The Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies kicked off its 2023 Summer Film Series with Karaoke, the feature-film debut from writer-director Moshe Rosenthal.
In Karaoke, winner of “Best First Film” honors at the 2022 Jerusalem Film Festival, Sasson Gabay (The Band’s Visit, Shtisel) and Rita Shukrun (When Heroes Fly) star as a middle-class couple in their 60s, whose life of quiet disappointment and regret is upended when they meet their new neighbor, Itsik, a modeling agent and international bon vivant (Lior Ashkenazi: Walk on Water, Footnote, IIJS guest speaker in October 2022). The couple is fascinated and transformed by their new friend, who forces them to decide what they really want from their life together. This late-coming-of-age story is equal parts comic and dramatic, anchored by a trio of engaging, unpredictable performances. Gabay and Shukrun won Israeli Film Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively.
Moshe Rosenthal is a graduate of the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University. He worked in music videos, commercials, short films, and web series for about a decade before writing and directing Karaoke, his first feature. Karaoke had its international premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, and won Best First Film at the 2022 Jerusalem Film Festival.
On July 17, 2023, Moshe Rosenthal joined the Institute for a virtual Q&A with Stuart Weinstock, the IIJS Film Series Coordinator. You can view their conversation in full below.
If you'd like to see more of Moshe's work, you can view two of his short films using the following information:
Leave of Absence (2017)
Password: shabaton
Our Way Back (2018)
Password: ourwayback
This event was made possible by the generosity of the Appel and Kaye families.
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