Israeli Ambassador to Ghana Sharon Bar-li has expressed hope of future collaborations between the Israeli and Ghanaian film industries.
The Ambassador told News One at the just ended Israeli Film Festival, which took place at the Silverbird cinema at the Accra Mall on Thursday, that Israel hopes to reach the Ghanaian public through arts and film.
“I will hope that through the film festivals that we are holding, we will be able to create future collaborations between the Israeli film industry and the Ghanaian film industry. Well, this is the second time we are having a film festival in Ghana and it won’t be the last time. Next year, we will have the third and fourth one. We are definitely establishing a tradition here. We feel that through arts and the film industry, we can approach the Ghanaian public,” she stated.
The two-day film festival presented viewers with a unique window into the diverse and complicated weave of Israeli culture and also offered something for everyone to learn through films. The Festival was opened with the award winning Israeli film ‘The Dove Flyer’.
According to Sharon Bar-li, the main aim of the film festival was to bring Ghanaians from all walks of life closer to the Israeli society, culture, landscape and history.
“We feel that this is part of our people to people activity and by watching an Israeli movie, Ghanaians from all walks of life can get a glimpse of Israeli society, culture, landscape, history and at the end of the day feel a little closer to us because it doesn’t matter where you are coming from or what language you are speaking. At the end of the day, each story is a human story–something every human can relate to,” she said.
The event brought together a massive crowd of both Ghanaian and Israeli patrons to witness the festival.
Asked whether she was a patron of Ghanaian films, Sharon Bar-li disclosed that she had not seen enough Ghanaian films that she would like to watch because of her busy schedules.
“Unfortunately, I haven’t seen enough Ghanaian movies that I would like because of my busy schedule. But I think that at the end of the day, the film industry caters for the public and like any other industry, it needs to be profitable, it needs to generate funds which can be reinvested in the industry,” she added.
