top of page
AVISHAI SIVAN - OR YEHUDA TOWN SQUARES

nationality: ISRAEL

duration: 12'00"

made in: 2013

previous screenings: none

biography:

Avishai Sivan (1977, Israel) is a filmmaker, visual artist and published author.

Sivan’s first feature film, The Wanderer, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, 2010, in the Directors’ Fortnight section. The film won Best First Feature Film and Best Cinematography awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2010.
Sivan’s documentary film, The Soap Opera of Frozen Filmmaker, a seven-part video diary, won Best Experimental Film at the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2007.
In 2010, Sivan received the Israel Ministry of Culture’s Cinema Prize.

Sivan also exhibits artwork in galleries in Israel and London.

 

synopsis:

The new mayor of Or Yehuda changed the way the city looks, investing mostly in city squares and their brazen aesthetics. Taking on the look of a wedding hall, a naïve illustration of a farming village – they cannot be ignored. The colors and sounds in the film are expressive, almost horrific, with passing cars' audio systems blasting beats, circling the traffic circles like a courtship ritual in nature.

I grew up in Or Yehuda. The new town squares are an affront to everything I know in this city, such as poverty and despair. The makeover is fresh and provocative, as if the city's appearance has undergone plastic surgery. 

 

 

 

bottom of page