Nissim (‘Nicho’) Leon (1931-2000) was a cinematographer and producer. Bulgarian-born Leon and his family moved to Palestine when he was seven. As a young soldier in the IDF, Leon served with the ‘Gadna’ military prep unit’s film division. Professionally, he took his first steps in the industry at Geva Films where he found work as director of photography, shooting newsreels, documentaries, and adverts. In the early sixties, he teamed up with Yair Pradelsky and Yisrael Ringel and started Roll Films, a production company that helmed many features well into the early noughties when it finally called it a day.
Leon became Roll Films’ inhouse cinematographer. Some of his most notable DP work included the films Kuni Leml in Tel Aviv (Joel Silberg, 1976), 5 and 5 (Shmuel Imberman, 1980), and I Don’t Give a Damn (Shmuel Imberman, 1987). In TV, he also had an extensive list of series credits to his name, including fan favourite drama classic Hedva and Shlomik (‘Hedva ve’Shlomik’) (Shmuel Imberman, 1971).
Highlights of his other DP credits include Tel Aviv Taxi (co-shot with Haim Schreiber; Larry Frisch, 1956), I Like Mike (Peter Frye, 1960), What a Gang (Zeev Havatzelet, 1963), A Pound a Piece (Yoram Gross, 1963), El Dorado (Menahem Golan, 1963), Dreamboat (Israel Wiesler [aka ‘Poochoo’] and Amatsia Hiuni, 1964), 999 Aliza: The Policeman (Menahem Golan, 1967), Theatre in Israel (David Perlov, 1967), Two Heartbeats (Shmuel Imberman, 1972), Millionaire in Trouble (Joel Silberg, 1978), Kuni Lemel in Cairo (Joel Silberg, 1983), A Married Couple (co-shot with Ya’akov Eisenman; Isaac Zepel Yeshurun, 1983), Tel Aviv-Los Angeles (Shmuel Imberman, 1988), and The Quarry (Ron Ninio, 1990).
