The film Odem
(Lipstikka) was created by Canadian-Israeli actor and director Jonathan
Sagall to portray his mother’s experience in the Holocaust. Sagall, who
starred as Momo in the 1978 Israeli cult film Eskimo Limon (Going all the way, aka Lemon Popsicle), received funding for the Lipstikka
project five years ago and later decided to transport his mother’s tale
to Ramallah, where instead of the Nazis, two girls struggle against the
Israeli occupation.
The controversial film came to light when journalist Yair Lapid wrote an article in Friday’s Yediot Aharonot in which he quoted a passage from a brochure he received for Odem
that read: “It took a lot to convince the Israel Film Fund that the
occupation is worse than Israel has ever admitted to and that it is
possible to compare the occupation to the Holocaust.”
After Lapid’s column was published, the Israel Film Fund announced that
it was freezing its support of the film, which had so far received NIS
1.3 million in state funds, NIS 850,000 of which has already been
invested in the production.
Israel Radio reported on Tuesday that the decision … >>>
