Keret

Israeli writer, filmmaker to speak in Portland

By JEWISH REVIEW

article created on: 2008-10-15T00:00:00

Israeli writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret will speak at Portland’s Hollywood Theater on Wednesday, Oct. 29 after the screening there of film “Jellyfish,” winner of the 2007 Camera d’Or Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
 
Hailed as the voice of young Israel and one of its most radical writers, Keret is internationally acclaimed for his short stories. His books are bestsellers in Israel and have been published in 22 languages.

His books include “The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God,” “Missing Kissinger,” “Gaza Blues,” and “The Nimrod Flip-Out.” In France, Keret’s “Kneller’s Happy Campers” is listed as one of the that nation’s 200 books of the decade.

Keret has received the Book Publishers Association’s Platinum Prize several times, has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize and the Ministry of Culture’s Cinema Prize. More than 40 short movies have been based on his stories, one of which won the American MTV Prize in 1998.

As a filmmaker, Keret is the writer of several feature screenplays, including “Skin Deep,” a 1996 film that won first prize at several international film festivals and was awarded the Israeli Oscar. “Wrist Cutters,” featuring Tom Waits, was released in August 2007. “Jellyfish,” his first movie as a director along with his wife Shira Geffen, won the coveted Camera d’Or prize for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.
 
Keret is a lecturer at Tel Aviv University.
 
Keret’s Portland appearance is a presentation of Portland State University’s Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies, the Portland Chapter of Hadassah and the Oregon Area Jewish Committee.
 
Admission is $5, with free admission for students with ID. For more information, call 503-295-6761 or 503-725-4023 or visit www.oajconline.org or www.Judaic.pdx.edu.
 
The Hollywood Theater is located at 4122 NE Sandy Blvd.