Arik, a teenage boy growing up in Haifa in 1968, gets a job working for Yankele Bride, a matchmaker. Yankele, a mysterious Holocaust survivor, has an office in back of a movie theater that shows only love stories, run by a family of seven Romanian dwarves in the seedy area by the port. Yankele introduces Arik to a new world, built on the ruins of an old one.
Film: 112 minutes
Director: Avi Nesher
Production country: Israel
Year: 2012
“Yet another standout performance by Shira Haas, cementing her place as one of the best young Jewish actors today.
This taleof a dysfunctional family is an intense, gripping drama.” Shadowed by a strict, military father who inflicts severe methods of punishment as a form of discipline, seventeen-year-old Ariella commits a grave error that her father isn’t willing to punish her for. Seeking a punishment of her own, Ariella embarks on a dark quest where she will discover a secret to her father’s past that will lead them to confront one another.
MATURE LANGUAGE, MATURE THEMES, NUDITY, INTENSE SCENES
Film: 104 minutes
Directors: Aviad Givon, Imri Matalon
Production country: Israel
Year: 2019
Community partner:
Shortly after the death of his uncles, Didier Frenkel descends into the basement of their shared home and finds a treasure: an ancient archive of animated films from Egypt starring Mish-Mish Effendi, the Arab equivalent of Mickey Mouse, and others. His Jewish father and uncles created these characters but never got the attention they richly deserved. Didier begins restoring the films and unveils the story of the rise and fall of these pioneers of Arab animation. Surprisingly, Didier’s mother strongly opposes this project.
Film: 73 minutes
Director: Tal Michael
Production countries: Israel, France
Year: 2019
Community partner:
Bukra fil Mish-Mish Read More »
It is only now, at the age of 98, that Marthe Cohn, a French Jew, can talk freely about her experience as a spy during World War II. Known at the time as Chichinette, she was recruited as a young woman by the French army and sent to gather intelligence from inside Germany. At four-and-a-half-feet tall, Cohn—then as today—may not look like much of a threat, but her incredible bravery and resourcefulness contributed to the Nazis’ eventual defeat. The Accidental Spy is as dynamic as the woman whose extraordinary story it tells.
Film: 86 minutes
Director: Nicola Hens
Production countries: Germany, France
Year: 2020
Chichinette: The Accidental Spy Read More »
In the midst of WWII, a German couple, Fritz and Emma, agree to hide Albert, a Jewish refugee, at their remote farm in the Black Forest. Since his marriage with Emma has remained childless, Fritz uses this opportunity to suggest an unorthodox deal: He asks Albert to sleep with his wife and conceive a child on his behalf. The consequences are dramatic: Emma discovers her sexuality, Fritz cannot control his jealousy, and Albert feels trapped between the two of them. Against the background of war, an unpredictable drama unfolds that turns offenders into victims and vice versa.
MATURE CONTENT
Film: 104 minutes
Director: Franziska Schlotterer
Production country: Germany
Year: 2016
“An untold story based on fact and fiction of Thessaloniki’s Jewish community during the Second World War.”
It’s 1942 and German law has been imposed in Thessaloniki, Greece, where Estrea, a young Jewish girl, has fallen in love with Yorgos, a Christian boy who works in a small nightclub. The club acts as a retreat from the atmosphere that has taken over the city, and people gather there to hear famed bouzouki player, Vassilis Tsitsanis. The score features music by Tsitsanis—one of the leading Greek composers of his time—which permeates this film.
Film: 118 minutes
Director: Manoussos Manoussakis
Production country: Greece
Year: 2016
Five generations, four chapters, and one lineage Known as “the Israeli Kennedys,” the Dayan family has been a prominent presence in Israeli politics and culture since the country’s inception. In her riveting documentary series, director Anat Goren examines five generations of Israel’s first family and the giant shadow cast by its famous patriarch, Moshe. Recounting their stories for the camera, various members of the clan offer an uncompromising glimpse into this Israeli dynasty, blessed with talent and charisma but plagued by depression. Producing some of the country’s most famous politicians, rock stars, poets and directors, the Dayans” history and that of the country they inhabit are inextricably bound together.
MATURE THEMES, DRUG USE
Film: 215 minutes total in two parts.
Director: Anat Goren
Production country: Israel
Year: 2019
Dayan: The First Family Read More »
The Egg Cream contains neither eggs nor cream – It was a product of necessity and hardship, but a source of joy and sweetness. Through archival images and a tour of egg cream establishments led by the filmmaker and his young daughter, the film examines the Jewish experience in America and the mythology of a simpler time.
Film: 15 minutes
Directors: Nora Miller, Peter Miller
Production country: USA
Year: 2018
Anat (Naama Preis, winner of the Jerusalem Film Festival award for
Best Actress) has never been able to reach her father’s exacting musical standards, and now her family’s hope of producing a musical prodigy rests on her unborn son. When the baby is born deaf, she cannot accept it and resorts to extreme measures to ensure that her child will be the composer that her father always wanted. But when the boy grows up indifferent to his destiny as a great pianist, Anat will have to stand up to her father—and her own actions.
MATURE THEMES, SEXUAL CONTENT
Film: 80 minutes
Director: Itay Tal
Production country: Israel
Year: 2019
Israel’s only woman prime minister defends her clouded legacy in this riveting portrait backboned by a blunt, unaired TV interview. During her turbulent tenure, Golda Meir, idolized globally but often reviled in Israel, confronted sizable domestic and international challenges. Shortly before her death, she was interviewed by Israeli television. Once the show ended, cameras kept rolling as hard- nosed Meir spoke freely between cigarette puffs about her stormy premiership and its personal toll. This extraordinary off-air exchange is buttressed by testimonials from devotees and detractors alike, as well as rare archival footage charting Golda’s trailblazing rise to power and tragic demise.
Film: 85 minutes
Directors: Sagi Bornstein, Udi Nir, Shani Rozanes
Production countries: Israel, Germany
Year: 2019
Community partner:
