Israeli director Hillel Rate’s drama The Good Fence, set against the backdrop of a right-wing religious settlement, has won the $50,000 Grand Prize for the 12th edition of the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel International Film Lab.

The feature revolves around the antagonistic relationship between a right-wing religious settler father and his son, who rejects his religious upbringing and joins an extreme left-wing group.

Rate, who describes himself as a no-longer-practicing Jew raised in a religious home, has taken inspiration from events in his own life, and the tension he experienced with his late father after he chose a different life from that of his parents.

“The Good Fence portrays the conflicted relationship between a father and son in the settlements, in the wake of a family tragedy. It avoids simple answers while looking unblinkingly at the most complex issues of our time,” said Austrian Film Institute CEO Roland Teichmann, who headed the international jury.

He was joined by Belgian producer Diana Elbaum and 30West co-president Daniel Steinman, who also sat in on pitching sessions at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem on July 19.

The Good Fence is produced by Lev Orlov at Tel Aviv-based Lev Orlov Films. The feature will be Rate’s first feature after well-travelled shorts Within His Passions, My Father’s Son and Paperock.

In other prizes, the $20,000 Sam Spiegel International Film Lab Emerging Filmmaker Award went to Omer Ben-David and Vera Grinblat’s Who Lives There? about a 15-year-old girl dealing who is sent to a strict religious school. It is produced by Estee Meckelberg at 2-Team Productions.

“Through an unforgettable portrait of an adolescent learning to navigate the social corridors of her religious boarding school, Who Lives There? explores the sacrifices we sometimes must make in the course of defending ourselves, and how we recover from them,” read the jury statement.

The winning projects were among 12 films – split equally between Israeli and international projects – participating in the 12th edition of the lab.

International projects in the edition included Hungarian director Dénes Nagy’s The Vacation and Deep Love by Netherlands duo Emily Reekers and Sophie Dros.

Past participant projects have included Lazlo Nemes’s Academy Award winning Son of Saul and Cannes Camera d’Or winner Murina by Antoneta Kusijanović.

Traditionally coinciding with the Jerusalem International Film Festival, running from July 18 to 28 this year, the final pitching sessions are usually attended by a contingent of international film professionals.

Due to the ongoing Israel-Gaza war, the presence of international guests was scaled back this year, with the pitching session run as a hybrid physical and online event.

“The Sam Spiegel Film School and International Film Lab cultivate unique, groundbreaking filmmakers while providing them the opportunity to reach diverse audiences,” said Dana Blankstein Cohen, executive director of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School.

“Especially in these challenging times, and despite the events unfolding around us, we are making great efforts and are determined to continue to allow freedom of expression and artistic independence.”

The Jerusalem Sam Spiegel International Film Lab is supported by Beracha Foundation; the Rothschild Foundation; The Israeli Film Fund; the Israel Foreign Ministry; the French Institute; the Hungarian Embassy in Israel; Carol Polakoff and the Sam Spiegel Foundation