Voodoo Dolly

"The Belly Dancer", Original Hebrew title, LIRKOD.

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Director and producer, Marek Rosenbaum, Israel, 2006 (in Hebrew, Runtime 95 minutes), stars Meital Dohan and Alon Aboutboul.

Viewed at CINERAMA theater, Seattle, March 17, (Saint Patrick's Day) 2007 at opening of The 12th Jewish film festival of Seattle. This small gem from Israel was an eye-opening discovery at the Seattle Jewish Film Festival. A partially tongue-in-cheek Jewish gangster film, with a very cute young gun moll (Metal Dohan) who is a passionate devotee of Turkish belly dancing, and is the femme fatale of the title, around whom this surprise-a- minute comedic thriller revolves. Except for the fact that the main guys were all talking Hebrew this could, for all intents and purposes, have been a French "polar" (with echos of Godard) or even, a recent American job. This film takes you on a ride with so many unexpected twists and turns that you'll come out saying "This TOO is Israel???"

--"Belly Dancer" looks to me like a sharp new turn for Israeli film - one that may signal the kind of New Direction caused by "Diva" in French film at the beginning of the eighties. Hope it gets around, because "Dancer" is really a winner and introduces a whole new mini-pantheon of Israeli movie actors. Star Meital Dohan (b. 1979) is a leading actress, singer, and all around entertainer active in Israel since 1998.