must now confront his own sexuality, his feelings for Ezri, and his obligations to his family and faith.
Yossi (2012)
Yossi (2012)
The sequel to "Yossi and Jagger" finds character Yossi (Ohad Knoller) leading a sad existence after losing his partner Jagger on the battlefield. A chance encounter with a middle-aged woman linked to his past shakes up his otherwise staid routine and sends him on a spontaneous pilgrimage to Tel Aviv. It is on the roads of southern Israel that he reignites the fire of his former self.
Blush (2015)
Blush (2015)
Na'ama is seventeen. She lives in a sleepy suburbia. She is bored. With detached parents and a rebellious older sister, her life at home is a mess. It all changes when a new girl appears at school. She's introduced to a world of drugs, lesbians and sex. She's thrilled. Her life, at last, becomes exciting. Is it going to last? "Barash" is a coming of age story, planted in the heart of Israeli society, about a young woman who struggles to find her self-identity in an environment that has different ideas about sex, drugs and love.
The Secrets (2007)
The Secrets (2007)
Noemi, the studious, devoutly religious daughter of a prominent rabbi, convinces her father to postpone her marriage for a year so that she might study at a Jewish seminary for women in the ancient Kabalistic seat of Safe.
Jellyfish (2007)
Jellyfish (2007)
Meduzot (the Hebrew word for Jellyfish) tells the story of three very different Israeli women living in Tel Aviv whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a young child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a young bride who breaks her leg in trying to escape from a locked toilet stall, which ruins her chance at a romantic honeymoon in the Caribbean. One of the guests is Joy, a Philippine chore woman attending the event with her employer, and who doesn't speak any Hebrew (she communicates mainly in English), and who is guilt-ridden after having left her young son behind in the Philippines.
Antarctica (2008)
Antarctica (2008)
Set in Tel Aviv, focuses on an interconnected group of friends and their various relationships. At the center is the adorably bookish Omer, about to turn 30, who still hasn't found himself, and his free-spirited best friend Miki, who both end up inadvertently dating the same handsome journalist, Ronen.
An Israeli Love Story (2017)
An Israeli Love Story (2017)
The love story of Margalit (Pnina Gary), who lives in Nahalal, and Eli Ben-Zvi, son of Rachel Yanait and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Israeli's second president. The year is 1947, a tumultuous period as tensions rise between the Israeli settlement and the Arab tribes and neighboring countries. A chance encounter sparks love at first sight between Margalit, of Nahalal – a cooperative workers' settlement – and Eli Ben-Zvi, the Muhtar of the Beit Keshet kibbutz. The affair is off to a rocky start, as Eli is committed to the defense efforts that preceded the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 and the birth of the State of Israel. The two go on to set a wedding date, but the fight for a nation leaves no room for young lovers.
Campfire (2004)
Campfire (2004)
The story of one woman's personal battle for acceptance, but also a portrait of a political movement that has forever affected millions of lives in the Middle East.
Kadosh (1999)
Kadosh (1999)
The year 2000 approaches in Jerusalem's Orthodox Mea Shearim quarter, where the women work, keep house, and have children so the men can study the Torah and the Talmud. Rivka is happily and passionately married to Meir, but they remain childless. The yeshiva's rabbi, who is Meir's father, wants Meir to divorce Rivka: "a barren woman is no woman." Rivka's sister, Malka, is in love with Yakov, a Jew shunned by the yeshiva as too secular. The rabbi arranges Malka's marriage to Yossef, whose agitation when fulfilling religious duties approaches the grotesque. Can the sisters sort out their hearts' desires within this patriarchal world? If not, have they any other options?
Saint Clara (1996)
Saint Clara (1996)
The year is 1999 and the storyline is actually a number of sub-plots all revolving around the 13-year old Clara, a girl that can predict the future and has telekinetic powers. The sub-plots include a boy in her class who has a crush on her, his family, her family and her principal that keeps talking French for some strange reason.
Good Boys (2005)
Good Boys (2005)
Movie follows two young gay hustlers through interwoven stories during a night in Tel Aviv.
Bent (2018)
Bent (2018)
Max and Rudy are a couple living a decadent lifestyle in pre-war Berlin, enjoying the nightlife and hedonistic parties: cocaine, orgies, and drag shows. After the rise of the Nazi party to power, Max is caught and sent to a concentration camp, where gay prisoners wear the pink triangle and have a status inferior even to Jewish prisoners. Max disguises himself as a Jew and wears the yellow star, hoping that his sexual orientation will not be revealed. Within the daily oppression of the concentration camp, Max meets Horst, a fellow prisoner to whom he confesses his true identity. Soon a forbidden love develops between them.
Adam (1974)
Adam (1974)
A handsome and successful surgeon, Dr. Dan Adam, sets out to refute a psychologist's thesis that "a man who recognizes his own self-worth will not kill or murder to solve his problems." Dr. Adam begins terrorizing the life of the psychologist and persecutes his wife and daughter.