Black Banana

84 Minutes, 1974
Genre:
Feature

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Directed by: Benjamin Haim
Cast: Danny Kinrot, Arik Minkim, Pearl Minkin, Yossele Yosilevitz
Production:Benjamin Haim
Photographer: Emil Knebel
Language: Hebrew
| Subtitles not available

Bejamin Haim’s film made headlines primarily over its creator’s highly publicised battle with the film and theatre’s ratings commission that banned it from cinemas in its full version. The commission forced Hayeem to censor scenes that featured various forms of nudity which, in their eyes, offended religious sensitivities. The fight made it all the way to the Supreme Court and ended in a verdict to re-edit the film.
Black Banana was a box office flop, way ahead of its time. By all accounts, it is a strange bird in the Israeli film landscape – an avantgarde slapstick comedy that ridicules religion, hippies, tradition and ceremonies, Jewish-Arab relations, and all other ingredients that comprised Israeli life at the time of its making. At the centre of the film is hippie Abraham who leaves for America but is abducted back to Israel by a group of militant Hassidic Jews. The kidnappers hope to put him on the righteous path again and get him to marry – but Abraham manages to escape his own wedding, mid-ceremony. At the same time, Texan Tex arrives in the country. When the two meet, they decide to stage a new production of the classical play, The Dybbuk, at the kibbutz.
The film features scenes portraying sexual violence.

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