Loves, Journeys, and Soul-Searching in Tel Aviv Cinematheque's August Programs

A variety of cinematic programs and specials will be presented during the month of August at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, featuring masterpieces of all time with 'The Unknown Roads' – unforgettable road movies, 'Summer Stories,' and tributes to groundbreaking director-actors John Cassavetes and Xavier Dolan – alongside 'In the Israeli Mirror,' which includes this year's most talked-about local documentary productions, accompanied by discussions with the creators.

A hot summer at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque: Throughout August 2026, the renowned quality film institution will screen the best classics of all time, including journeys, loves, and soul-searching, as well as leading contemporary works, including Israeli documentaries – as part of special programs presented concurrently throughout the month.

Among others, the specials will include 'The Unknown Roads' featuring unforgettable road movies (throughout the month); 'Summer Stories' (Tuesday, Aug 11 – Saturday, Aug 15); tributes to groundbreaking director-actors: the late John Cassavetes – one of the greatest creators in American cinema of the second half of the last century (Wednesday, Aug 5 – Saturday, Aug 15), and Xavier Dolan – one of the leading voices of the new generation in contemporary Canadian cinema (Saturday, Aug 22 – Wednesday, Aug 26); and 'In the Israeli Mirror' – a mosaic of the year's greatest blue-and-white documentary films straight from major festivals, accompanied by talks with some of the creators (throughout the month).

'The Unknown Roads' Program: Unforgettable road movies shown until the end of the month, including 'Seven Years in Tibet' (Jean-Jacques Annaud, USA 1997); 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' (Ethan and Joel Coen, USA 2000); 'It Happened One Night' (Frank Capra, USA 1934); 'Easy Rider' (Dennis Hopper, USA 1969); 'A Walk in the Woods' (Ken Kwapis, USA 2015); 'Paris, Texas' (Wim Wenders, West Germany/France/UK/USA 1984); 'Almost Famous' (Cameron Crowe, USA 2000); 'Stand by Me' (Rob Reiner, USA 1986); 'Kikujiro' (Takeshi Kitano, Japan 1999); 'Faces Places' (Agnès Varda and JR, France 2017); 'The Straight Story' (David Lynch, USA 1999); 'American Honey' (Andrea Arnold, USA 2016); 'Beau Is Afraid' (Ari Aster, USA 2023); 'Stalker' (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR 1979); 'The Brown Bunny' (Vincent Gallo, USA 2003); and 'Ulysses' Gaze' (Theo Angelopoulos, Greece/France/Italy 1995).

'Summer Stories' Program: To be presented from Tuesday, Aug 11 to Saturday, Aug 15, also featuring 'Stand by Me' (Rob Reiner, USA 1986) and 'Kikujiro' (Takeshi Kitano, Japan 1999), as well as 'Call Me by Your Name' (Luca Guadagnino, USA/Italy/France/Brazil 2017); 'Dirty Dancing' (Emile Ardolino, USA 1987); 'Jaws' (Steven Spielberg, USA 1975); 'Midsommar' (Ari Aster, USA 2019); 'Summer of 85' (François Ozon, France 2021); and 'Aftersun' (Charlotte Wells, UK 2022).

Tribute to John Cassavetes (1929-1989): Featuring the best films of the Greek-American director-actor, considered a pioneer of American independent cinema thanks to a series of groundbreaking films he created from the late 1950s to the 1980s. The program runs from Wednesday, Aug 5 to Saturday, Aug 15 and includes 'Faces' (USA 1968); 'Husbands' (USA 1970); 'Opening Night' (USA 1977); 'A Woman Under the Influence' (USA 1974); and 'The Killing of a Chinese Bookie' (USA 1976).

Tribute to Xavier Dolan: The director-actor considered one of the most prominent young voices in contemporary Canadian cinema, whose works frequently deal with themes of gender and sexual identity. Among his films to be screened are 'Mommy' (Canada 2014) on Saturday, Aug 22; 'It's Only the End of the World' (Canada/France 2016) on Tuesday, Aug 25; and 'Laurence Anyways' (Canada/France 2012) on Wednesday, Aug 26.

In the Local Sector:

The 'In the Israeli Mirror' program will run until the end of the month – a mosaic of the most talked-about blue-and-white documentary films from the past year, straight from the major festivals Docaviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem, portraying a contemporary portrait of a society in the midst of soul-searching. As part of the screening events, some of which will include accompanying discussions with the creators, featured films include 'Her Own Money' (Efrat Shalom Danon) – the first two episodes of the new 'Kan' series about powerful women in the Israeli economy operating within a male-dominated world; 'One Eye Open' (Tom Giat) – following reservists during an ongoing war whose end is unknown;

'The Woman Who Didn't Know How to Love' (Rotem Dimand) – about the discovery of the secret archive of the creator's late grandmother, revealing a family portrait against the backdrop of 1960s Tel Aviv; 'Moshe Mizrahi – Climbing the Mountain' (Michal Bat-Adam) – in which the creator reveals personal materials from her long-standing family and romantic partnership with the late esteemed director and their work together as an actress, as well as his personal story from childhood in Egypt; 'Find Me, Okay?' (Yula Gidron, Israel/USA) – intimately documenting the struggle of the family of the late Eden Yerushalmi, who was kidnapped on Oct 7 from the Nova Festival, until the moment hope collapsed; 'Esther' (Shaked Goren) – on the disappearance of successful singer Esther Ofarim, who left Israel for a modest life in Germany;

'Facial Features' (David Ophek) – about the Haredi sketch artist Gil Gibli, who, with the help of a traumatic memory, reconstructs the images of relatives for Holocaust survivors in their final years for whom no documentation remains; 'The Meteorite Gang' (Yoav Shamir) – about a family in the far north of the American continent convinced that a massive rock sitting inside an old school bus is a valuable meteorite; 'Glorious Defeat' (Nadav Aharonovich and Iris Ozer) – about the reconstruction of the historic battle in the Lower Galilee a thousand years ago where Saladin's army defeated the Crusaders, marking the end of their rule in the Holy Land; 'Looking for Haifa – The Story of Shimon Holie' (Eitan Sarid) – a search for the legendary guitar hero who shone in the Haifa scene of the 70s and early 80s and has since disappeared, with the film coming full circle before his passing;

'I Am Niou' (Yael Abecassis) – about a three-and-a-half-year-old toddler who, following a severe car accident, hovered between life and death and was left with severe brainstem damage; when he woke up, he had to relearn how to breathe, speak, walk, and eat, while the driver was and remains his best friend; 'Shalom' (Meital Zvieli) – about the shared life behind the work at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem, between different religions and beliefs and the compassion faced with questions about captivity; 'No More Options – The Israeli Billion-Dollar Scam' (Hila Medalia, Israel/Canada) – the story of Lee Elbaz, who is serving a lengthy sentence in US federal prison for involvement in a sophisticated financial fraud within the world of binary options; and 'Undershirts and Panties' (Smadar Zamir) – the stories of women from the home front of the Yom Kippur War, revealed through rare archival materials and forgotten recordings.

For full information on the website Tel Aviv Cinematheque

Tel Aviv Cinematheque, 5 HaArba'a St. Tel Aviv, Tel. *6876

(From the film "It Happened One Night". Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment)