Shorts: The arts

Documentary sets new date for Exodus

(jps) | "The Exodus Decoded," a two-hour documentary by award-winning Israeli-born filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, is suggesting that the Exodus as recounted in the Bible occurred around 1500 BCE, about 230 years before the date most commonly accepted by contemporary historians.

The doc, narrated by director James Cameron, identifies a 3,500-year-old gold image — found in an Athens museum — as that of the lost Ark of the Covenant. It also cites a hieroglyphic inscription discovered in an Egyptian museum that attests to the Exodus.

None of the relics — or arguments — cited in the made-for-TV, state-of-the-art film, which is the result of six years of research, has been accepted by archaeologists or any prominent archaeological institution as proof for Jacobovici's theory.

The film, first broadcast in Canada, will be shown here Aug. 20 on the History Channel.




Polanski draws on Holocaust for 'Twist'

jerusalem (jta) | Roman Polanski said his film version of "Oliver Twist" reflected some of his experiences as a Holocaust survivor.

The European Jewish director was in Israel last week to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Jerusalem International Film Festival, which features first screenings of his adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel about an orphan in 19th-century London.

Polanski, who was born in 1933, dealt with the Holocaust in depth with his Oscar-winning film, "The Pianist."