Virtual screening

“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

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:

A boorish Israeli-American couple plan a Sabbath dinner party for a group of fellow ex-pat friends and family in their Hollywood Hills mansion. What could possibly go wrong? Well, start with a deadly mix of alcohol, add inflated egos, some inappropriate lust, and top with raging jealousy, and the result is a cauldron of murderous mayhem. A shotgun, garden shears, kitchen knives, and even a garbage disposal are used as weapons of choice as these deranged guests turn on each other in director Michael Mayer’s outrageous and bloody comedy. Actors include Austin’s own Alon Pdut.
GRAPHIC VIOLENCE, SEXUAL CONTENT, DRUG USE

Film: 93 minutes

Director: Michael Mayer

Production countries: USA, Israel, Italy

Year:2019

Community partner:

“This film is set inside the inner sanctum of a symphony hall and tells the story of a childless Israeli musical couple seeking to form a family.”
Abraham is the conductor of the Jerusalem Philharmonic Orchestra, and his wife, Sarah, is the harpist. With no children, their melancholy life revolves around their music. In this contemporary adaptation of the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah, Hagar, a young horn player from East Jerusalem, joins the orchestra and forms a close personal relationship with both Sarah and Abraham, eventually agreeing to carry the couple’s baby. Two rival prodigies are born—one Jewish, one Arab—but neither want to take the course laid out for them by their parents. Nominated for five Israeli Academy Awards and winner of the Best Cinematography and Lia Van Leer Jewish Heritage
awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
MATURE LANGUAGE, MATURE THEMES

Film:  98 minutes

Director: Ori Sivan

Production country:  Israel

Year:  2016

The year is 1940, and French-Jewish socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister Leon Blum has been imprisoned at Buchenwald. This touching historical drama starring Elsa Zylberstein and Hippolyte Girardot follows Jeanne Reichenbach, who has been in love with Blum since they were teenagers but has always only admired him from afar. Now she is married with a son, but she is driven by the urge to link her fate with Blum’s once and for all—As the Nazis invade France, she abandons her comfortable life and risks everything to reunite with and marry him in prison.
SOME INTENSE SCENES

Film: 105 minutes

Director: Laurent Heynemann

Production country: France

Year: 2019

“A unique journey about a rabbi who experienced personal desolation and succeeded in rehabilitating his and his community’s life.”
The Admor of Sanz-Klausenburg was a rabbi who experienced personal devastation, and despite this succeeded in rehabilitating his own life and that of his Chassidic community. Through his heroic story, the film presents the narratives of the Holocaust as told by different members of the ultra-Orthodox community. HIDDEN FACE presents the complex relationship between ultra-Orthodox Jews and the memory of the Holocaust. Through rare archival footage and interviews with Sanz Chassidim, it reveals the ways they experience the revival and spiritual victory over the Nazis and pass it on to the ensuing generations, while dealing with the biggest question of all—where was God during the Holocaust?
FAMILY FRIENDLY

Film:  54 minutes

Director: Eyal Datz

Production country: Israel

Year: 2018

Thirty years after the queer Swedish disco-pop band Army of Lovers became an international phenomenon, its Jewish frontman, Jean-Pierre Barda, embarks on a new chapter when he uproots his existence to move from Sweden to Israel. In this new documentary, director Asaf Galay joins Barda alongside his journey at the age of 50. Army of Lovers (a blend of ABBA, the B-52s, and performance art) continues to rock pride celebrations and underground club parties with its mix of high camp, daring music videos, and a motto of “More is more, less is a bore.” Barda’s identity—flamboyant, philosophical, and religious all at once—explores what it means to never doubt oneself.
MATURE THEMES, SEXUAL CONTENT

Film: 65 minutes

Director: Asaf Galay

Production country: Israel

Year: 2019

Community partner: