Israel has selected The Sea (HaYam / البحر), directed and written by Shai Carmeli-Pollak, as the country’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards.
The film won Best Picture at the Ophir Awards (Israel’s equivalent of national film awards), which is significant because in Israel, the winner of the Ophir Award for Best Film is automatically designated as the country’s Oscar submission.
In The Sea, Khaled, a 12-year-old boy from a Palestinian village, gets the chance to see the sea for the first time in his life on a school trip. But when they reach a military checkpoint, the soldiers claim his permit is invalid and send him back home, while his classmates continue their trip. Deeply disappointed, Khaled sets out to the sea on his own, even though he doesn’t know the way and doesn’t speak Hebrew. When his father, Ribhi, an undocumented laborer working in Israel, learns that his son is missing, he leaves his job in search for him—risking arrest and the loss of his livelihood.
Starring in the movie is Khalifa Natour who won the Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “The Sea,” but refused to attend the ceremony in the shadow of the war in Gaza.
He sent a statement that read, “Following the army’s entry into Gaza and the genocide that frightens me greatly, I cannot find words to describe the magnitude of the horror, and everything else becomes secondary to me. Even cinema and theater.”
See the trailer below.
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