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Director Kobi Jaeger’s film, whose title is a nod to René Clemént’s 1966 French wartime drama, Is Paris Burning?, also has the alternate title 60 Hours to Suez. The film was released in the immediate aftermath of Israel’s stunning Six-Day War victory – a time of nationwide euphoria – and was, in fact, the first film to have tackled that conflict.
Is Tel Aviv Burning? Comprises several parallel plotlines – all set on the eve of the war. The stories play out concurrently as a way of conveying the reality of life in Israel where the national and political are forever invading the individual’s space: Nachum is a relationship with Rachel who is currently rehearsing the antiwar play, Lysistrata, when he is suddenly called up as a reservist soldier; Swiss and Irish volunteers, Jacques and Beck, arrive in Israel to join the war effort; Jonathan, a reservist Air Force pilot, finds himself out of commission following an emergency landing during which he suffered a back injury, and is now struggling to come to terms with the fact that he has been benched from any and all frontline action; Uri decides to go out clubbing, despite his father’s protestations who is trying to get him to realise the seriousness of the situation, but when the radio announces the call up to reservist service – Uri, sure enough, drops everything, and puts country first.
The film, made in the spirit of other European modernist films of the period, intersperses the personal narratives with docu-archival footage and montage sequences, including a speech by then-Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, civilians digging trenches, etc. One particularly memorable highlight is the discotheque scene where singer-songwriter Edna Goren performs her smash hit, ‘Mendelbaum,’ (lyrics: Yoram Taharlev), with music by Yohanan Zarai who is also behind all the other music featured in the film’s soundtrack.
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All rights are reserved to the Jerusalem Cinematheque – Israeli Film Archive (RA) and the rights holders of the works. Any use of works on the website for non-individual and non-personal purposes is strictly prohibited without prior, written permission.
For more information about the rights holders, please visit the relevant collection page, or contact the Jerusalem Cinematheque – Israeli Film Archive (RA) offices.
We have the utmost respect for all rights holders’ copyright and put great efforts to track down any and all intellectual property owners for the purpose of seeking and obtaining permission to use their materials featured on the website.
Any and all materials are used in accordance with clause 27a of the 2007 Copyright Act. If you believe that your rights as intellectual property and copyright owners of any material featured on this website have been compromised, then you may contact the Israeli Film Archive via email with a cease-and-desist notice, requesting that the material in alleged copyright infringement no longer be used. When contacting the archive, please state the merit to your copyright ownership claim, as well as your full name, email address, and telephone number, with a link to the relevant webpage.
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