10 Best Movies Set in or About Israel

10 Movies Set in or About Israel

Foreign-led films whose sustained setting or subject remains centered on Israel.

1. 

   1. Promises

   2001

   This documentary follows seven Palestinian and Israeli children in and around Jerusalem, letting them voice their fears, hopes, and hardened views — and, in a few cases, bringing them face to face across the divide. A moving, humane portrait.

2. 

   2. The Visual Bible: Matthew

   1993

   This dramatization stages the Gospel of Matthew word for word, following Jesus and his disciples through Roman-occupied Judea as he preaches, heals, and gathers followers. A faithful scripture-based film.

3. 

   3. The Other Son

   Le Fils de l'autre · 2012

   Two young men — one Israeli, one Palestinian — discover they were switched at birth in the hospital and raised on opposite sides of the conflict, forcing both families to rethink everything about identity and belonging. A tender, thought-provoking drama.

4. 

   4. The Man in the Glass Booth

   1975

   A wealthy, mercurial Jewish industrialist in New York is suddenly seized by Israeli agents and put on trial as a Nazi war criminal — but nothing about his identity is as it seems. A provocative courtroom drama.

5. 

   5. The Juggler

   1953

   A traumatized Holocaust survivor and former performer emigrates to the newly founded Israel, where his shattered nerves and mistrust nearly destroy him before he finds a chance at healing. An early postwar drama.

6. 

   6. O Jerusalem

   Ô Jerusalem · 2006

   As the state of Israel is born in 1948, the friendship between a Jewish American and an Arab is tested to the breaking point when they find themselves on opposite sides of the war for Jerusalem. A sweeping historical drama.

7. 

   7. Hello Goodbye

   2008

   A comfortable, secular Parisian couple in their fifties impulsively move to Israel to reconnect with their roots, only to find the reality of their new life comically at odds with their dream. A light romantic comedy.

8. 

   8. Eichmann

   2007

   Drawing on his real interrogation, this drama depicts the Israeli questioning of Adolf Eichmann before his trial, as an investigator draws out the fugitive Nazi's chilling account of his role in the Holocaust. A tense two-hander.

9. 

   9. King David

   1985

   This biblical epic charts the life of David, from the shepherd boy who slew Goliath to the flawed, tormented king of Israel, torn between faith, power, and desire. A sweeping historical drama.

10. 

    10. The Order

    2001

    An artifacts smuggler travels to Jerusalem to rescue his kidnapped archaeologist father and recover a sacred scroll, dodging a scheming police chief and a shadowy cult. A martial-arts action adventure.