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Praise the Lard

  • Israel
  • Documentary
  • 2016
  • 60 min.
  • Director(s): Chen Shelach
  • Producer(s): Duki Dror and Anat Vogman

Synopsis

The story of the pork industry in Israel, an industry that has raised ethnic tensions and heated struggles over the country’s short history. Sitting firmly between Israel’s most essential identity issues and the fundamental right to freedom of choice, how did the unsuspecting pig turn into such a central taboo in the Jewish tradition and one of the secular state’s most prominent symbols? Praise the Lard is a film about the Zionist movement’s attempt to create a “new Jew” in the land of Israel, unbeholden to old traditions, and about this new identity’s struggle to survive in the face of fierce resistance from religious and observant Jews. Praise the Lard presents a sharp take on the outsized role one farm animal came to play in the Holy Land.

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Credits

Director(s)

Chen Shelach

Producer(s)

Duki Dror and Anat Vogman

Script

Duki Dror and Chen Shelach

Cinematography

Tal Yanovitzky

Editor

Duki Dror

Cast

Chen Shelach, Giora Goodman, Chaim “Jumes” Oron, Yehuda Meshi Zahav, Rabbi Yitzhak Peres, Kobi Tribitch, Sar Shalom Eyal, Alex Schmerling, Yehudit Shelach

Original Language

Hebrew

Subtitles

English

Produced with the help of

IBA Channel 1 and The New Fund for Cinema and Television

Broadcaster

IBA Channel 1

Sound Designer

Ronen Nagel

Festival Highlights

Master of Art International Film Festival, Bulgaria, 2018

Seattle Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2018

New York Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2018

Berlin Jewish Film Festival, Germany, 2017

Jewish Motifs, Poland, 2017

Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Canada, 2017

Haifa International Film Festival, Israel, 2016

Reviews

  • "http://www.goodfoodrevolution.com/israeli-pork-praise-lard/"
    - Review by Malcolm Jolley