Tel Aviv

TEL AVIV - Israel is dancing here

Without the connection to the sea, Tel Aviv would never have been built. Once the city was the salvaging port for Jews from the Diaspora, today the stream of voluntary immigrants does not break off. Jerusalem is praying, Haifa is working and Tel Aviv is dancing, they say in Israel. Lifestyle, creativity and individuality are the calling cards of Tel Aviv.
 
The film draws a multi-faceted picture of Israel's second-largest city, whose name means "hill of spring". Tel Aviv was literally built on sand after Jewish families used seashells from the beach in 1909 to draw the plots on which they built the first houses. The city grew fast. Nazi persecution, Stalinist threat and hostility in Arab countries made it a haven for Jews of countless nationalities. Today, the average age of the approximately 400,000 inhabitants is 29 years, the life expectancy at over 80 years. Competition and pressure to perform are high. If you want to keep up, take a personal trainer.
One of the encounters that director Thomas Wartmann tells in his film is Maria Pomerantz, who immigrated from Russia. The bodybuilder earns top-tier fees by tormenting her clients - overweight men and women, as well as young people getting fit before joining the army.
The security standards of the repeatedly hit by terrorist attacks city are high. However, the authorities allowed the film crew to take spectacular aerial shots of Tel Aviv and glimpse into the War Room, a multi-media crisis center three floors underground. Security chief David Aharony spent a day at work, keeping a cool head when a terrorist warning came on during the well-attended Gay Pride Parade. But the Tel Avivans have ordinary worries too; For example, the "Gassi Geher" from DogMen, a young company that provides the approximately 80,000 dogs in the city with an all-round service from a hairdresser's visit to "Dogsitting" in the home. Other protagonists of the documentary are an orthodox rabbi, who dances along with his followers to techno music on traffic islands, the head of a start-up blacksmith in Ramat Hachayal, the Israeli Silicon Valley, and the renowned architect Yael Moria. With the renovation of Dizengoff Square, a central square in the city, she wants to give Tel Avivern the feeling of living in a shared living room.
Tel Aviv is also a paradise of oriental cuisine. At the Karmel Market, where the selection is the greatest and the goods are always fresh, the film meets the restaurant owner Nanuchka Shrier. The gourmet scene Tel Avis is sophisticated and gourmet chefs are revered as stars. The latest trend is the vegan cuisine. When Georgian-born Nanuchka decided to ban meat from her menu two years ago, many prophesied that her restaurant would be out. But until today "Nanuchka" dances every night to live music on the tables.