Bourekas films (Hebrew: סרטי בורקס) were a genre of Israeli-made movies popular in Israel in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Haaretz film critic Uri Klein describes Bourekas films as a "peculiarly Israeli genre of comic melodramas or tearjerkers... based on ethnic stereotypes."[1] They were "home-grown farces and melodramas that provided escapist entertainment during a tense period in Israeli history."[2] The term is said to have been coined by the Israeli film director Boaz Davidson, the creator of several such films, as a play-on-words on the "spaghetti western" genre, known as such because that particular Western sub-genre was produced in Italy. Bourekas is a notable dish from Israeli cuisine.
The main theme in most Bourekas films was the conflict between ethnic cultures in Israel, in particular between the Mizrahi Jews and the Ashkenazi Jews. The hero was usually a Mizrahi Jewish man, almost always poor, canny and with street smarts, who came into conflict with the institutions of the state or figures of Ashkenazi origin - mostly portrayed as rich, conceited, arrogant, cold-hearted and alienated. In many of these films, actors imitate different Hebrew accents, especially that of Jews originating from Morocco, Persia and Poland. They employ slapstick humour, alternate identities and a combination of comedy and melodrama.
In a paper entitled "A Shtetl in Disguise: Israeli Bourekas Films and their Origins in Classical Yiddish Literature," Rami Kimchi claims that the portrayal of Israeli Mizrahi communities in these films bears a strong resemblance to the portrayal of the 19th century East European shtetl by classic Yiddish writers. [3] Kimchi attributes the commercial success of these films to their "hybridity," i.e. they were Israeli/Mizrahi and Diasporic/Ashkenazi at one and the same time, thereby satisfying the political, sociological, and psychological needs of both Mizrahi and Ashkenazi audiences in Israel.[4]He believes eleven films produced between 1964 and 1977 make up the corpus of the genre.[5]
Bourekas films were highly successful in Israel during the 1960s and 1970s, but were also criticized for being shallow. Some of the main actors and directors were:
Several prominent Bourekas films were Kazablan (1974) (a story of a young Mizrahi man who falls in love with an Ashkenazi girl, starring Yehoram Gaon), Salomonico (1972) and Yi'ihiyeh Tov Salmonico (1975) (with Reuven Bar-Yotam), Ha-Shehuna Shelanu (1968), Ha-Meshahnei'a Ba'am (1973), and Haham Gamliel (1973).
At the end of the 1970s, the popularity of the Bourekas film declined. In the 1980s, Israeli films became more politically-charged and began to address controversial topics. Nowadays many of the Bourekas films have gained cult status in Israel.