Savi Gabizon

When Tel Aviv-based Savi Gabizon's film "Nina's Tragedies" became the first Israeli narrative feature to show at the Sundance Film Festival, it was a long-awaited U.S. breakthrough for the 45-year-old filmmaker, whose movies regularly win prizes and pull in audiences back home but hadn't gotten any traction in America.

When Tel Aviv-based Savi Gabizon's film "Nina's Tragedies" became the first Israeli narrative feature to show at the Sundance Film Festival, it was a long-awaited U.S. breakthrough for the 45-year-old filmmaker, whose movies regularly win prizes and pull in audiences back home but hadn't gotten any traction in America.

The 20th edition of the Israel Film Festival rolls into town this week amid something of a flush time for Israeli cinema. Films such as "James' Journey to Jerusalem" and "Broken Wings" -- whose director Nir Bergman is represented at the festival by two episodes of the television series "Jerusalem Brew" -- have recently had U.S. theatrical releases.

Savi Gabizon's "Nina's Tragedies" begins with a discovery: a journal covering an especially hectic six-month period in the life of a bright, nerdy Tel Aviv 14-year-old, Nadav (Aviv Elkabets). It has been found by his principal, who immediately summons his dying father, Amnon (Shmil Ben-Ari), to her office because of its sexual candor, which includes the boy fantasizing the consummation of his crush on his beautiful Aunt Nina (Ayelet July Zurer), his mother's younger sister.

TELEVISION Footage Flap: Paramount Network Television has issued an apology for using footage from the Harrison Ford movie "Clear and Present Danger" on NBC's Navy drama "JAG." Even though both the series and the movie are Paramount-produced, the film's director, Phillip Noyce, was upset that the TV show used a scene featuring Ford trying to navigate a van out of a small street while under attack by terrorists.

Tonight's opening film of the 20th Israel Film Festival, "Nina's Tragedies," made history earlier this year as the first Israeli entry to be accepted at Sundance. It's the story of a young widow's overwhelming grief as told from the perspective of her nephew, a shy, introspective teenage boy with a penchant for voyeurism.