NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art screens Amos Gitai’s 'Carmel' (2009) in a weeklong run from January 13 through January 18, 2010. The director’s newest film, 'Carmel' combines fiction and nonfiction, and possesses elements of both documentary and feature filmmaking. 'Carmel' charts the director’s course through Israeli history, and Gitai, who is only two years younger than Israel, becomes a lively symbol for the country itself. A child of the kibbutz, a young soldier wounded during the Yom Kippur War, and a sometimes testy but always honest artist whose works are more often welcomed abroad than at home, Gitai has led a life as dense, rich, and complex as the nation of his birth.

'Carmel' blends historical elements with themes explored in his other films, taking on a variety of subjects, and offering a diary of the director’s concerns about politics, family, and present-day Israel. The film is an ode to Gitai’s family—and he is frequently present in it, as are members of his family—with a focus on the remarkably articulate Efratia, the filmmaker’s late mother. Memories of her (played in the film by actress Keren Mor) are expressed through letters from her read in part by Gitai’s wife, Rivka, and texts relating to Israel read by Jeanne Moreau. MoMA Presents: Amos Gitai’s 'Carmel' is organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, who also organized a 2008 MoMA retrospective of Amos Gitai’s work.