The Man in the Basement
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Virtual
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Funeral of a Marriage Counsellor
Following the sudden death of their long-term and much-too-depended-upon Jewish counsellor, a couple in their 50s take a chaotic stab at rebalancing their relationship, while grappling with their own mortality.
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Our Nappy Hair
Janet (25) is a poet from Beersheva, Tamar (32) is an actress from Tel Aviv and Comfort (42) founded and directs the “Afro-Jewfro” Festival in Jerusalem. Three women, three hairdressing salon, and three similar, yet different, stories about black identity, the suppression of nappy hair, and mainstream notions of ideal beauty.
Susam
A Turkish-Jewish family faces a series of dilemmas when their son, Susam, locks himself in his room and does not come out on the morning of his Bar-mitzvah ceremony. With the limitations of Shabbat day rules, each member tries to find the correct way to make Susam come out.
Schächten
The young Jewish Austrian businessman Victor is a witness to how the prosecution of a Nazi crime perpetrated against his family unjustly fails in the courtroom. The political and legal system in 1960’s Austria is still run by former Nazis and there is no avenue for Victor to change matters.. When Victor also loses his grief stricken father and his girlfriend”s family opposes their relationship and his being Jewish, Victor completely loses faith in the system and pursues matters via a different path.
Women of Virtue ( Les Vertueuses)
Etel, nine years old, Orthodox Jew, has her period for the first time. Myriam, her mother, finally looks at her like a woman. Etel is delighted, until she discovers that in her religion women are impure when they have their period.
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Who’s Afraid of Jewish Humor?
Jewish humor has travelled from the Shtetl to Hollywood, from the Torah to Comic books. Jewish humor is tradition and pop culture – and also a cliché? Especially in Germany and Austria, Jewish jokes became very popular after the Second World War. Jewish humor is, allegedly, self-ironic – and laughing about the Jews together with the Jews seems like a convenient way for the perpetrator countries to cope with their dark pasts. But is Jewish humor really always self-mocking – or is the matter more complex? In the documentary, rabbis, comedians and writers from Germany, Austria, France and Israel have their say. Who owns Jewish humour – and who owns the laughter?
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Voices in the Void
An animated documentary from Humanity in Action, Voices in the Void recounts the remarkable ”Danish Exception” of October 1943. The piece features the story of late Rabbi Bent Melchior, who, as a teenager went into hiding with his family to escape Nazi deportation. In his own words, Rabbi Melchior tells a story of heroism and survival, and of the regular Danish people who took exceptional steps to save their neighbors and ensure their safe escape to Sweden.
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Visiting Ben Shemen
In the midst of the Covid pandemic, and employing WhatsApp calls, interviews, and Internet research, a New Zealand-based director seeks to better understand a significant experience in her mother’s past. In 1946, three young Jewish teenagers had met at the Ben Shemen school, in Palestine. Each had been traumatised by the Holocaust and World War II. These women, now in their late eighties – one of whom is the director’s mother – recount the ways in which Ben Shemen offered a healing and soul-nourishing refuge. Mixed-media and an animated sketchbook aesthetic, together with the collaging of fragments of music and sound, accompany their retrieval of memories, and the director’s efforts to understand their experiences.
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