Arava Film Festival Adds a Second Screen Under the Desert Stars

The Arava International Film Festival returns November 4 to 14 beside the Nahal Ashush Nature Reserve near Tzukim, The Jerusalem Post reports. For the first time, the festival will show films on two outdoor screens beneath the Negev desert sky, which lets it widen its selection and offer a more varied program each evening. Film producer Eyal Shiray founded the festival in 2012 in partnership with the Central Arava Regional Council.

Opening night, November 4, is set aside for films made with support from the Negev Film Fund and shot in the Israeli desert, according to the Post. Ruthy Pribar's What is to Come, starring Ronit Yudkevitch, follows a woman who finds herself alone after 40 years of marriage and sets out on a journey of rediscovery. Shiran Sheharbani's Zebras follows three childhood friends, now 22, who hitchhike to a desert costume party and find their long friendship changing. The Short in the Desert program includes four locally made shorts, one of them created at a filmmaking incubator for women from the Negev's Bedouin community.

The Israeli lineup also includes Assaf Machnes's Where To, which premiered at Berlin and won Ophir Awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for Ehab Salami and Ido Tako, the Post reports. For the 10th time, the festival will host a seminar for high school film students from across Israel, bringing them together with filmmakers and industry professionals.

A Billy Wilder retrospective will honor journalist and artistic adviser Edna Fainaru, who died in June, according to the Post. She helped shape the festival's program with her husband, Dan Fainaru, and over more than six decades contributed to Variety and Screen International. The couple founded Cinematheque magazine in 1982. The tribute features Double Indemnity, Sabrina, Some Like It Hot and The Apartment. Other classics include restored versions of The Seventh Seal, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and After Hours.

The international program brings nine Israeli premieres, among them May el-Toukhy's Woman Unknown, Florian Zeller's Bunker with Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, and Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky, the Post reports. Georgian director Levan Koguashvili will attend screenings of Guria with his cast and crew. Families can see animated films and the original Mary Poppins. The festival is supported by the Central Arava Regional Council, the Culture and Sport Ministry's Israel Film Council, the Development of the Negev and Galilee Ministry, the Tourism Ministry, the Regional Cooperation Ministry and the Mifal Hapayis national lottery.