West Coast Premiere

Directed by Michal Aviad

Written by Michal Aviad and Tal Olmer. Edited by Era Lapid. Cinematography by Guy Raz.

With Evgeina Dodina and Ronit Elkabetz.

Germay, Israel, 2010. In Hebrew with English subtitles. 90mins.

Co-Sponsored by Minda and Frank Kurtz and Roselyne C. Swig

Two of Israel’s strongest actresses, Ronit Elkabetz and Evgenia Dodina, play two women who share a terrible bond. The film begins with their chance encounter during an altercation between settlers and IDF soliders and a group of Palestinian villagers harvesting olives. Leftist activist Lily (Elkabetz) stands her ground, chastising the young men for their brutish behavior. Nira (Dodina), a film editor involved in making a documentary about the conflict, looks on with admiration and realizes she has met this regal woman once before during a police lineup 20 years earlier when they both testified against a serial rapist. Despite their dramatic differences, the two troubled mothers begin to forge an uneasy but ultimately cathartic friendship. Based on real-life events, Invisible builds slowly, like a crackling bonfire. Veteran documentary filmmaker and San Francisco State University alumna Michal Aviad makes innovative use of historical news footage in her first fiction film and incorporates taped interviews with two of the women attacked by the so-called Polite Rapist, a married father of three who assaulted 16 victims on the outskirts of Tel Aviv in the mid-1970s. Fueled by the smoldering performances of its two stars, the film explores the aftershocks of sexual violence with surprising restraint. Best Feature, Haifa Film Festival. Director Michal Aviad in person in San Francisco