Levantine

Jacqueline Kahanoff lived in Cairo, Paris and New York, but died in an old age home in Givatayim. She was the first to write of Levantine and Mizrachi identities as no one before her had done. Director Rafael Balulu traces the footsteps of the Levantine thinker and author, and through encounters with her elderly friends in Paris and leading intellectuals in the Mizrachi discourse in Israel, he not only draws a portrait of this impressive thinker, but also discovers the fate of Levantine identity in Israel as a cultural option for pride and honor. The 14th film of the “Hebrews” project.

Deborah Starr, Associate Professor of Modern Arabic and Hebrew Literature and Film in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, and editor of the book Mongrels or Marvels: The Levantine Writings of Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff, appears in the film and will facilitate a post-screening discussion with the film’s director. In Hebrew, English & French, with Hebrew & English subtitles.

Sponsored by the Dept of Near Eastern Studies with the generous support of the Hope and Eli Hurowitz Fund

website: go2films.com/films/levantine