Gur Bentwich is a director, screenwriter, and actor. Bentwich attended Tel Aviv University where he studied at the Department of Film and Television Studies. In 1991, he directed The State of Lettuce, his graduation film project in which one can already observe the majority of themes that would later recur in all his subsequent feature films: Tel Aviv-centric storylines, oddball characters, drugtaking, and a touch of surrealism. In 1995, Bentwich directed his debut feature film, Planet Blue – an outlandishly surreal road movie that quickly shot to cult status, garnering a loyal fan following. The film became a fixture at Tel Aviv’s cinematheque where it was shown regularly for years, every Friday at midnight.
Highlights of his other films include Total Love (2000), Up the Wrong Tree (2013), and The Bentwich Syndrome, a documentary film about his own family. His 2019 film, Peaches and Cream won Best Screenplay at the Jerusalem Film Festival, earning two of its cast members, Dover Kosashvili and Hadas Ben Aroya each, an Ophir award in their respective Supporting Actor/Actress categories.
Bentwich’s list of acting credits include Elad Keidan’s Afterthought (2015), as well as appearances in several of his own films, including Total Love, Up the Wrong Tree and Peaches and Cream. In 2011, Bentwich was cast as the lead in Off-White Lies, a film directed by his wife, director Maya Kenig.
