Aulcie
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Chronicling the life of one of Israel’s first sports superstars, Aulcie Perry, the film bearing his name intersperses flashbacks of his life with his current quest to meet his daughter.
Mixing sketch-style animation and clips of his life, “Aulcie” recounts his journey from growing up in the U.S. as a young basketball star and his move to Israel, where he led Maccabi Tel Aviv to its first European championship.
His dominance on the court brought basketball to the forefront of Israeli culture, and his lifestyle, including dating Israeli supermodel Tami Ben Ami, made him a central figure of Israeli culture. His love of Ben Ami led him to eventually convert to Judaism, a religion he’d grown more connected to than his Southern Baptist roots.
All was not well for Aulcie, however, as the film also shines a light on the superstar center’s fall from grace.
Ultimately, it also chronicles his redemption, as he returns to Israel to honor Shamluk Maharovsky, a pioneer of Israeli basketball and a father figure for Aulcie.
Combining a modern narrative of who Aulcie is with where he has come from, the film truly shows the making of the superstar, but also the making of the good man who followed.
The film pulls no punches in discussing his struggles, but also emphasizes his ever-presence in the Israeli zeitgeist of the 80s. Perhaps no figure in Israeli sports loomed quite as tall as the 6-foot-10 Perry, both on and off the court.
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