Project Details
Ma matschik po?
The Series
An entertaining and touching anthropological journey into the sources of laughter of various stand-up comedians in Israel. The comedians offer us original and nuanced perspectives on ourselves, others, and our everyday lives. Each participant in the series, in their own unique way, provides us with insight into our reality through their jokes and subtle diagnoses, taking us on a guided tour inside their local jokes, which Israel is dying of laughter from, even though they themselves sometimes cry.
Special Topic for Each Episode
For each stand-up artist, we have chosen a topic that uniquely characterizes them and their art, which the episode will focus on. Each episode is dedicated to one stand-up artist or a group of artists who appear and are identified together. Each episode deals with an important Israeli issue that never fades from the public agenda in the country. Their witty humor offers a nuanced and original glimpse into our everyday lives.
Unique Tone for Each Episode
Each episode has its own unique taste and tone, tailored to the content and humor style of the comedian. Each episode illustrates the variety of different perspectives, through which we can observe the multifaceted Israeli society.
Through the stand-up comedians, the series “What’s Funny Here?” examines our small country and its small-minded citizens with a forgiving, laughing, and loving eye. And indeed, it’s time for us to reflect on ourselves with insight, love, compassion, and completion.
Israel Katorza / Where Have the Days Gone?
An emotional journey to the realms of yesterday, through the childhood memories of Katorza, a representative of our generation of revolutions. A documented journey, both amusing and touching, on a “Dan” bus, line “371” from Tel Aviv to Be’er Sheva. Visiting the forgotten stations of our childhood, lost and engulfed over the years.
“Where Have the Days Gone?” Israel Katorza asks nostalgically. Not those distant days when a hole in the ground was a well, but rather, more recent days. Days when the entire nation watched together on Friday evenings the Arab movie on TV. Days when there were only two types of cheese in the grocery store, and a wide-mouth glass milk bottle. Days when there was a string instead of a bell button on the bus, and the gear lever was the size of a watermelon.
Ironically, the distance Katorza takes from modern Israeli society allows him to notice the changes that have made us different. Changes that are sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always funny and absurd. Once we boasted, and now we try to emulate other nations beyond the sea. Where has the Israeli naivety, lost along the way, gone? Katorza wonders in pain.
This is a fast-paced, multi-themed and satirical film. Like a roller coaster racing through the regions of Israel, comparing them to the fantasies through which we built here a country and society for glory.
Banot (Girls) / Women’s Day
The “Banot” group – Shlomit Arnon, Sharon Malki, Ya’el Levental, and Nirit Dolberg, embark on a bold feminist research journey into the depths of Israeli women’s identity. When asked, what is femininity? And does it even exist? In short, everything you wanted to know about women in Israel, but were afraid to laugh about.
A diverse and humorous collage, entirely unscientifically depicting the worldview and identity of the Israeli woman through her generations and types. The variety of different women participating in the film provides us with a broad perspective on the female population in the country. Who is the Israeli woman towards the end of the second millennium? What does she think about herself, and about the Israeli men surrounding her? And in general, does she have a sense of humor? And if she does, does she have enough reasons to laugh?
The nineties are reaping the fruits of the feminist movement belatedly. The film conducts a heated debate on the definition of femininity, combining fictional interviews with caricatured women in the girls’ narration. Ironically, the blunt and uncompromising humor of the girls provides a serious and broad perspective on this important subject, from a liberated feminist standpoint, free from labels and old stereotypes.
Jackie Levy / One Day It Will Be Good
Jerusalem is a torn city with numerous silent seams, tearing apart the Israeli society: Ultra-Orthodox – secular, Ashkenazi – Sephardi, Arabs – Jews. Jackie Levy is a religious stand-up comedian from Jerusalem, and he says about the ultra-Orthodox things that the most radical secularist wouldn’t dare utter, and even the most secular Israeli does not hold back his tongue. He takes us on a delightful journey in Jerusalem.
Jackie Levy reminds us, to our horror, that the religious factions in the Rabin assassination wouldn’t dare violate the Sabbath. And at the same breath, demands from the secularists, of all people, to stop imposing “their religion” on the ultra-Orthodox. He stands on these seams and draws a line between “barbecue” and “grill”, between “culture” and “folklore”, and between the God of the Ashkenazim and that of the Sephardim.
He reminds us and himself how easy it is to be fanatic, and how it is not worth it! He himself is found on these dividing lines. From there, from his broad and comfortable point of view, he watches us, all sides writhing, and warns us like a true angry prophet, that one day it will be good… Beware!
Rami Shtern/ Another Day
A day in the life of a sharp-minded and sharp-tongued stand-up comedian, who has been sitting for years on the fence, observing us in his contemplation. It’s a purposeless and restless pedestrian journey through the crowded and pressured areas of a routine day in the city and the village. A naked and cruel self-look – how do we look on the street, on the roads, in our homes, and in our jobs. How much are we like animals? And how much, to all the winds, are we pressured and impatient, both to others and to ourselves? Where are we running to and why, Shechter asks us? What are we working for and for what? What and for whom are we building this country? What is the meaning and purpose of this insane race we wake up to every morning, and arrive exhausted at our bed at night, just to get up again at the end of the night for another day? What do we want from ourselves and from those around us? Is this what Benjamin Zeev Herzl truly foresaw and wanted here?
