Israel’s Academy Awards Entry is a Farsi-Language Film

For the first time, Israel will submit a Farsi-language film as its Academy Awards entry for best foreign language film this year, reported JTA. Baba Joon, which won the award for best picture at Israel’s Oscars, the Ophir Awards, on Monday, is directed by Iranian-Israeli Yuval Delshad and produced by David Silber (of the Oscar-nominated film Beaufort).

The film centers on a cross-generational family feud among Iranian Jewish men, which unfolds in the Israeli agricultural village Ayanot (doubling as Zerahia, a village first settled predominantly by Iranian immigrants) and whirls between issues of traditionalism, patriarchy, and the allure of America, within a newly acclimating immigrant narrative. It stars an array of Persian actors including David Diaan, Navid Negahban (of Homeland), Elias Rafael, and Viss Elliot Safavi, along with first-time actors Faraj Aliasi and Asher Avrahami. According to the Jewish Journal, Delshad’s casting choices were meant to reflect a genuine commonality of experience with the characters portrayed. Watch the trailer below:

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