Israeli Film Series: A Burning Man

Winner, Best Israeli Feature Film, 2025 Haifa Film Festival

Shai Avivi (Here We Are, TJFF2021) delivers a wonderful performance as Yona Kimchi, a divorced man in his fifties driving his soldier son, Omer to the military transport terminal. After Omer enters the base, Yona finds himself unable to leave and camps out in the parking lot. As the vibrant desert festival Midburn takes shape nearby, a procession of strangers enters Yona's orbit, each revealing a cross-section of Israeli identity as well as fragments of his life--failed ambitions, a broken marriage, and an overwhelming fear for his son. In his latest film, celebrated filmmaker Eyal Halfon (The 90-Minute War, TJFF2017) offers a tender, darkly humorous meditation on fatherhood, vulnerability and the quiet power of simply staying put.

Screened in partnership with: