The great or disturbing turn of events is that nobody in the lives of either woman notices.

Israeli filmmaker Shira Geffen could be commenting on women's lack of acknowledgement, perhaps the internalisation of our identities and how the outside is not as important.

Self Made is a terrific film, with a textural richness and a stark beauty to its framing, as should be expected from a past winner of the Camera d’Or for the 2007 film Jellyfish, which Geffen co-directed with her husband, Etgar Keret.

Self Made has been selected forthe opening night of the 2014 AICE Israeli Film Festival, playing at 7pm on Tuesday, August 19, at Palace Electric Cinema, and in its story of the interconnectedness of people and personalities, it is a timely choice.

A story I read during the weekend (mis)quoted William Randolph Hearst’s adage that "news is something somebody doesn't want printed; all else is advertising", and that has been kicking around my head as I have been watching the films for this year’s AICE Israeli Film festival.

The organisers and publicists have quite a job on their hands this year. Politics and culture should be kept separate, but they rarely are. They inform each other. It is difficult to watch these films without having them coloured by the violence in Israel and Gaza that is filling our front pages.

Elsewhere, the UK Jewish Film Festival is making news because one of its long-time venues, the Tricycle Theatre, is demanding to have a say in the films screened and additionally refusing to play the festival unless it refuses funding from the Israeli Embassy (actually, from "any party to the conflict", reportedly says a letter from Tricycle chairman Jonathan Levy). The implication is that that particular festival is advertising.

This is the 11th Israeli Film Festival presented in Australia by AICE – the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange – and the ongoing conflict features prominently among the films.

There is a chasm of history and culture behind the headlines that I personally struggle to comprehend. I am always keen to add to my understanding and enjoy opportunities festivals such as this offer, but, at the same time, I am super-glad it is not me responsible for selling this festival in such a difficult market. Only the Russian Resurrection Film Festival will have a tougher job this year.

There is a great scene in Self Made where a German television crew interviews Sarah Adler’s character, a famous Israeli artist, about her opinions on the chance for peace in the Middle East, asking this by rote with a bunch of other banal journalistic stand-bys. It is the kind of question that can be asked by someone from the other side of the world – full of opinions, but with a removed sense of life on the front line.

I was almost tempted to ask actress Sarah Adler the same question this week, but instead I was interested in her take on a character with amnesia. As an actress, you are always swapping your life for somebody else’s, and did that help you with the character of Michal, I asked.

Adler says the film shoot began by shooting her character’s video artworks – she plays a visual artist akin to Tracey Emin, which she says “was wonderful, since it gave me a base to lay the neutral point on, something to forget”.

Self Made marks the second collaboration between Adler and Geffen and the pair share a strong trust built when Adler starred in Jellyfish.

“Jellyfish had been a very beautiful adventure, and I trusted her much more than I would have, had I not known her cinematic universe from the inside,” Adler says.

“This second collaboration was very different though, as she was directing by herself, and our communication was way more frontal.

“I felt like I was discovering a whole new Shira, determined and courageous and very positive at all times.”

Adler says that while she enjoyed watching her friend work, she is not yet ready to step behind the camera herself.

“It's true that after working for many years as an actor, one can develop the desire to break free from serving others' imaginations and find out what it is that one really wants to express,” she says, “so in that sense I am growing towards the desire to be more independent in my forms of expression.

“One of the things I enjoy the most in making movies is the collaborative aspect, being part of a team where each brings a stone to build one common project, so, in some ways, I think I could enjoy many different tasks in filmmaking.”

Among the dozen or so films playing between Tuesday, August 19, and Sunday, August 31, at Palace, are films both fabulous and frustrating.

Rita Jahan Foruz (Saturday, August 23, 4.45pm) is Ayal Goldberg's documentary about the Israeli singer who embodies the complexities of the region as a Persian-Israeli. The film has a lot in common with the Dixie Chicks film Shut Up and Sing in that Foruz, born in Iran but brought up in Israel, is open about her life, her detractors and her strengths, as the camera follows her recording a new album. She made further inroads through cultural diplomacy than most politicians by recording an album in Farsi and releasing it in Iran and Israel, to great acclaim.

I don’t know that I walked away a fan, but it is a fascinating look at a familiar industry in an unfamiliar setting.

I found In Between (playing in other cities, not Canberra) a frustrating film. David Ofek and Neta Shoshani's apparent documentary – although the lines are blurred between document and performance here – concerns itself with the complexities within relationships, and specifically that between a married couple after the husband has become ultra-Orthodox.

Religion leaves me cold at the best of times so I struggled with understanding where the husband is coming from, but it is a searing performance from both (even if we aren’t supposed to think of documentary as performance).

The festival runs until August 31 at Palace Electric. Following hot on its heels, if you want to round out your cultural understanding, is the Arab Film Festival, opening on August 29 at Arc Cinema.