JIFF25: Hora

Australian premiere 

The hora dance is a staple at Jewish weddings and other celebrations, but how did it come into existence? This entertaining documentary delves into the one-hundred-year history of the hora and how Israeli folk dancing formed out of a collective desire for a new national culture, melding elements from the diverse ethnicities and influences that Israeli people brought with them.  

Hora combines vivid archival footage with artful animations, interviews with choreographers and dance teachers, and present-day footage from dance rehearsals, festivals and performances. It explores how the chain of the hora connects not only individual people with their community by physically linking them together, but it also connects the distant past with the present as the dances are passed on from one generation to the next.   

Can the traditions of Israeli folk dancing survive our modern times, or are they doomed to become a relic of the past? 

Hebrew with English subtitles