Close to Home

Characters Mirit and Smadar in the movie Close to Home

Close to Home is a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Writer/director team Vidi Bilu and Dalia Hager draw on their experiences of female conscription in the Israeli army to tell the story of teenage girls Mirit and Smadar, as they serve as border police in Jerusalem.

The film follows their volatile relationship as they patrol the city, with orders to check the identification cards of all Arabs in the city. Smadar rebels against the military system whilst Mirit tries to conform, but a bomb blast in their zone of duty brings the two closer.
 
Bilu and Hager are both pro-peace film makers hoping for an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Hager told the FPS audience that the film aimed to portray military conscription from a different, female perspective, and depict how female soldiers “are just imitating reflections of the male system.”

Bobby

Elijah Wood and Lindsay Lohan in “Bobby”

Bobby is a eulogy to the ideals of US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, the younger brother of former President, John Kennedy. Three years after JFK was assassinated, Robert Kennedy met a similar fate, murdered while giving a campaign speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968. Written and directed by former Brat Pack actor Emilio Estevez, the film looks at the final hours of Kennedy’s life through the eyes of 22 characters staying or working at the hotel.

Estevez spent more than five years working on the script, and used his Hollywood contacts to pull in no fewer than 18 major stars – including his father Martin Sheen and former girlfriend Demi Moore.
 

Black Book

Paul Verhoeven’s “Black Book”

Award winning Black Book tells the story of how one Jewish woman survives the Nazi occupation of Holland during the Second World War. It marks director Paul Verhoeven’s return to Dutch language film-making after twenty years in Hollywood making blockbusters like Total Recall and Basic Instinct.

Amanda talks to the maverick director about this genre-bending war movie, and why he’s determined to stir up controversy with the most expensive Dutch film ever made. Black Book is Holland’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

Bollywood’s Invasion

Yana Gupta

Ever since a gypsy belly-danced around a camp fire in the classic film Sholay, a song and dance routine – known as the ‘item’ number’  – has been an essential part of every Bollywood film.

Traditionally the dance was performed by the most attractive Indian actresses, but times are changing, with foreign girls now taking many lead roles. Sapna Bhatia speaks to India’s hottest item dancer, Czech born Yana Gupta, about the international invasion of Bollywood.

The Fabulous Picture Show will air at the following times: