Jewish film blog

Festive film Jews

This in via SomethingJewish:

This year's London Film Festival is underway in the capital, offering two weeks of great movies from around the world. And among this year's highlights are some of the best new Jewish-themed movies around. So for those of you who fancy checking out some Semitic cinema, Caroline Westbrook looks at what you should be seeing.

Everything Is Illuminated

Based on Jonathan Safran Foer's novel, this quirky comedy drama stars Elijah Wood as Jonathan, a young Jewish man who travels to Ukraine in search of the woman he believes saved his grandfather from the Nazis.

He's joined on this journey by a pair of Ukranian tour guides – a grumpy old man and his grandson whose command of English is dodgy at best. This is very much a film of two halves, the first part being a hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy, the latter half taking a more dramatic turn as Jonathan comes closer to finding out the truth about his grandfather.

Showing on: November 1, 6.30pm/November 3, 4pm, Odeon West End

Song of Songs

Set among London's Orthodox community, this tells the story of Ruth (Natalie Press) whose dying mother's last wish is to be reunited with her estranged son David (Joel Chalfen). However, when Ruth tracks him down it sparks off a chain of unexpected and sinister events.

Showing on: October 24, 6.30pm, Phoenix East Finchley November 1, 9pm, National Film Theatre

Bee Season

Based on Myla Goldberg's book, this family drama follows Eliza Naumann (Flora Cross), a young girl who surprises her family by winning her school spelling bee and heading for the national championships. Her dad, a Judaism professor (Richard Gere) who has never realised his daughter's potential, begins taking more of an interest in her as a result and introduces her to the world of Jewish mysticism.

Showing on: October 22, 6pm/October 24, 3.30, Odeon West End

Ushpizin

This Israeli tale is billed as the first film made by and with members of the Orthodox Jewish community that's aimed at a mainstream audience. It focuses on Moshe and Mali, a childless married couple getting ready for Succot. Trouble is, they've got no guests to pay host to, and no money to spend – until an unexpected windfall turns their lives upside down.

Showing on: November 2, 6.15pm/November 3, 4pm, National Film Theatre

The Constant Gardener

Kosher British actress Rachel Weisz is already being tipped for an Oscar nomination for her performance in this thriller, which was the opening night film. The Constant Gardener, which is based on a novel by John le Carre, stars Weisz as a human rights activist who is murdered in Kenya. Her husband (Ralph Fiennes) travels to the area to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death – and is shocked by what he finds. The film's already had its London Film Festival run (it was the opening night movie), but it's released in UK cinemas on November 11.

For further information, visit the LFF website: www.lff.org.uk

UK Jewish Film Festival

It might still be a month away, but select highlights of this year's UK Jewish Film Festival, set to take place in November, have been announced – and you should start planning your viewing schedule now.

In fact, if you're planning a holiday during November then cancel it, because this year's line-up is just too good to miss.

Among the highlights will be the following premieres:

"Go For Zucker" This comedy was a huge hit in its native Germany. Not surprising, given that it's set in Germany and is in German. It centres on the Zucker brothers (no, not the ones who gave us Airplane). One is a religious Jew , the other is secular. Following the death of their mother, in order to inherit her money, the pair have to settle their differences.

"The First Time I Was Twenty"  Parisian set comedy-drama about a teenage girl who wants to be like one of the lads.

"Live and Become" (Dir. Radhu Mihaileanu) This drama tells the story of an Ethiopian boy whose mother forces him to declare himself Jewish A Christian in order to be included in Operation Moses, which rescued Ethiopian Jews in the 1980s and brought them to Israel.

"Keep Not Silent" An Israeli documentary, which explores the often unspoken subject of lesbianism and Orthodox Jews.

The full programme will be revealed next week. The 2005 London programme runs first from 5-10 November at the Screen on the Hill, Belsize Park then 12-16 November at selected cinemas across London. Look out for screenings at other venues across the country.

For more information, www.ukjewishfilmfestival.org.uk

Films in Sheffield

Sheffield is probably best known throughout the world as the home setting for the hit movie The Full Monty, but for those who are fans of documentary films, it is also home to the annual Sheffield International Documentary Festival.

The 12th event will takes place from October 10 to October 16 and features a number of Jewish and Israeli themes.

Getting its world premiere is the rather bizarre Philip and His Seven Wives. The story of a messianic "rabbi" who thinks he is a Hebrew King living in Brighton.

Avenge But One of My Two Eyes gets its UK debut. The film looks at Israel and the Palestinian territories and explores the founding of the state of Israel.

Seeds shows how 10 teenagers from Israel, Palestine, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan come together for three weeks at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Maine.

Tell Them Who You Are takes a look at Jewish cinematographer Haskell Wexler who won Oscars for such films as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Bound For Glory. The film is made by his photojournalist son Mark.

For more information, visit: www.sheffield2005.com

2006 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival

The 6th annual Atlanta Jewish Film Festival will be taking place from January 23 to January 29 2006 and they are now inviting entries.

For more info, visit the AJFF site here.

Boston Jewish film festival

If you can't wait until November for the next Boston Jewish Film Festival, you can still get a taste of the highlights from last year's event at Encore and More 2005.

The films being shown are

Le Grand Rôle by Steve Suissa (France, 2003, 89 min.)
For years, friends and actors Maurice, Sami, Simon, Elie, and Edouard have been waiting for their big break. The future looks bright when famous American director Rudolph Grichenberg (Peter Coyote) offers Maurice the part of Shylock in his Yiddish screen adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.

Paper Snow by Lina and Slava Chaplin (Israel, 2003, 98 min.)
The Russian-Israeli directing team known for A Trumpet in the Wadi directs this account of the wildly tempestuous affair between the Russian-born actress Hanna Rovina and her younger lover

The Rashevski's Tango by Sam Garbarski (Le Tango des Rashevski, Belgium/France/ Luxembourg, 2003, 97 min.)
Family matriarch Rosa Rashevski believed that a tango was as good as chicken soup and better than organized religion. Her death sets off identity crises among three generations of Rashevskis.

Or (My Treasure) by Keren Yedaya (Mon Trésor, France/Israel, 2003, 100 min.)
Or is the emotionally charged portrait of a 17-year-old woman in Tel Aviv and her attempts to wean her mother (played by Ronit Elkabetz) from a life of prostitution.

Alila by Amos Gitai (France/Israel, 2003, 122 min.)
Against the backdrop of a crowded apartment block in a working-class Tel Aviv neighborhood, the turbulent and often poignant lives of twelve characters converge.

To Take a Wife by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz (Ve Lakechta Lecha Isha, Israel/France, 2004, 97 min.)
In the confines of a small apartment building in Haifa, 1979, Vivian is surrounded by family who try to convince her not to divorce her traditionalist husband, Eliyahu.

Late Marriage by Dover Kosashvili (Hatuna Meuheret, Israel/France, 2001, 102 min.)
Zaza (Walk on Water 's Lior Askenazi), a 32-year-old Georgian living in Israel, is forced to choose as his parents' plans for his arranged marriage are threatened by his passionate affair with Judith, an older, divorced single mother.

The Ninth Day by Volker Schlöndorff (Der Neunte Tag, Germany/Luxembourg, 2004, 98 min.)
Based on a real-life 1945 memoir, the film tells the story of Henri Kremer (Ulrich Matthes), a priest from Luxembourg who is imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp. On the verge of mental and physical collapse, Kremer is suddenly set free and given nine days by a young Gestapo officer to convince the local bishop to support the Nazi occupiers.

Barcelona Jewish Film Festival

If you are in Barcelona between June 11 and 19, then  make some time to visit the city's Jewish Film Festival.

Now in its seventh year, the festival promises plenty, alas the website doesn't give any indication as to what this year's programme is.

Montreal Jewish Film Festival turns 10

If you are in and around Montreal in Canada this month between May 10 and May 19, then make a point of visting the Montreal Jewish Film Festival.

Now in its 10th year, there are some great films being shown.

Among the highlights:

Waiting for Woody Allen (Yiddish)

Two quarrelsome Hassidim, Mendel and Yossel, sit on a bench in Central Park. Disillusioned with religion, therapy and their friendship, they wait for Woody Allen to come and give meaning to their lives. A tragicomedy in one act.

Looking for Victoria (Spanish/English)

Between 1976 and 1983, approximately 30,000 citizens, among them 2,000 Jews, disappeared in Argentina. The military dictatorship called it "a dirty but necessary war against leftist terrorists." Adriana Lewi was eighteen months old when the police abducted her and her parents. She was returned to her family, but she never saw her mother and father again.

