Cinema Sabaya

Filmmaker Rona gives a video workshop at a community center, where she hands cameras to eight Arab and Jewish women and asks them to film their lives. As the participants show footage of their lives, their beliefs and prejudices are challenged and barriers are broken down. The group comes together as mothers, daughters, wives and women living in a world that wants to keep them apart, forming a strong and lasting bond as they learn more about each other and themselves. The award-winning film is shot in an effortlessly authentic faux-documentary style, so it often feels like a real doc. Cinema Sabaya's strength lies in its ability to challenge our beliefs and prejudices, and to highlight the gap in our understanding of privilege.

Keywords

  • #AccelerateAction | Internationaler Frauentag 2025
  • Award Winning
  • Gender
  • Sooner Exclusives
  • Sooner Exclusives: Stories that Matter
  • community
  • identity
  • middle east
  • women

Actors

  • Dana Ivgy
  • Aseel Farhat
  • Khawlah Hag-Debsy
  • Orit Samuel
  • Amal Murkus

Director

  • Orit Fouks Rotem

Drama


1h 35min


12

HE


DE

EN

Belgium
Israel
2021
Israel's Official Submission to the 95th Academy Awards is a heartwarming journey of unlikely friendships and empowering conversations.

Israel's Official Submission to the 95th Academy Awards is a heartwarming journey of unlikely friendships and empowering conversations.


Filmmaker Rona gives a video workshop at a community center, where she hands cameras to eight Arab and Jewish women and asks them to film their lives. As the participants show footage of their lives, their beliefs and prejudices are challenged and barriers are broken down.


The group comes together as mothers, daughters, wives and women living in a world that wants to keep them apart, forming a strong and lasting bond as they learn more about each other and themselves.


The award-winning film is shot in an effortlessly authentic faux-documentary style, so it often feels like a real doc. Cinema Sabaya's strength lies in its ability to challenge our beliefs and prejudices, and to highlight the gap in our understanding of privilege.

Cast & Crew