Bethlehem
Belén
2013 · Israel · 99 min
- Director
- Yuval Adler
- Screenplay
- Yuval Adler
- Producer
- Steve Hudson, Diana Elbaum
Awards: Ophir Award for best feature film · 1 nominations
What the critics say
79 % Rotten Tomatoes positive reviewsCast
What it is about
Razi, a Shin Bet officer in charge of the Bethlehem district, maintains a complicated relationship with Sanfur, a Palestinian teenager and younger brother of Ibrahim, the commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the city. Razi recruited Sanfur when he was still a boy, and over time the young man comes to see him as a friend and a father figure. Now seventeen, Sanfur must balance his handler's demands against his loyalty to his brother and their associates, lying to both sides while living a double life that grows harder to sustain.
How it was made
Director Yuval Adler and journalist Ali Waked wrote the screenplay between 2007 and 2010, drawing on research that included interviews with Shin Bet officers and militants from Al-Aqsa and Hamas. Belgian and German producers joined after the project was presented at the Berlinale co-production market. The digital shoot took place in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramla and Jaffa over 29 days beginning in November 2011. The three lead actors, Shadi Mar'i, Tsahi Halevi and Hitham Omari, were non-professionals, and many extras reenacted situations from their own lives.
Reception and legacy
The film premiered in the Venice Days section of the 2013 Venice Film Festival, where it won the section's top prize, and then screened at Telluride and Toronto. In Israel it took six Ophir Awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay, but it did not earn a nomination as Israel's Academy Awards entry. International critics praised its suspense and its handling of the conflict, while some Israeli outlets accused it of bias.
Stills
Trivia
Non-professional leads
The three lead actors had never acted in a film before. Tsahi Halevi had just appeared in the first season of The Voice Israel, and Shadi Mar'i was not yet seventeen during the shoot.
Original Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.