Films

Sallah

Sallah 1964, Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and Golden Globe Award winner, is an Israeli comedy about the chaos of immigration and resettlement. The sharp, often hilarious satire is about Sallah and his family, new immigrants from an undisclosed Arab country, who are transferred to a temporary settlement camp upon arrival and are abandoned there for months.

Sallah

Sallah 1964, Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and Golden Globe Award winner, is an Israeli comedy about the chaos of immigration and resettlement. The sharp, often hilarious satire is about Sallah and his family, new immigrants from an undisclosed Arab country, who are transferred to a temporary settlement camp upon arrival and are abandoned there for months.

Ervinka

Ervinka, 1967, is an Israeli film written and directed by Ephraim Kishon. The film, starring Chaim Topol (best known for his leading role in Fiddler on the Roof) is a comical tale of a good-natured but incorrigible layabout that becomes embroiled in a plot to rob the Israeli lottery, all while indulging himself in his boundless zeal for mischief and romance.

Ervinka

Ervinka, 1967, is an Israeli film written and directed by Ephraim Kishon. The film, starring Chaim Topol (best known for his leading role in Fiddler on the Roof) is a comical tale of a good-natured but incorrigible layabout that becomes embroiled in a plot to rob the Israeli lottery, all while indulging himself in his boundless zeal for mischief and romance.

Blumilch Canal

Blaumilch Canal, also known as The Big Dig (1971), was nominated for the Golden Globe Award.

This film is an Israeli comedy, which depicts the madness of bureaucracy through a municipality’s reaction to the actions of an escape lunatic who digs up the streets of Tel Aviv with a jackhammer.

A madman escapes from the asylum in Tel Aviv and starts digging a canal right in the middle of one of Tel Aviv’s main streets. Due to the city administration’s bureaucratic misunderstandings, not only does nobody try to stop him, but he actually receives the help of the police and the city. The city engineer sends an army of construction workers and heavy equipment to help the lone compressor, turning a mere annoyance into a full blown canal.

Blumilch Canal

Blaumilch Canal, also known as The Big Dig (1971), was nominated for the Golden Globe Award.

This film is an Israeli comedy, which depicts the madness of bureaucracy through a municipality’s reaction to the actions of an escape lunatic who digs up the streets of Tel Aviv with a jackhammer.

A madman escapes from the asylum in Tel Aviv and starts digging a canal right in the middle of one of Tel Aviv’s main streets. Due to the city administration’s bureaucratic misunderstandings, not only does nobody try to stop him, but he actually receives the help of the police and the city. The city engineer sends an army of construction workers and heavy equipment to help the lone compressor, turning a mere annoyance into a full blown canal.

The Fox in the chicken coup

The Fox in the Chicken Coop (1978). Based on Ephraim Kishon’s satire under the same name (Hebrew: Ha Shu’al B’Lool Hatarnegolot) features many prominent Israeli actors of the time, most notably Shay K. Ophir and Seffi Rivlin. The film takes a satirical, comic look at the old generation of Israeli politicians.

The Policeman

Ha-Shoter Azulai also known as The Policeman was nominated for the 1971 Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film Award, and was awarded the 1972 Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film Award. The film won several other international awards, such as Best Foreign Film in the Barcelona film festival and Best Director in the Monte Carlo Film Festival. In Israel it is considered a cinematic classic.

Azulai is a policeman in Jaffa, whose incompetence is only matched by his soft-heartedness. His superiors want to send him to early retirement, but he would like to stay and serve the community. To keep Azulai, the local crime gang decides to fake a crime and allow Azulai to catch them in the act so that he receives a promotion and regain his contract. They finally decide to stage a robbery of ritual objects, including a large golden cross, from a local monastery. Azulai manages to catch the criminals in action and is finally promoted to a sergeant rank, but his contract is not renewed and he is forced to retire from the police.

The following full length TV films in the German language were also written and directed by Mr. Kishon:

1984 – ZDF – The Marriage Licence (Der

Trauschein)
1987 – SFB – Pull Out the Plug, The

Water’s Boiling (Zieh den stecker aus wasser kocht)