In this cinematic first-person essay about Israel, the Brussels-born and Paris-based director Chantal Akerman uses a lightweight video camera the way an artist uses a sketchpad to capture visual thoughts on the wing.

NEWYORKER: L��-Bas

The director, Chantal Akerman, films the story as a flashback from a scene of violence that crystallizes the clash of cultures on which the drama runs, and which she captures in images of ecstatic power.

NEWYORKER: Almayer's Folly