From the Central Bus station in Jerusalem, we took an hour long shared-taxi ride to Tel Aviv followed by a picturesque train journey to Haifa. I had Bernard Fanning’s Tea and Symphony album playing on my iPod the entire way.
We, like many others, had come for The Haifa International Film Festival, which takes place every autumn during the week-long Sukkot Holiday in Israel. An uphill hike up Mount Carmel will bring you to Cinemateq; one of the main venues of the festival.
There are gold stars with Hebrew names scattered all over the ground. It shouldn’t surprise you that the Israeli Beer Goldstar was one of the sponsors for the event.
The mood was really festive and I heard splatterings of at least a dozen different languages within 15 minutes of my arrival. I caught the Gala Premier of The Informant starring Matt Damon, and Israeli Director Amos Gitai’s Carmel.
Clad in black throughout the multi-layered movie, Amos Gitai appeared at the start and the end of the screening of Carmel. He answered questions regarding the film and took time to answer but since most of it was in Hebrew, I could barely understand what was going on.
We caught a Beatles tribute in a garden just near the Cinemateq and it was wonderful hearing the good old tunes my father used to play when I was growing up.
Haifa is also by the Mediterranean, so I had a fantastic time at the beach, playing with the serene blue waters. Kudos to that!
