The Chattanooga Jewish Film Series celebrates its 15th season by gifting the community free access to the virtual screening of "Image of Victory," an Ehud Bleiberg Production.
The virtual screening is available from noon on Sunday, July 17 until noon on Friday, July 22.
To register to receive the link, visit www.jewishchattanooga.com.
“The Jewish Federation is proud to be able to gift this important film to the community as a celebration of the only consecutive running, international film series in Chattanooga.” stated Michael Dzik, executive director.
The film is the prelude to the Chattanooga Jewish Film Series that begins on Aug. 17, with a sponsor event followed by five films in five consecutive weeks. Each of the season’s films will be screened in-person and virtually. More details about the season are available by visiting www.jewishchattanooga.com.
Image of Victory is a 2021 Israeli film directed by Avi Nesher. The film includes a reenactment of the battle and subsequent loss of the Nitzanim Kibbutz during the 1947–1949 war and is based upon real events. The film's plot focuses mainly on the days before the Battle of Nitzanim and on the battle itself (June 7, 1948). The Nitzanim kibbutz is successfully conquered and the surviving defenders are taken prisoners. It is considered Avi Nesher’s best film to date.
The story is about a young Egyptian journalist, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, who accompanies an Egyptian volunteer fighting force heading to aid the Palestinian Arabs, as a director of a propaganda film to capture an "image of victory" of the Egyptian Army. They set camp at a village at the foot of the kibbutz within which the members, together with a platoon from the Givati Brigade, are preparing to defend. The film is in Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles.
Hannah Brown in The Jerusalem Post called the film "a great anti-war epic." She praised it as "not so much a political movie as an existential statement about the price paid, quite literally, for the image of the title. It is the rare movie that may change the way you look at the world."