Virtual screening

‘Dough’ (FREE!)

Curmudgeonly widower Nat Dayan (Jonathan Pryce) clings to his way of life as a Kosher bakery shop owner in London’s East End. Understaffed, Nat
reluctantly enlists the help of teenager Ayyash (Jerome Holder), who has a secret side gig selling marijuana to help his immigrant mother make ends meet. When Ayyash accidentally drops his stash into the mixing dough, the challah starts flying off the shelves and an unlikely friendship forms between the old Jewish baker and his young Muslim apprentice. Dough is a warmhearted and humorous story about overcoming prejudice and finding redemption in unexpected places.

Film available to watch Sept. 10-12 in the USA only.

Note: This presentation is supported by Congregation Beth Israel and is a part of CBI’s Selichot program. The film is available to all.

Cast: Jonathan Pryce

Director: John Goldschmidt

Writer: Jonathan Benson

#Uploading_Holocaust

Thousands of young Israelis join the journey to Poland” each year to learn about the Holocaust. Looking into the journey through the videos they upload on YouTube reveals a moving and troubling image about the way the collective memory is formed in the web age.

#Uploading_Holocaust is a remarkable feat of editing – turning some of the more than 20,000 uploaded clips into a moving, informative, and meaningful narrative.

Length: 75 minutes

Release: 2016

Director: Nir & Sagi Bornstein

Presented for free, in remembrance of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), thanks to the support of the Israel-American Council Austin and AJFF365 subscribers.

IAC Zikaron basalon with Ms. Etty Brish on Wednesday, April 7th at 8:00 PM Central.

Tickets required, but free of charge. At check out you will be given the opportunity to donate to The Blue Card Fund, a national non-profit organization solely dedicated to providing financial assistance to destitute Holocaust survivors residing in the United States.

This is AJFF’s designated charitable partner for this year’s Yom HaShoa programs.

100 Faces

Composer Benjamin Till explores what it means to be British and Jewish in this quirky and heartwarming musical film. Till set about finding 100 British Jews, one born in every year between 1918 and 2017. Each scene features a person who is a year older than in the prior scene, reflecting the true celebration of the diversity of Jewish people. A ”musical postcard from British Jewry to the rest of the world.”

Film: 12 minutes

Director: Benjamin Till

Production country: UK

Year: 2018

15 Years

Yoav, a successful architect, has everything he’s ever wanted. His lover of 15 years, Dan, is a younger lawyer who adores him. Alma is a successful artist and Yoav’s best friend—she is like a mother and a sister to him.
However, when Alma announces she is pregnant, it ignites Dan’s desire to become a father himself. But Dan’s parental urges have the opposite effect on Yoav, who is haunted by long-buried demons. Yoav’s tight grasp on his life begins to come apart, leading to self-destructive behavior that threatens to destroy his relationship with Dan, unravel his friendship with Alma, and cost him everything.
MATURE THEMES, STRONG SEXUAL CONTENT

Film: 90 minutes

Director: Yuval Hadadi

Production country: Israel

Year: 2019

Community Partner:

1945

“This is not a Holocaust film but rather a drama that looks at life beneath the simple surface in a quaint Hungarian village after WWII.”

Two orthodox Jewish men, dressed in black, arrive at the train station of a small Hungarian village on a hot August day in 1945, one year after the German troops have left.  Their homecoming disrupts the established rhythm of life in the village, where preparations are underway for the wedding of the town clerk’s son. The clerk fears the men may be heirs of the village’s’ deported Jews and expects them to demand the return of their illegally seized property. Their reappearance forces the local residents to confront and come to terms with the horrific events of the previous year. Based on the acclaimed short story HOMECOMING by Gábor T. Szántó.
MATURE LANGUAGE, MATURE THEMES

Film: 91 minutes

Director: Ferenc Török

Production country: Hungary

Year: 2017

40 Chess Boards

In Argentina in 1939, while the World Chess Championship was taking place, breaking news shocked the participants: Germany had invaded Poland and World War II had erupted. Many great masters were stranded away from their home countries, and began to organize exhibitions in order to make their living. One of them searched for something else.

