Films
888-Go-Kosher
A day in the life of New York's only rapid-response koshering service. A humorous and enlightening documentary look at the Jewish Orthodox world.
A Fool's Dream
Lev Syrkin was a successful artist in Moscow who dreamed of pursuing artistic and personal freedom in Israel.
Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ido Bahat, Daniel Syrkin
TOPICS: Russia & the former Soviet Union, Israeli Diversity, Immigration, Eastern European Jews, Art, Literature, & Dance, Art & Experimental Film
A Hebrew Lesson
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The process of learning a language is always fraught with humor, frustration—and pantomime. A Hebrew Lesson opens with a scene that might seem familiar, as Yoela, the teacher at a Hebrew immersion class (or ulpan) in Tel Aviv, introduces herself in Hebrew relying on simple body language.
Chinese, English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: David Ofek
TOPICS: Israeli Diversity, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Immigration
A Trip to Prague
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Does everyone need to meet a nice Jewish girl? With striking illustrations and deadpan narration, this film relates a funny anecdote about the Jewish instinct to make a shiddach (fix-up).
Alice and I
What does a broken-hearted French guy would do with three older Jewish ladies in one car? Find out as Simon, while driving his aunt and her two friends, gets a phone call from his irritable girlfriend.
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
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This wonderful and often hilarious documentary follows a once famous Canadian heavy metal band, founded in the 1970s by two nice Jewish boys, and still rocking on.
English
DIRECTOR: Sacha Gervasi
TOPICS: North American Jewish Community, Music, Art, Literature, & Dance
Arab Labor
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Whether it leaves you in stitches or up in arms, this irreverent Israeli Arab sitcom will bring you the Middle East conflict as you’ve never seen it before.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ron Ninio
TOPICS: Palestinian, Middle East Conflict, Israeli Diversity, Israeli & Arab Relations, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Family Relationships, Drama, Comedy, Arab Culture
Ashkenaz
A pithy but panoramic view of Israel’s “white” Jews, revealing a surprisingly diverse group, seen through the eyes of a Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Israelis.
English, Hebrew, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Rachel Leah Jones
TOPICS: Mizrakhim, Israeli Diversity, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Immigration, Eastern European Jews
At Home in Utopia
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“The Coops,” cooperative Bronx apartments, symbolized an experiment in justice and equality. Tthis documentary portrays the workers who embraced communist, socialist and union movements.
English, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Michal Goldman
TOPICS: North American Jewish Community, Human Rights and Social Justice, History
Baghdad Twist
Joining a small but growing number of films about the Jews of Iraq, Baghdad Twist—by Baghdad-born Joe Balass (Nana, George and Me, SFJFF 1998)—is an evocation of a lost world, one of reed boat rafting on the Euphrates, spice markets and doing the Twist. Wonderful archival footage melds with the recollections of Valentine, the director’s mother, in exploring one family’s choices and the way historical realities shaped them.
Being Jewish in France
Yves Jeuland’s extraordinary documentary captures centuries of Jewish life in France in two episodes broadcast on French television to critical acclaim.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yves Jeuland
TOPICS: Immigration, History, French, Anti-Semitism
Bilin My Love
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An important documentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seen through one village’s struggle, using stunning guerilla aesthetics that capture unique moments of desperation, courage and fear.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Shai Carmeli Pollak
TOPICS: Palestinian, Middle East Conflict, Israeli Diversity, Israeli & Arab Relations, Human Rights and Social Justice, Activism
Black Over White
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Black Over White chronicles the Ethiopian concert tour by Israeli-Ethiopian-Yemenite world-beat band The Idan Raichel Project.
Amharic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann
TOPICS: Music, Israeli Diversity, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Immigration, 20-Somethings
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
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Roberta Grossman’s first-rate documentary Blessed Is the Match, narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, is a paean to Hungarian resistance fighter and poet Hannah Senesh.
English
DIRECTOR: Roberta Grossman
TOPICS: Human Rights and Social Justice, Women, History, Family Relationships, Biography
Bridge Over the Wadi
Bridge Over the Wadi documents a rocky year in the life of an Arab-Jewish primary school.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann, Barak Heymann
TOPICS: Israeli Diversity, Israeli & Arab Relations, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Arab Culture
Chronicle of a Jump
To jump or not to jump... Director Zohar Lavi examines the borders of fear and courage in this sweet and creative film.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Zohar Lavi
Dancing Alfonso
Dancing Alfonso is a pitch-perfect portrait of a vital widower who finds a physical practice that sustains him, and community and creativity in the rhythms and movement of flamenco.
