Uri Zohar

Directing

Uri Zohar

Born 1935-11-04 · Tel-Aviv, Israel

Uri Zohar was a prominent Israeli film director, actor, and comedian who later became an Orthodox rabbi. Born in Tel Aviv, he began his career in the entertainment industry in the 1950s, gaining fame for his work in Israeli cinema and television. Zohar directed and starred in several influential films, including Hole in the Moon (1964), Three Days and a Child (1967), and Big Eyes (1974). His films often explored social issues and the complexities of Israeli society. In the late 1970s, Zohar experienced a significant personal transformation, embracing Orthodox Judaism and leaving the entertainment industry to become a rabbi. He dedicated the latter part of his life to religious study and community work, becoming a prominent figure in the Orthodox Jewish community. Zohar passed away in Jerusalem at the age of 86.

Acting credits

999 Aliza: The Policeman poster
5.5

Aliza mizrahi, the building cleaner, solves a murder where the police fails

999 Aliza: The Policeman

1967

No artwork available
NR

A couple on the beach discuss their relationship. They reminisce about how wonderful things once were and find themselves wondering whether that was indeed the case, whilst at the same time also dreading the future. At the same time, a second couple – two elderly men whom we meet, both live entirely in the past whilst dreading the present.

How Wonderful

1969

Uri Zohar: The Return poster
8.0

Documentary following Uri Zohar on the set of a short film he's directing, years after leaving the cinematic world for the religious world.

Uri Zohar: The Return

2018

Wedding in Jerusalem poster
NR

Renan Schorr documented the wedding of Uri Zohar's son to Arik Einstein's daughter.

Wedding in Jerusalem

1985

Schwartz: The Brave Detective poster
6.2

Bumbling private detective Schwartz and his equally inept part Simcha are hired by a man to find out if the man's wife is cheating on him with the family doctor. The blundering duo run afoul of mobsters and experience other mishaps during their investigation.

Schwartz: The Brave Detective

1973

Peeping Toms poster
4.4

Gote and Eli are two aging friends who don't want to age. Gote is a lifeguard who's fighting peepers on the Tel-Aviv beach. Eli is a guitar player who dreams of building a night club in altman's restaurant.

Peeping Toms

1972

The Troupe poster
7.8

The movie, set in the Israeli 1969 War of Attrition, tells the story of a prestigious military band, and the tensions and ego crises new band members cause when joining the band. Will the band survive?

The Troupe

1978

Dreamboat poster
8.0

A group of children embrace an eccentric old man, and working together, build a ship on a rooftop.

Dreamboat

The Snail poster
8.5

A musical, semi-documentary motion picture considering the making of "Shablul", a rock album by Arik Einstein and Shalom Hanoch. The film demonstrates fragments of being, a few funny sketches and musical numbers, much affected by The Beatles' flicks. "Shablul" reminds its viewers the taste of 60s, showing them the Israeli pop/rock scene of these jolly years.

The Snail

1970

Lool poster
NR

A collection of skits and songs from Israeli television shows from the 1970s.

Lool

1988

Hole in the Moon poster
6.0

A comic and episodic satire, the film uses improvisation to illustrate the clash between fantasy and reality in real life. Although conceived in the style of Mekas’ “Hallelujah the hills” (1962), it’s an authentically Israeli satire, an openly rebellious and individualistic expression that poked fun at the sacred myths of earlier zionist films. The technique of film within the film is used to portray cinema as reflection of the imagination, a miracle based on dreams and fantasies that take on concrete characteristics – parallel to the miracle of Israel, the dream that has become reality. Although not a commercial success, its importance is beyond any measure, though it remains a unique experiment, boldly uncommercial and subversive, out of any context in that patriotic, ideological epoch.

Hole in the Moon

1964

Burning Sands poster
6.8

A little group of people in Israel decides to track down a treasure which, according to the legend, is placed in the city of Petra in the kingdom of Jordan. No man ever survived this treasurehunt "to the other side" (of the Jordan River) before and the adventure ends up with fatal consequences.