Twenty-five years later when her son, Fede, turned the same age she was when her parents were taken, Adriana begins to learn the truth about their beliefs, their radical choices and their tragic deaths.

American Matchmaker (Yiddish)

Leo Fuchs, the 'Yiddish Fred Astaire' stars in this 1940 urbane musical comedy as Nat Silver, a debonair New York businessman whose recent engagement (his eighth) goes awry. Determined to find a wife, Nat reinvents himself as a matchmaker and sets off on his new venture in the Bronx, outfitted in a morning coat. A neophyte in a profession with traditions rooted in the shtetl, his unorthodox approach soon finds him in conflict with the local shadkhonim.

Toronto turns 13

Congrats to the Toronto Jewish Film Festival which turns 13 with this year's annual event.

In 13 years, the festival has grown into an essential fixture of the Jewish film festival circuit and is now the biggest event of its kind.

This year's event which kicks off on May 7 and runs until may 15 will screen 100 films.

Among the highlights:

Protocols of Zion

In 1905, the infamous anti-Semitic propaganda treatise called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was first published. In 1920, Henry Ford, notorious Jew-hater and friend of Hitler, gave a free copy with every car sold. Probably written around the turn of the century by agents of the Russian Czar’s secret police, the Protocols have returned and proliferated with a vengeance since the 9/11 attack. The filmmaker interrogates the mistaken but widely held belief that no Jews died in the bombing. With remarkable restraint, from the streets of New York to the mountains of West Virginia, he interviews White supremacists, Holocaust deniers, newspaper publishers and radio hosts who, sometimes coming out with inadvertently hilarious remarks, have propagated the claim of a diabolical plot by Jews to control.

The Aryan Couple

Joseph and Rachel Krauzenberg are prosperous Hungarian Jews in 1944 who, over the years, have provided work for some 3000 employees, including a young Aryan couple. The Krauzenbergs are ordered to host a dinner for Gestapo officers Himmler and Eichmann at which they are expected to trade their fortune for freedom and a plane to Palestine. Bitter irony and almost unbearable emotional undercurrents emerge from various acts of uncommon kindness as well as common cruelty. Gripping performances and lush cinematography.

Awake Zion

Growing up Jewish in Miami Beach, the director was not only intrigued by Rastafarian culture and its message of truth, love and understanding, but found it oddly familiar. She travels to Jamaica, Los Angeles, Israel and New York to discover historical intersections of Jews and Black Africans in a multi-layered, upbeat, music-filled history of the bloodlines of ancient kings. Is Rasta and reggae a missing piece of Judaism? Whose history is it anyway?

The Devil and Manny Schmeckstein

In this delightfully dark claymation short, an elderly stand-up comic passes away at the microphone. It wouldn’t be the first time a comic died onstage, but then the Devil consigns him to Hell for not getting a single laugh since 1968.

Harrisburg Jewish Fim Festival

If you can get to Harrisburg in Pennsylvania, then you will be in for a treat as until May 19, the town is holding its annual Jewish Film Festival.

Now in its 12th year, the Harrisburg Jewish Fim Festival has some great cinema delights including:

Watermarks (2004)

The story of the champion women swimmers of the legendary Jewish sports club, Hakoah Vienna. Ha-koah ("The Strength" in Hebrew) was founded in 1909 in response to the notorious Aryan Paragraph, which forbade Austrian sports clubs from accepting Jewish athletes. Hakoah rapidly grew into one of Europe's biggest athletic clubs, achieving astonishing success in many diverse sports.

James’ Journey To Jerusalem (2003)

In the imaginary village of Entshongweni, the young James is chosen to undertake a pilgrimage to Holy Jerusalem. But Israel is no longer the Holy Land that James and his people imagined. At the airport, James is suspected of trying to infiltrate the country in order to work illegally. He is jailed and destined for deportation. Inside the dark cell, as James prays to God to allow him to complete his mission, a miracle occurs.

UK Jewish Film Festival dates

Time to pencil in the UK Jewish Film Festival for 2005/2006.

This great annual event kicks off in the West End of London with a special gala night on November 2.

Screenings in London start at the Screen on the Hill in Belsize Park and run from November 5 to November 10. After this, the festival moves on to a number of other London cinemas until November 15 when the festival goes on a UK tour covering various cities until the end of March 2006.

As soon as we get more details of films and screenings these will be added on JewishFilm.co.uk