Virtual screening

AKA Nadia

Nadia is a 20-year-old Arab girl who has a secret love affair with Nimer, a PLO activist. They move to England, where Nimer is caught by the authorities and Nadia is left alone. A slick character fixes her with an Israeli passport of a Jewish girl that enables her to return to Israel.

Twenty years later Nadia is now Maya, a successful choreographer who is married to a Jewish official at the Ministry of Justice, Yoav. They have two children. But her past catches her up when Nimer reappears. Yoav notices his wife”s distress and realizes that she”s hiding something. Their relationship is on the verge of crisis.

Film: 115 minutes

Director: Tova Ascher

Production countries: Israel, United Kingdom

Year: 2015

Albert Einstein: Still a Revolutionary

Albert Einstein, the most famous scientist of all time, was a world-renowned celebrity. He was greeted like a rock star when he appeared in public. An anti-war firebrand, Einstein also spoke out on issues ranging from women’s rights and racism, to immigration and nuclear arms control. But today, his image has been neutered into that of a charmingly absent-minded genius. He was, in fact, a powerful force for social change and a model for political activism. Using a wealth of rarely-seen archival footage, correspondence, and new and illuminating interviews, filmmaker Julia Newman makes the case that Albert Einstein’s example of social and political activism is as important today as are his brilliant, ground-breaking theories.

Film: 80 minutes

Director: Julia Newman

Production country: USA

Year: 2020

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

‘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