Film About Iranian-Jewish Community Wins 'Israeli Oscar'

The film 'Baba Joon', recently released in Israeli cinemas, depicts the life of a family from three generations of Iranian Jews in Israel and won the 'Israeli Oscar' in 2015. According to Israeli media, the annual Israeli cinema award named 'Ophir' was presented to Yuval Delshad, the director of 'Baba Joon', on the evening of Monday, September 30, in Ashdod. This film, which has occupied the Iranian-born director for the past two years, premiered in Israeli cinemas just two weeks ago, ahead of schedule. Upon the announcement of the award for the best Israeli film, a film critic from the Jerusalem Post described 'Baba Joon' as 'the best film ever made in Israeli cinema'. Other critics in Israeli media also deemed the local 'Oscar' awarded to this film as 'deserved'. At the Ophir awards ceremony, 'Baba Joon' also won four other awards in addition to 'Best Film'. 'Baba Joon', the first feature film by Yuval Delshad, managed to surpass films by other prominent directors. Although part of the dialogues in 'Baba Joon' is in Persian with the accent of old Iranian Jews, it was introduced in media reports as 'the first Persian-language film in Israel'. Yuval Delshad emphasized that 'Baba Joon' narrates the life of his own family, whose grandparents immigrated from a traditional Iranian Jewish community to Israel in the early 1950s. Delshad's grandfather insisted that his children and grandchildren should continue his profession, which was raising turkeys on a farm in a 'moshav' in the Negev desert, but the teenage grandson disobeys. The grandfather wanted his thirteen-year-old grandson, Moti, who had reached 'Bar Mitzvah' age, to work on the farm, but the young boy is passionate about tinkering with old car parts in hopes of building a bicycle or a homemade car. Despite Moti's disobedience and the dissatisfaction of his father and grandfather, the family's intimacy is at its peak. Yuval Delshad, who is also the screenwriter of the film, cast several Iranian Jews living in Israel for acting in his work, but also invited the famous Iranian actor Navid Negahban from Los Angeles to Israel. Meanwhile, the director used several members of his family and other Iranian-born individuals he knew in Israel as non-professional actors in this film. 'Baba Joon' had already attracted attention from several festivals or cinema owners in Canada, the USA, Japan, Germany, and Qatar even before its release in Israel, and was sold for screening in commercial cinemas in some of these countries. 'Baba Joon' and the lifestyle of Iranian Jews in Israel depicted in this film have gained attention from the people of this country and the global cinema at a time when relations between Israel and Iran are more tense than ever, and the Israeli government's opposition to the nuclear agreement reached regarding Iran's nuclear program has become an international issue. From the early years of the establishment of the Israeli state until the 1990s, groups of Iranian Jews immigrated to Israel and settled there, but before the rise of a star like Rita, Iranian-born individuals had less presence in the artistic scenes of Israel while maintaining their ancestors' traditions of humility and living away from the attention of others, sometimes in isolation. Meanwhile, according to Haaretz, Ms. Miri Regev, the Israeli Minister of Culture, stated on Monday, September 30, at the Israeli cinema Oscar award ceremony that 'Baba Joon' reflects the culture of Iranian-origin Jews living in Israel and deserved this award.