Length: 18 minutes

Cast: Juan Nemirovsky, Jorge De la Rosa, Cristian Marchesi

Director: Alfonso Gastiaburo

Writer: Alfonso Gastiaburo

40 Nickels

Norm, a Jewish immigrant boy growing up during the Great Depression in St. Louis, dreams of flying in an airplane. When an airfield near his home offers a 10-minute flight for two dollars, Norm gets hopeful about fulfilling his dream. His parents, survivors of pogroms – anti-Semitic attacks, are protective, and claim that a flight in an airplane is dangerous. Even so, Norm saves up his ice cream money, a nickel at a time, to pay for a short flight. But, when he discovers the truth about how his mother’s family was killed in the Old Country, he gets cold feet. Norm must decide whether to continue living in the shadow of family trauma or break free and fulfill his dream.

Length: 27 minutes

Cast: Grayson Taylor, Carole Forman, Te’ena Klien, Leo Grinberg, Catharine Ashmore Bradley

Director: Yasmin Gorenberg

Writer: Yasmin Gorenberg, Myra Noveck

Introduction from director Yasmin Gorenberg.
40 Nickels trailer.

Abulele

“A boy forms a secret friendship with a mythical creature in a universal and heartwarming tale of friendship and familial bonds.”
Since the sudden loss of his older brother in a car crash, ten-year-old Adam (Yoav Sadian) has been struggling at home and failing at school. Neglected by his grief-stricken parents, he is overcome with his own sorrow and guilt, while also confronting the daily torment of class bullies. Everything changes the day Adam meets Abulele, an oversized furry monster of legend that is feared by many but proves to be a friendly companion to children in need. As Adam and his new best friend outsmart his tormentors at school, the boy’s parents start to suspect their son is harboring a secret. Meantime, an elite special forces team closes in, tasked with capturing or killing the
beast.
FAMILY FRIENDLY

Film: 90 minutes

Cast: Yoav Sadian, Bar Paly, Idan Barkai, Makram Khoury, Yehuda Mor, Oded Leopold

Director: Jonathan Geva

Production country:  Israel

Year: 2015

Community partner:

An Act of Defiance

“Dutch filmmaker Jean van de Velde captures a dark period in South Africa’s recent history, balancing a nail-biting political thriller with spectacular courtroom intrigue.”
In 1963, apartheid is rampant in South Africa. Nelson Mandela and nine other defendants, including Jewish anti-apartheid fighters, are arrested on a farm for conspiring to commit sabotage and treason against the repressive South African government. Tenacious white Afrikaner lawyer Bram Fisher steps up to the challenge as lead counsel whose defendants faced a possible death sentence. Fisher risks his career and family to defend Mandela and his inner circle in this historical thriller set in South Africa’s incendiary segregation era. As Mandela fights to expose South Africa’s corrupt, unjust system, Fischer attempts to hide his own ties to the resistance. This riveting drama combines nail-biting political and courtroom intrigue to explore South Africa’s seminal struggle against racism, and it highlights the little-known Jewish figures who sought to end entrenched discrimination in their country.
CONTAINS VIOLENCE

Film: 123 minutes

Director: Jean van de Velde

Production country: Netherlands

Year: 2018

Africa

When retired 68 year-old Meir discovers that his thirty years of planning the annual village celebration have been summarily discarded, and the job has been given to inexperienced local teens instead, the ground beneath his feet begins to give way. In his effort to restore a sense of meaning and vitality, Meir begins to rebel against the inevitable: the betrayal of his physical body, the growing distance from his children, and the loss of relevance.
MATURE LANGUAGE, MATURE THEMES

Film:  82 minutes

Director: Oren Gerner

Production country: Israel

Year: 2019