book Reviews 129 Miri Talmon and Yaron Peleg, eds., Israeli Cinema: Identities in Motion. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011, xvii + 373 pp., hardcover $55.00; paperback $35. Miri Talmon and Yaron Peleg’s edited volume, Israeli Cinema, is a timely addition to the scholarship on Israeli cinema. Early books on the subject, such as Ella Shohat’s groundbreaking 1989 Israeli Cinema: East / West and the Politics of Representation, and Amy Kronish’s 1996 World cinema: Israel, sought to survey Israeli cinema in its entirety: its history, major genres and movements, aesthetics, and prevalent themes. Over the past decade and a half, though, scholars have shifted their interests. No longer do they write general histories of the subject but, rather, they explore at depth only one of its aspects, as titles of studies pub- lished since 2000 reveal: Yosefa Loshitzky’s Identity Politics on the Israeli screen (2001); Raz Yosef Beyond Flesh: Queer Masculinities and Nationalism in Israeli Cinema (2004); and, more recently: Anat Zanger’s Place, Memory and Myth in Contemporary Israeli cinema (2012); Raaya Morag’s Waltzing with Bashir: Perpetra- tor Trauma and Cinema (2013); and Yaron Shemer’s Identity, Place, and Subversion in Contemporary Mizrahi Cinema in Israel (2014). These studies have indeed significantly broadened our understanding and appreciation of Israeli cinema and have greatly enhanced the theoretical framework in which it is viewed. Yet, given the boom in Israeli cinema since the early 2000s, the absence of a general guidebook, not only in English, but also in Hebrew, has become ever more noticeable. The evident reluc- tance of scholars in the field to take upon themselves such a general guidebook, renders edited volumes the only viable approach to address this need. Until recently, scholars have shied away from such collec- tive projects, and Talmon and Peleg’s volume is the first of its kind in English. Even in Hebrew, such an edited volume is long overdue; the last of its kind, Gertz, Lubin and Ne’eman’s Fictive Looks: On Israeli Cinema, came out in Hebrew in 1998—on the eve of the international breakthrough of Israeli films. Israeli Cinema is therefore a welcome endeavor, and provides a much needed and valuable updated overview of Israeli cinema and its major themes. Featuring many of the leading scholars of the subject, it also provides an excellent introduction to current prevalent approaches in the field. The volume is divided into seven sections, six of which are dedicated to major themes broached by Israeli films. The first section, the nation and its formation, features essays by: Ariel L. Feldestein on the emergence of cinema in Palestine between the two World Wars; by Jan-Christopher Horak on Helmar Ler- ski’s film (a topic of growing interest among scholars); and by Yaron Peleg, on the changing image of men in Israeli cinema from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. The second section deals with war and its aftermath. It opens with Uri S. Cohen’s survey of representations of war in Israeli cinema. Eran Kaplan’s essay picks up on Peleg’s discussion, and tackles the changing cin- ematic image of the soldier. Judd Ne’eman’s analysis of Katmor’s A Woman’s Case explores how one particular film is informed by the Israeli obsession with death, while Yael Zerubavel discusses the cinematic war widow. Finally, Yael Munk explores trends in recent Israeli war films. The third section focuses on ethnicity. Nitzan Ben Shaul deliberates on ethnic cinema vis-à-vis the tension between the secular nation state and globalism. Yaron Shemer reviews Mizrahi cinema and Olga Gershenson analyzes representations of Russian immigrants in Israeli films. The fourth section deals with the Jewish Holocaust in Israeli films. Ilan Avisar provides a survey of Israeli Holocaust cinema; Liat Steir-Livny focuses more specifically on the figure of the Holocaust survi- vor; and Raz Yosef explores how one director, Eytan Fox, treats the subject in his films. The fifth section has to do with religion and, more specifically, with cinematic representations of Jewish Orthodoxy. Dan Chyutin looks at David Volach’s film My Father, My Lord, Nava Dushi considers female characters in Israeli film about Orthodox Jews, and Anat Zanger explores the analogies between theo- logical and Zionist myths in recent Israeli cinema. The sixth section is about cinematic representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Sandra Meiri shows how films that feature the conflict reflect upon Israeli-Jewish identity; Dorit Naaman explores passing as central to many such films; Yael Ben-Zvi-Morad reviews recent trends in Israeli cinema’s handling of the Israeli-Pal- estinian conflict; and Nurith Gertz and Gal Hermoni’s joint essay explores how the Palestinian trauma is treated in two recent films. The last section charts new cinematic grounds taken by Israeli cinema. Gilad Padva surveys Israeli queer cinema, Elad Kedem discusses changes in the cinematic portrayal of the kibbutz, and Miri Talmon © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2015 IMAGES 8 Also available online—brill.com/ima DOI: 10.1163/18718000-12340034