Professor Olga Gershenson explores the birth and blossoming of Israeli-made horror films over the last decade.

It’s one of the most popular – and profitable – genres in film. But before 2010, there were no Israeli horror films.

Then over the last decade distinctly Israeli serial killers, zombies, vampires and ghosts invaded screens amid a blossoming of young local filmmakers. Olga Gershenson follows her previous books on Russian theatre in Israel and the unknown Shoah films of the Soviet Union with New Israeli Horror: Local Cinema, Global Genre. The Professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies and of Film Studies at UMass joins us to explore how these films challenge traditional representations of Israel and its people, while also appealing to audiences around the world.

Buy a copy of New Israeli Horror by Olga Gershenson.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval. 

About the speakers:

Olga Gershenson is Professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies and of Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Gesher: Russian Theater in Israel (2005) and The Phantom Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and Jewish Catastrophe (2013), and most recently, New Israeli Horror: Local Cinema, Global Genre (2023).

Nir Cohen is the author of Rebels, Soldiers and Drifters: Gay Representation in Israeli Cinema, co-editor of Jewish Film and New Media: An International Journal, and Head of Programming at UK Jewish Film.