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Sunday, August 30, 2015

JeruZalem

CINEMA: It’s the Talmud — with zombies! — in new Israeli horror film. Cinema royalty, the Paz brothers say their English-language ‘JeruZalem’ is the culmination of a childhood of ‘killing off’ friends ( LAURI DONAHUE, Times of Israel).
JeruZalem (the “z” is for you-know-what) world-premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal in July and had its US premiere as the closing night selection at Bruce Campbell’s Horror Film Festival in Chicago on August 23. As a work-in-progress, it won the Audience Award and the Best Editing Award at this summer’s Jerusalem Film Festival.

The film, by brothers Yoav and Doron Paz, is about two young American women vacationing in Israel. The women follow a cute anthropology student to Jerusalem on the eve of Yom Kippur – when all hell breaks loose. (One of the women is played by Yael Grobglas, on track to becoming the scream queen of Israeli horror cinema.)
No, there aren't zombies in the Talmud — as far as I know. The Talmudic connection is this:
“JeruZalem” was inspired by a line from the Talmud (Eruvin 19a): “There are three gates to hell, one in the desert, one in the ocean and one in Jerusalem.”
The brothers also disclaim any allegorical political message in the film.