“Daring and Heart-Wrenching Jewish Film”— Reception of Aleksander Ford’s “Border Street” in Israel

Abstract

The main subject of the paper is the distribution and critical reception of the film Border Street (dir. A. Ford, 1948) in Israel at the end of the 1940s. Conducting a review of archival diplomatic reports and texts published in the Israeli press of the time, the author reconstructs the strategic rationale behind the film’s export to the Jewish state and analyzes its reception in local media. The conducted analysis demonstrates the significant popularity of the film in Israel and the considerable role Border Street played in the context of broader cultural and diplomatic relations between the two nations.