Burning Sands

1960

The Big Dig poster
7.0

A slapstick comedy lampooning bureaucracy and the madness of everyday life in Israel centers on an escaped lunatic who digs up the streets of Tel-Aviv with a drill.

The Big Dig

1969

Save the Lifeguard poster
6.2

Comedy about day to day life of a Gordon beach lifeguard and his friends.

Save the Lifeguard

1977

Big Eyes poster
5.7

Benny Furman is a basketball headcoach who can't decide what he really wants.

Big Eyes

1974

They Call Me Shmil poster
6.0

Professional big-dude Paul Smith in an Israeli-produced action-comedy that looks to take inspiration from the Hill/Spencer comedies.

They Call Me Shmil

1973

The Rooster poster
7.0

Sergeant Gidi Tsur (Topol) serves in the reserve in the Suez Canal. He goes on vacation and is supposed to meet with his wife to get divorced in the Rabbinate. Meanwhile, he spends his time in the company of other women.

The Rooster

1971

Moishe Air-Condition poster
8.7

A comedy about Moishe, a soldier in the army whose nickname is Moishe Air-Condition.

Moishe Air-Condition

1966

The Other Side poster
NR

An experimental and absurd avant-garde film about a bunch of unrelated people, all standing on the side of the road waiting for the traffic light to change from red to green, but the traffic light won't change. More and more people gather on the sidewalk, and a kind of class society is formed there. The film was shot during one day in which Ephraim Kishon lent Uri Zohar the set of "Blaumilch Canal" at Herzliya Studios.

The Other Side

1968

Uri Zohar: Peeping In poster
NR

Three part series where Uri's son, Itamar, inspects the two worlds his father lived in, while they have debates and conversations about faith, values and peace between secular and Haredi jews.

Uri Zohar: Peeping In

2004

Behind the camera

Peeping Toms poster
4.4

Gote and Eli are two aging friends who don't want to age. Gote is a lifeguard who's fighting peepers on the Tel-Aviv beach. Eli is a guitar player who dreams of building a night club in altman's restaurant.

Peeping Toms

1972

Peeping Toms poster
4.4

Gote and Eli are two aging friends who don't want to age. Gote is a lifeguard who's fighting peepers on the Tel-Aviv beach. Eli is a guitar player who dreams of building a night club in altman's restaurant.

Peeping Toms

1972

Peeping Toms poster
4.4

Gote and Eli are two aging friends who don't want to age. Gote is a lifeguard who's fighting peepers on the Tel-Aviv beach. Eli is a guitar player who dreams of building a night club in altman's restaurant.

Peeping Toms

1972

No artwork available
NR

Leading up to the 1966 FIFA World Cup in London, Israeli teams practice and play every Saturday. Among the players and in the stands, tempers flare, and Sabbath etiquette is replaced by violence that turns the field into a battlefield.

Shabbat Shalom

1966

No artwork available
NR

Uri Zohar’s first film is a short experimental work based on an idea by Heinrich von Kleist. The film depicts the relationship between a marionette puppet and its operator, and the rebellion of the creature against its creator.

An Exercise in Simple Symbols

1961

Lool poster
NR

A collection of skits and songs from Israeli television shows from the 1970s.

Lool

1988

Lool poster
NR

A collection of skits and songs from Israeli television shows from the 1970s.

Lool

1988

Bloomfield poster
5.9

An aging soccer player has a part-time girlfriend, a young fan, and doubts about throwing a game.

Bloomfield

1970

Hole in the Moon poster
6.0

A comic and episodic satire, the film uses improvisation to illustrate the clash between fantasy and reality in real life. Although conceived in the style of Mekas’ “Hallelujah the hills” (1962), it’s an authentically Israeli satire, an openly rebellious and individualistic expression that poked fun at the sacred myths of earlier zionist films. The technique of film within the film is used to portray cinema as reflection of the imagination, a miracle based on dreams and fantasies that take on concrete characteristics – parallel to the miracle of Israel, the dream that has become reality. Although not a commercial success, its importance is beyond any measure, though it remains a unique experiment, boldly uncommercial and subversive, out of any context in that patriotic, ideological epoch.

