Jewish Film World - Recent Films

New & Classic Films

About the Body (doc, Israel, subtitled, 55 min.) Michal, Ilana, Hila and Aviv are four young women in their twenties who were severely injured in terrorist attacks. For three months the filmmakers’ camera followed them in a unique body workshop conducted by prize winning dancer Ohad Naharin. After the injury they were all compelled to confront a new perception of themselves and their femininity. A story about the brave journey they had to take to reconnect to their once cherished bodies. www.ruthfilms.com; ruth@ruthfilms.com.

Bonjour, Monsieur Shlomi (feature, Israel, subtitled). A teenager with unusual, hidden gifts, Shlomi struggles to grow up while coping with his eccentric family. His parents explosive relationship, his grandfather’s wisdom, his high school principal’s insights into his special talent and, above all, his newfound love are laid out here with humor and rich empathy. www.strandreleasing.com.

The Children’s House (doc, Israel, subtitled, 52 min.) As they prepare the Tel Aviv Museum’s exhibit, “Communal Sleeping,” several kibbutz-born artists recreate their childhood experiences living apart from their parents. Happy-face official footage from the kibbutz movement of the fifties contrasts sharply with the artists’ often dark memories of their childhoods. Fascinating artistically and psychologically. www.ruthfilms.com; ruth@ruthfilms.com .

Colombian Love (Feature, Israel, Hebrew/subtitled). In this hit comedy by Shai Kannot, friends try to bridge the gap between love, lust and marriage. One is a newly married man; one is caught between the love of his life and a domineering father; and the last is a free-spirited ladies’ man who gets moonstruck by an old Colombian flame. A compelling, witty look at the Israeli male attitude toward love and relationships. sisu@sisuent.com.

Did Herzl Really Say That? (doc, 7 episodes, 50 min/each) Here, Oren Harman and Yanay Ofran compare Herzl’s detailed plans for Israel with today’s “Israeliness.” They look at what’s happened to the old boundaries that once divided Israeli society and defined the power relations within. Along the way, they chart religious, national, personal and cultural identities in Israel today. ruth@ruthfilms.com .

Film Fanatic (doc). Yehuda Grovais, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, makes films for his community. He has more than 50 features to his credit, replete with actors in period costume and archetypically dramatic scripts. He struggles with his community and with the secular cultural establishment and, ultimately, with himself, to realize his impossible love: cinema. ruth@ruthfilms.com .

First Lesson in Peace (doc, Israel, subtitled, 56 min) Director Yoram Honig and his wife believed strongly that Jewish and Arab children should be educated together. They lived their ideals by sending their little girl to Neveh-Shalom, The Oasis of Peace, a bilingual Arabic/Hebrew school for Jewish and Arab Israeli children. This heartfelt, hopeful documentary is a personal letter from a father to his precocious 6-year-old daughter, Michal, whom we see on her first day of school. www.ruthfilms.com; ruth@ruthfilms.com .

From Toledo to Jerusalem (doc, Israel, Ladino/subtitled). When the Jews were expelled from medieval Spain, the Toledo community was determined to reach the city of their dreams, Jerusalem. Here, famed Sephardic Israeli singer & actor Yehoram Gaon uses words, songs and images to explore and perpetuates his heritage. Filmed against a stunning Mediterranean backdrop, the doc provides moving insights into Sephardic history and culture. Sisu@sisuent.com.

I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal (doc) This thorough portrait of the famed Nazi hunter is narrated by Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman and features archival film and photos. Wiesenthal gave up his life as a trained architect to track down Nazis in the face of world-wide indifference and even hostility. www.moriahfilms.com; non-theatrical performance www.Swank.com or 800-876-5577.

Itche Goldberg: A Century of Yiddish Letters (doc, Yiddish, subtitled). In this Josh Waletzky film, we meet the progressive educator, poet, editor and literary critic. It’s the first in the series, Worlds Within a World: Converstions with Yiddish Writers. League for Yiddish. Info@leagueforyiddish.org.

Josef and Maria (feature, Israel, subtitled). In this sweet tale Josef, a 70-year-old Jerusalem waiter is tormented by the memory of sexual abuse he suffered as a child in Nazi concentration camps. When a Christian German woman tourist walks into his coffee house, his life is changed forever. ruth@ruthfilms.com .

The Last Fighters (doc, Israel, subtitled, 76 min.) The Last Fighters accompanies the six last surviving Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighters, all over 80 years old, between 2003-2006. Kazik Rotem, Masha Futermilch-Gleitman, Pnina Greenspan and Aharon Carmi live in Israel. Brunk Spigel lives in Canada. Marek Edelman decided to remain in Poland. Their memories from the uprising and their understanding of the events sixty years later are different and far more complex than what has settled in the collective memory. www.ruthfilms.com; ruth@ruthfilms.com .

