Last week, an Israeli student film won first prize in the prestigious Cannes Festival in France. The short film “Anthem” (Himnon) was directed by Elad Keidan, a young student director. The movie tells the story of a man from Jerusalem who walks along the streets of a famous neighborhood in Jerusalem.
Keidan was exhilarated during the post-win press conference. “I imagined that we might win one of the prizes, but I didn’t expect the first prize,†he told the media. “On my first night in Cannes I dreamt that I had won the competition, and the truth is I was pretty stressed out. Now that it’s already happened, it’s very exciting. I am proud of the fact that the judges, who are highly respectable filmmakers, liked the film — Particularly Hou Hsiao Hsien, who chaired the jury, and is an admirable filmmaker. It’s a real honor.”
Still, we can’t always win first place. On Saturday, in another part of Europe, Israel came ninth in the Eurovision song contest – the annual display of Europe’s worst pop music and its most tasteless fashion. Israel was represented by Boaz Mauda who delivered his best performance so far. The song “Ke’Ei’Lu Ka’N” (As If Here) was written by famous singer Dana International, the winner of the 1998 Eurovision. Well, coming ninth is quite an achievement compared with our embarrassing score at last year’s contest.
Source: Y-NET ; Picture by Festival De Cannes
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