24/10/2016 - The new film by Eitan Anner, A Quiet Heart, will feature in the festival’s Main Competition

A Quiet Heart by Eitan Anner

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has announced the 2016 line-up for its 20^th edition, including a Main Competition that showcases 12 films – all international or world premieres (read news) –, and a First Features Competition that screens 13 world and international premieres (read news). Among them, we can find an Israeli film that will have its international premiere: A Quiet Heart, by Eitan Anner, will feature in the festival’s Main Competition, vying for the Grand Prix.

Eitan Anner’s Israeli production plunges into present day Jerusalem, a city increasingly dominated by religious fanaticism, where Naomi (played by Ania Bukstein, recently seen in Game of Thrones), a secular young woman, seeks refuge from the pressure of her life as a concert pianist. Overwhelmed by the expectations of her parents and her colleagues in Tel Aviv, Naomi seeks anonymity and solitude in the ancient city. Despite her intentions to stay alone, she quickly makes two unexpected connections - one with a musically gifted Ultra-Orthodox young boy who lives in her building and the other with Fabrizio, a charismatic Italian monk and organist in the local Catholic monastery. While these relationships allow Naomi to reconnect with her love of music and sense of meaning, they also make her a target in her new community. The film, written by Anner himself, is produced by Gal Greenspan for Green Productions.

The other sections will also welcome Israeli films. Erez Mizrahi and Sahar Shavit’s Beneath the Silence and Medinat Hagamadim’s Land of the Little People will be in the Forum section, while Elite Zexer’s award-winning film Sand Storm [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] will show up in the Panorama section. Jonathan Geva’s Abulele and Ido Haar’s Presenting Princess Shaw in the parallel festival Just Film’s children and documentary sections, respectively.