Life is Beautiful (feature, Italy/subtitled) Classic film. Winner of three Oscars, including Best Picture, this 1998 film portrays a fun-loving Jewish bookkeeper who resorts to an elaborate game to keep his son safe in a concentration camp. Its message of hope is that love, family, imagination and humor can conquer the misery that men wreak on each other. Non-theatrical performance www.Swank.com or 800-876-5577.

Look to the Sky (feature) Based loosely on the story of physicist Jona Oberski, this film follows a young Dutch boy, Jonah, who spent much of his childhood in a Nazi concentration camp. Through strength, perseverance and optimism, he survives and grows up into manhood. Score by Oscar-winner Ennio Morricone. Available July 10, 2007 (in U.S. and Canada only) at www.ComingOfAgeMovies.com.

Metallic Blues (feature, Israel, Hebrew/subtitled). The adventures of two hapless used car dealers who take a vintage limousine to Germany to try to sell it, only to encounter unforeseen obstacles and unexpected emotions about the Jewish past in Germany. This offbeat, funny and touching buddy movie showcases Israel’s top comedians, Avi Kushnir and Moshe Ivgy. Winner Jerusalem Film Festival for best film and best screenplay. sisu@sisuent.com.

Newland (feature, Israel, Hebrew/subtitled). Here Orna Ben Dor (Because of that War) tells the poignant story of young orphaned siblings, a sister and brother, who travel alone through post-war Europe to the newly settled State of Israel. This fascinating film vividly portrays the victors and victims of an unforgettable past and their courageous search for heritage and hope. “Poetic and Powerful,” LA Times. sisu@sisuent.com.

Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good (doc, Czech Republic, English, 64 min.) Nicholas Winton, the “British Schindler,” a 28-year-old businessman, took it upon himself to rescue 669 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia and bring them to England one step ahead of the Nazi invasion. The film tells the remarkable story of the rescue and follows many of his “children” as they later emulate him by doing good for others. www.powerofgood.net; powerofgood@chuckelman.com.

Paper Dolls (doc). Philippine transsexuals look after elderly, Orthodox Jewish men. Many of these caregivers develop warm relationships with their employers, who often look on them as substitute children. On their night off, the caregivers appear as drag queens in Tel Aviv under the name “Paper Dolls.” Although they enjoy Israel’s liberality, they are still outsiders. www.strandreleasing.com.

Salonika, City of Silence (doc). Not only was the entire, substantial Sephardic community of ancient Salonika destroyed in the Holocaust, but its rich ancient culture was obliterated, as well. Through investigation, interviews with survivors and bits of nostalgia, Salonika-born director Maurice Amaraggi bears witness to the “Jerusalem of the Balkans” and its Jewish heritage. ruth@ruthfilms.com .

A Touch Away (drama, Israel, subtitled, 8 episodes, 40 min/eac). Smartly written for primetime Israeli TV, this popular series focuses on the interaction between a strictly religious family and the secular Russian family who moves into a neighboring apartment. A realistic, thoroughly entertaining reflection of the social challenges Israel faces with its diverse population. ruth@ruthfilms.com .

True Grace (doc, Israel, subtitled). A Jerusalem undertaker engaged in the identification, purification and burial of the dead must also maintain his existence among the living. This film investigates the gap between his holy work, the meaning he infuses into it and the price he pays. ruth@ruthfilms.com .

Wasted (doc). Nurit Kedar looks at Israeli soldiers serving in a Lebanese fortress before Israel’s withdrawal in 2000. Interviews with the soldiers, who spent months in the fortress’s claustrophobic rabbit warren, are interspersed with exquisite footage of the male dancers of the Bat Sheva Dance Company, who simulate their ghastly experiences. ruth@ruthfilms.com .

Who Killed Walter Benjamin (doc, Spain/The Netherlands, subtitled, 73 min.) Walter Benjamin, long on the run from the Nazis, successfully crossed the Pyrenees from France to Spain in September 1940. A sudden change in the law saw him embargoed in a hotel under the watch of guards, who were under orders to deport him the next morning. In despair, he took his own life by overdosing on morphine. Why was his demise declared a natural death? Why was he given a Catholic burial in the municipal cemetery under a false name? A vivid portrait of a frontier town between two fronts, constant witness to evasion, persecution and false hopes. www.ruthfilms.com; ruth@ruthfilms.com .

Yossi & Jagger (feature, Hebrew/subtitled). Directed by Eyetan Fox (Walk on Water, The Bubble), this film portrays the love affair of two Israeli officers on a remote army base. They are commanders, they are in love, and they are trying to find a place of their own within an oppressive system. Without ideological posturing, this film tells the story of young people trying to survive in an impossible world. www.strandreleasing.com.

Every effort was made to be accurate. Please let us know if you find inaccuracies in the contact information by e-mailing us at contact@jewishfilmworld.com. Thanks!