Full Description
The three Darwish brothers fled Baghdad for Israel in the 1950s and established the Fantasia menorah factory. Beyond that, nothing is simple in this twisting and turning story of filmmaker Duki Dror’s silent father and quirky uncles. The real story behind his father’s silence? It’s up for grabs as Dror’s family members tell the little bits of the story they each know. Along the way, My Fantasia is filled with large and small revelations about the psychological journey of the Mizrahi Jews who flocked to Israel on the promises of the Zionist dream--dreams that turned into imperfect realities. All the while, Dror (Taqasim, SFJFF 2003) comments with wicked humor as he patiently waits and waits and finally outwaits his father, learning the truth after eight years of asking.
Filmmaker Bio(s)
Born in Tel Aviv and educated at UCLA and Columbia College in Chicago, Duki Dror has been directing award-winning documentaries since 1992. His first film "Sentenced to Learn," about "lifers" getting schooled in a Chicago penitentiary, was showcased in 1993 by Cinema Du Reel in a retrospective of American Documentary. After living in the US for 8 years, Dror returned to Israel to document Israel's cultural, social and political margins.
An important part of Duki Dror's work has been to document the life work of Jewish musicians from the Arab world. In both "Cafe Noah" and "Taqasim," he captures the beauty and depth of classical Arab music. In "My Fantasia," Dror salvages the history of his Iraqi family out of the dominant European Zionist narrative.
"Duki Dror disassembles the notion of migration and presents characters that are detached from the mainstream, enclosed in cultural islands." (Ynet).
