Introduction

Documentary filmmaking is today's filmmaking. In a world in which images and news are getting more and more saturated with images and information, the skill to find the right break, the right detail to introduce another concept and to make people think without imposing a belief is becoming increasingly rare.

That is how the Israeli filmmaker Avi Mograbi allows us to think about our present. Mograbi makes first-hand films, in which he is the ironic protagonist of his work, and he doesn't hesitate to get his hands dirty to discover the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of Israel's political identity.

From his debut with How I learned to overcome my fear and love Arik Sharon (1997), a reflection on the equivocalness of a leader, to Happy Birthday Mr. Mograbi (1999), on the 50th anniversary of his and Israel's birth, to August - A Moment Before Eruption (2002), dedicated to the apparent quiet of a sunny moth in Tel Aviv. In all these films Mograbi directly comments on the theme of his work, playing with his audience and with the filmmaking medium. Laughter and doubt allow to touch on key issues ranging from violence in history to ancestral violence. An example is Avenge But One of My Two Eyes (2005), shot during the second Intifada, in which the conflict in the occupied territories is conceptually re-opened by the ancient biblical myths of Samson and Masada, that taught Jewish people to die for their country. Another example is the recent masterpiece Z32 (2008), that tells of a punitive expedition by the Israeli army, and in which self-confessed criminals are digitally disguised. The use of technology on an essential detail like the faces of the murderers triggers a reflection on reality.

Mograbi's films have been featured in Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, but in spite of the international praise of the critics they are little known in Italy, where only one title - namely Avenge But One of My Two Eyes (2005) - has been distributed. This section, including short and feature films, is the first complete retrospective of this kind, and on this occasion the filmmaker will come back to Milan, after winning the Aprile Award at the 2004 edition of Milano Film Festival with his short film Detail. Besides presenting screenings of his most important works, this section will present Mograbi's short films as part of some video installations, as their director originally meant them and presented them on several occasions.

Finally, Mograby himself will talk about his films during a master class at Milano Film Festival.

by Alessandro Beretta

Avi Mograbi, a Master Class at Milano Film Festival

To learn more

This is a selection of interviews with Avi Mograbi.

Human Rights Watch, 2002
Greencine, 26/12/2005
Filmsko, 2006 (streaming )
22nd International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, 2009 (streaming)