Avi Mograbi Retrospective in Munich
The 30th edition of the DOK.fest in Munich invites the audience to watch five of the Israeili documentary master Avi Mograbi’s films. Mograbi travels apparently from one (well deserved) homage to the other, last one was in Paris at the Jeu de Paume museum in March. The films – “August: A Moment before Eruption” (2002), “Happy Birthday, Mr. Mograbi” (1999), “How I Learned to Overcome my Fear and Love Arik Sharon” (1997), “Once I entered a Garden” (2012) and “Z32” (2008) – show the director’s personal style and his unique skill to convey his critical analysis of Israel in a humourous language.
Mograbi has been a frequent guest on this site, I am true admirer of him and his film essays, here are just two quotes:
…he innovates the documentary language by using talking masks, as his main character, the killing Israeli soldier, does not want to face the camera. Very intelligent trick that combined with his Brechtian musical element, himself singing comments to the soldier’s crime, makes the film into a universal essayistic wish for reflection… (about Z32)
…A masterclass, a master’s class, Mograbi is exactly as his films are: tense, sometimes comic, but always dealing with the embarrassing reality of the country he lives in. A frustrated artist, as he says himself, who wants to move something, raise a debate in Israel, but does not succeed, he is met with total silence, no reactions, whereas he now is an estimated artist in Western Europe! In the next issue of Cahiers du Cinema, the headline is characterising him as ”Le Grand sculpteur de notre temps”. (DocsBarcelona 2009, masterclass with Avi Mograbi).
The festival takes place May 7-17 and has a good and interesting international programme, check it. Link below.
https://www.dokfest-muenchen.de/filme.php?films_festival=13&films_section=27
https://www.dokfest-muenchen.de/filme.php?films_festival=13&films_section=20