Desert Desires

Chatrooms, "Playboys" and prostitution: Three films reveal the truth about women and men, their wishes and their final game. And the emotional desolation experienced by women.

19h

Or - My Treasure

Feature film by Keren Yedaya, Israel 2004, 101 min, English subtitles

Ruthie has been on the game for twenty years. Her daughter persuades her to take on a cleaning job. The change for the better does not last, however. The film, which is set almost entirely in the confines of their mutual apartment, coveys with oppressive urgency the psychological dynamics of this mother-daughter relationship, the exhaustion, the brutal treatment inflicted by the men, the monotony of the cleaning job.

Winner of the Caméra d’Or in Cannes.

21h

Beyond Guilt #2

Documentary by Rutie Sela und Maayan Amir, Israel 2004, 18 min, English subtitles

The film uses a hotel room as a claustrophobic laboratory, shows how the “test subjects”, spoken to in front of the camera in the chatroom, crave for exposure and publicity. The effects of the occupation are unmistakable: terror and militarism manage to penetrate even the most intimate moments.

The First Zionist Bunny

Documentary by Shiri Shahar, Israel 2004, 75 min, English subtitles

In 2003, “Playboy Channel” began broadcasting erotic films in Israel. Six hundred girls were tested as hosts. The female director Shiri Shahar accompanied the ten finalists and offered a revealing glimpse of different aspects of life in Israel: the family, religion, sex roles and politics. Playboy provokes Israeli society and forces it to take a stand.