July 11: Azulay the Policeman

A 1971 film directed by Ephraim Kishon, Azulay the Policeman was the first Israeli movie to be nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Shaike Ophir stars as Azulay, a soft-hearted and incompetent policeman in Jaffa. His superiors want to send him to early retirement, but he would like to stay on the force, and the criminals of Jaffa don't want to see him leave either... (87 minutes)

A melancholy Israeli flight attendant finds new meaning in life on her quest to reunite a six year-old Chinese boy nicknamed Noodle with his missing mother. Written and directed by Ayelet Menahemi, this 2007 film is a touching comic-drama in which two human beings -- as different from each other as Tel Aviv is from Beijing -- accompany one another on a remarkable journey, one that takes them both back to a meaningful life. (90 minutes)

Brothers, a 2008 film directed by Igaal Niddam, depicts two Jewish brothers whose choices and values have driven them apart, who meet again in Israel after many years of silence. The conflict between the brothers is echoed in a legal battle which highlights the issue of separation of state and religion in modern Israel. (116 minutes)

August 22: The Matchmaker or Once I Was

In 1968 Haifa, a teenage boy gets a summer job with a Holocaust survivor who makes ends meet by brokering marriages and smuggling goods. The Matchmaker or Once I Was, a 2010 film directed by Avi Nesher, mixes comedy with drama as it tells a coming-of-age story unlike any you've ever seen before. (118 minutes)