Virtual screening

In the summer of 2018, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art enlists Yotam Ottolenghi, the London-based Israeli chef and celebrated author of cookbooks Jerusalem and Plenty, to organize a food gala inspired by the Met exhibit “Visitors to Versailles.” In preparation for the event, Ottolenghi travels to the Palace of Versailles. At the landmark French site, the famed chef is possessed by a child-like curiosity, as he finds in Versailles a glimpse into the French Monarchy’s decadence.
And so Ottolenghi, with the help of pastry chefs (including “Cronut” maestro Dominique Ansel), positions The Met event as both an expression and critique of excess. Several centuries ago in Versailles, the royal family lived in public to help broadcast the country’s splendor and wealth. Ottolenghi fast-forwards to the advent of social media and finds a new aristocracy streaming their riches, food, and prosperity. In both eras, we see deep exclusion, longing for community, a patriarchal structure – and the same potential for revolution.

NOTE: Ticket for AJFF Q&A with filmmakers and chefs on Dec. 20 included.

Cast: Yotam Ottolenghi, Dominique Ansel, Ghaya Oliveira, Dinara Kasko, Sam Bompas, Janice Wong.

Director: Laura Gabbert

Set almost entirely in a Chinese restaurant, Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas is an offbeat, irreverent musical documentary that tells the story of a group of Jewish songwriters, including Irving Berlin, Mel Tormé, Jay Livingston, Ray Evans, Gloria Shayne Baker and Johnny Marks, who wrote the soundtrack to Christianity’s most musical holiday. It’s an amazing tale of immigrant outsiders who became irreplaceable players in pop culture’s mainstream – a generation of songwriters who found in Christmas the perfect holiday in which to imagine a better world, and for at least one day a year, make us believe in it.

Order up your favorite Chinese take out and chow down as you enjoy this entertaining and informative movie!

Cast: Ben Sidran, Jackie Mason, Mark Breslin, Rob Bowman, Ophira Eisenberg, and Robert Harris.

Director: Larry Weinstein

Writer: Jason Charters

Supported by:

Benefitting:

Marvell Ginsburg’s renowned children’s book has been educating young children about the Holocaust for generations, telling the true story of the rescue and restoration of a small Torah from Czechoslovakia. This is now an animated film, narrated by Ed Asner, that brings illustrator Martin Lemel- man’s rich artwork to life and allows this story of redemption to reach a much broader audience.

Film: 21 minutes

Director: Marc Bennett

Production countries: USA

Year: 2019

The LAJFF have a special event for this film on Monday, December 7:

Israel’s 6th Prime minister, Menachem Begin led Israel for six dramatic and tumultuous years, which produced waves that are still felt deeply within the fabric of Israel’s social and political landscape today. During Begin’s shortened one-and-a-half terms of office, he faced a maelstrom of challenges and made a handful of fateful decisions that led to both creating peace and launching a war kindled by hubris. Exploring these events, the film depicts a multi-faceted portrait of a man who held on to an unwavering ideology full of conflicts, as well as the cultural mosaic and fissured society that he sought to lead. The film merges rare archival footage shown for the first time, as well as current interviews with key figures from Menachem Begin’s time as Prime Minister.

Film: 85 minutes

Director: Levi Zini

Production country: Israel

Year: 2020

In this heartwarming, sweetly funny romance-dramedy, a thirty-something Israeli couple develops baby fever, putting their relationship to the test in a frenzy to get pregnant. Liran and Tali are happily married, but their
lives are missing one thing: a baby. With the biological clock ticking, they embark on protracted fertility treatments, a physical and emotional roller-coaster of medical procedures, and regimented lovemaking. Facing pressure from family, friends, and each other, it’s soon clear that the road to parenthood is no walk in the park. Tackling a sensitive topic with earnest performances, this frank portrayal of modern pregnancy landed four Ophir (Israeli Academy Award) nominations, including Best Director.
MATURE LANGUAGE, NUDITY, SEXUAL CONTENT

Film: 90 minutes

Director: Erez Tadmor

Production country: Israel

Year: 2019

Three children from the West Bank are smuggled into Israel, arriving at the doorstep of George and Rita’s house in Jaffa. Their mother is dead, and their father has been sentenced to life imprisonment. As Israeli Palestinians, George is afraid that hiding illegal aliens will endanger Rita and himself, while Rita believes the arrival of these children could give meaning to her life. Nearby, a foreign film is being shot. Jerry, an English director, is making a movie about his parents’ love affair in 1947, when they served in the British army in Palestine. George is invited to play a part in the film. When the two stories intertwine, tensions erupt.
MATURE LANGUAGE, DRUG USE

Film: 96 minutes

Director: Ram Loevy

Production country: Israel

Year: 2019

Watch our Q&A with Ram Loevy, director of THE DEAD OF JAFFA.

PORTRAYAL follows Roman Lapshin across three continents and five nations as he puts together the pieces of a mysterious puzzle and comes to terms with a family legacy and his own personal journey of restoration, growth and healing.

Since he was a child, Roman has been haunted by a secret that his late grandfather revealed to him when he was only 12 years old. A personal disclosure regarding the mysterious and troubling origins of thousands of pieces of missing artwork his grandfather had painted over his lifetime. Roman is convinced that he alone must investigate and expose the murky fate of this art to redeem his grandfather’s name and artistic legacy. But finding the paintings will mean going against the wishes of his entire family—who have been guarding the secret all along. It also means confronting the notorious and powerful man at the center of the mystery, whom Roman believes exploited his grandfather when he was a desperate, recent immigrant to a new country.
MATURE LANGUAGE, SOME INTENSE IMAGES

Film: 96 minutes

Director: Billie Mintz

Production country: Canada

Year: 2020

A drama that explores the religious-secular divide in a family trying to mend broken relationships.”
Anat Abadi, a bright and intense young woman, long part of Tel Aviv’s wild club scene, has found God. Renouncing promiscuity, pork, and smartphones for a life of solemn devotion, she moves to Jerusalem, enrolls in an ultra-orthodox seminary, and gets engaged to a charismatic musician who’s also recently found religion. Complications arise when Abadi’s family tries to lure their willful daughter away from Orthodox Judaism and schemes to foil her upcoming nuptials. Amid rising tensions and shifting alliances, no one has a monopoly on virtue, as multi-layered plots converge with unexpected consequences. Sensitively exploring the religious-secular divide, this universal tale of broken relationships and forgiveness masterfully weaves its many threads with poignant, gently humorous performances by a stellar cast.
MATURE LANGUAGE

Film: 112 minutes

Director: Avi Nesher

Production country: Israel

Year: 2018

The rags-to-riches story of Sophie Tucker, an iconic superstar who ruled the worlds of vaudeville, Broadway, radio, television, and Hollywood throughout the 20th century.
Before Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Bette Midler, Marilyn Monroe, and Mae West, Sophie Tucker was the first woman to infatuate her audiences with a bold, bawdy, and brassy style unlike any other. Using all of ”The Last of the Red Hot Mamas” 400-plus recently rediscovered personal scrapbooks, authors Susan and Lloyd Ecker take you on their seven-year journey retracing Tucker”s sixty-year career in show business.

Film: 96 minutes

Director: William Gazecki

Production country: USA

Year: 2015

Pirate Captain Toledano interrogates a stowaway, a refugee from the Spanish Inquisition. The lad wants to become a pirate to plunder Spanish ships. The Captain must decide whether to make the stowaway a pirate, or to make him walk the plank.

Film: 10 minutes

Director: Arnon Z. Shorr

Production country: USA

Year: 2017