Hole in the Moon

1964

Every Bastard a King poster
6.0

An American reporter and his girl-friend are visiting Israel to get a "sense of the people", in the process he meets many Israelis and some Arabs as well, particularly becoming friends with an Israeli Army reserve officer as well as an idealistic young man who is a pacifist.

Every Bastard a King

1968

Every Bastard a King poster
6.0

An American reporter and his girl-friend are visiting Israel to get a "sense of the people", in the process he meets many Israelis and some Arabs as well, particularly becoming friends with an Israeli Army reserve officer as well as an idealistic young man who is a pacifist.

Every Bastard a King

1968

Three Days and a Child poster
7.0

Based on a short story by Abraham B. Jehoshua, the movie follows Eli (Oded Kotler) taking care of an old girlfriend's child for three days. He wants him to get hurt, he worries about him. Will the child survive the three days? Will Eli?

Three Days and a Child

1967

Three Days and a Child poster
7.0

Based on a short story by Abraham B. Jehoshua, the movie follows Eli (Oded Kotler) taking care of an old girlfriend's child for three days. He wants him to get hurt, he worries about him. Will the child survive the three days? Will Eli?

Three Days and a Child

1967

Save the Lifeguard poster
6.2

Comedy about day to day life of a Gordon beach lifeguard and his friends.

Save the Lifeguard

1977

Save the Lifeguard poster
6.2

Comedy about day to day life of a Gordon beach lifeguard and his friends.

Save the Lifeguard

1977

Big Eyes poster
5.7

Benny Furman is a basketball headcoach who can't decide what he really wants.

Big Eyes

1974

Big Eyes poster
5.7

Benny Furman is a basketball headcoach who can't decide what he really wants.

Big Eyes

1974

The Rooster poster
7.0

Sergeant Gidi Tsur (Topol) serves in the reserve in the Suez Canal. He goes on vacation and is supposed to meet with his wife to get divorced in the Rabbinate. Meanwhile, he spends his time in the company of other women.

The Rooster

1971

Moishe Air-Condition poster
8.7

A comedy about Moishe, a soldier in the army whose nickname is Moishe Air-Condition.

Moishe Air-Condition

1966

The True Story of Palestine poster
8.0

Hundreds of hours of raw material shot by Nathan Axelrod, a pioneer of Israeli filmmaking before the State of Israel who documented the building of the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine – are the building blocks of the film before us: Meir Dizengoff riding his horse, Hannah Maron as a young girl trying to sell us shoelaces, the inauguration of the new port in Tel Aviv, settlers breaking ground in Hanita, the Habima Theater and Hannah Robina, the stars of the Matateh Theater, two kids tap-dancing, Ben Gurion and Shlonsky`s hair-dos, a Tel Aviv soccer match, the illegal immigration, scenic shots (swamps and desert), and more and more from the never-ending treasures of the “Carmel Films” archive.

The True Story of Palestine

1962

The Other Side poster
NR

An experimental and absurd avant-garde film about a bunch of unrelated people, all standing on the side of the road waiting for the traffic light to change from red to green, but the traffic light won't change. More and more people gather on the sidewalk, and a kind of class society is formed there. The film was shot during one day in which Ephraim Kishon lent Uri Zohar the set of "Blaumilch Canal" at Herzliya Studios.

The Other Side

1968

Fish, Football and Girls poster
6.5

The story of a soccer team, respectable families, a corrupt night club owner, and a young lad to guide all to a happy ending.

Fish, Football and Girls

1968

Take Off poster
8.0

3 friend try to have swingers night.

Take Off

1970