Vice Versa Films

Based on the best-selling novel by Alessandro Baricco, this visually stunning film tells the story of a French trader who finds unexpected love far away from home.

As he turns 50, filmmaker Pini Schatz sets out to explore his life-long obsession with the band Sparks (the brothers Ron and Russell Mael). Pini charts the impact of Sparks on his life while meeting with fellow Sparks fans, among them famous musicians, in Tel Aviv, London, Berlin, Rotterdam and NYC. Structured as a personal quest of the filmmaker to prove that Sparks are the coolest underrated band in the history of popular music, this docu-comedy explores the universal themes of growing old and being an outsider, the importance of art in daily life and the power of non-conformism.

The life of Ukrainian-Soviet avant-garde composer Alexander Mosolov inspires three stories about creation and individualism in the face of state power, set against the Great Purge of the 1930s and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Rotem Genossar, a teacher at the Bialik-Rogozin campus in south Tel Aviv, founds a running group for his students, young African refugees whose families fled their homeland and now live in Israel without any legal status. At first running is just a social activity for the students, but it quickly becomes a means to fight for their civil rights, part of a struggle to secure them a place of their own, out of the margins of Israeli society.

Running Movie is a documentary film that focuses on Israeli long-distance runner Ayele Seteng (a.k.a. Haile Satayin), the oldest marathon runner to compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and his efforts to participate in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Satayin has been a long-distance runner since he was a young boy in Ethiopia, but he only became a marathon runner after immigrating to Israel in the early 1990s. Now, at the age of 55, he keeps on running. We follow him as he practices in Ethiopia, far from his wife and eight children, and witness his moments of victory and defeat, as he competes in marathons around the world—from Berlin, Germany, to Tiberias, Israel.

Chicken Soup With Knives is a personal documentary that chronicles filmmaker Leora Eisenstein’s journey (with her sister and other companions) to Lviv, her family’s hometown before World War II. There, she embarks on a search for her roots as well as a sense of justice. The journey from Israel to Ukraine encompasses meetings with current residents of Lviv, family reunions, and personal reflections. All of these elements converge as the film maps the effects of the past—and all of its painful memories—on the present.

In Palestinian East Jerusalem, Singer-Songwriter David Broza records a new album with American, Palestinian and Israeli musicians in defiance of the Middle East's dark realities.

The lives and times of four sisters with a cause: Rebuilding the Holy Temple in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock now stands.

Five asylum seekers from Darfur walk towards the Holot Detention Facility, near the Israel-Egypt border, only to discover they are late and need to wait until morning to be imprisoned. While darkness surrounds them, the landscape of the desert mirrors their spiritual journey in search for answers.

Looking for Moshe Guez is a personal documentary by Avida Livny: “When I was a 10-year old boy a friend invited me to watch a must-see video that his older brother has rented: a horror film that included nude scenes and violent images of rape and of children being murdered – all in Hebrew. After many years I have found out that this film, which transformed my childhood, is considered by some to be the worst Israeli film ever made, that his director has disappeared, and so have the film reels – and that most likely I am the only person who still remembers it. I have decided that I have no choice but to look for Moshe Guez, the director, and find out his long lost film, The Angel was a Devil…”

Born to a Nepalese father and an Israeli mother, Kaya is a foreigner wherever she goes. In Tel Aviv, she is taken for Asian, while in Goa she is perceived as a white person. A few years ago, as a home-schooled child, Kaya looked for ways to connect with her new surroundings and took up boxing at a small club. There, she met Soniya, a Hindu girl who became her close friend and rival in the ring. Now, Kaya and her mother return to India to part from Goa for good. Their journey raises questions of identity, motherhood and responsibility.

This film documents a year in a life of an artist who takes an object that symbolized speed, movement, and momentum before it was abandoned – and crushes it in order to make it a living art work. By capturing significant moments in the process, as the concept evolves to become a major international exhibition, this film explores the life and art of Ron Arad