French, Hebrew, Spanish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Barak Heymann
TOPICS: Seniors, Romance, Dance, Art, Literature, & Dance
The Danube Exodus
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family. Screening with The Danube Exodus.
English
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Music, Immigration, Holocaust & World War II, Art, Literature, & Dance, Art & Experimental Film
Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story
An inspiring portrait of South Africa’s outrageous, controversial and brilliant political satirist (and occasional drag entertainer) Pieter-Dirk Uys, who now uses humor and rage to combat HIV/AIDS.
Der Soldat
In deceptively naive black-and-white line drawings, animator Max Cohen (Tale of the Goat, SFJFF 2005) limns a wordless soldier's tale—a haunting miniature that is equal parts Beckett and Kafka.
English
DIRECTOR: Max Cohen
Description of a Memory
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Nearly 50 years after Chris Marker’s landmark 1961 documentary about Israel, Description of a Struggle, Dan Geva’s film engages with and pays tribute to its progenitor. Clearly Marker’s film left a lasting impression on the Israeli-born Geva, who uses images from the original film as a springboard to uncovering the many changes that have taken place in the physical and political landscapes of Israel and in its inhabitants.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Dan Geva
TOPICS: History, Art & Experimental Film
Description of a Struggle
A young boy joyfully rides a pushcart down the hilly streets of Haifa, a humped camel crosses a street, and an innocent girl paints an unseen picture in what may best represent the emergence of a new country and its unknown future.
Emotional Arithmetic
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A surprise visitor (Gabriel Byrne) triggers turbulent childhood memories of love and loss among war survivors (Susan Sarandon, Max von Sydow) in this achingly beautiful story set in modern Quebec. Co-starring Christopher Plummer.
English
DIRECTOR: Paolo Barzman
TOPICS: Seniors, Romance, North American Jewish Community, Holocaust & World War II, Drama
Every Day the Impossible: Jewish Women in the Partisans
Of 30,000 Jewish partisans fighting the Nazis and their allies, 10 percent were women. This little gem of a documentary recognizes the unique contributions of women partisans during World War II. The stories of these courageous women, who had to battle sexism within their ranks as well as fascism in Europe, are riveting.
Eyes Wide Open
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What does Israel mean to American Jews today? Veteran filmmaker Paula Weiman-Kelman goes behind the scenes of the ubiquitous bus tours that clog Israel’s ancient landmarks to explore the complex relationship between the American Jewish community and the 60-year-old Jewish state.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Paula Weiman-Kelman
TOPICS: Spirituality & Jewish Identity, North American Jewish Community, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural
Facing the Wind
Facing the Wind is the story of 13-year-old Oran, who lost his eyesight and five members of his family in a terrorist attack. Despite his blindness, Oran is going to make his dream come true and keep on sailing.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Gilad Reshef
TOPICS: Youth, Middle East Conflict, Bar/Bat Mitzvah
Facing Windows
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Two love stories: one from the 1940s between two Italian Jews and one contemporary story of neighbors who watch each other furtively from facing windows across a street.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ferzan Ozpetek
TOPICS: Romance, LGBT, Italian Jews, Holocaust & World War II, History, Drama, Anti-Semitism
The Film Class
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The Film Class explores the black Bedouins’ legacy of slavery through the astonished eyes of the current generation of women.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Rosenwaks
TOPICS: Women, Israeli Diversity, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Human Rights and Social Justice, History
Flipping Out
Every year, the cloud forests of India’s Himalayan foothills provide the ideal escape for some 30,000 young Israelis just released from mandatory military service.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yoav Shamir
TOPICS: Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, 20-Somethings
Four Questions For a Rabbi
Four Questions for a Rabbi is a poignant and thoughtful documentary begun by Bay Area filmmaker Stacey Ross and completed after her death by renowned documentarian and master found-footage alchemist Jay Rosenblatt (2005 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award). Ross asks profound questions, including: What is the role of Judaism and the Jewish soul?
English
DIRECTOR: Stacey Ross, Jay Rosenblatt
TOPICS: Women, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, North American Jewish Community, Local Filmmakers
Georgia My Love
Noga Gamlieli playfully captures the beauty and spunk of Maya and Manana, Georgian immigrants to Israel who express their love for Georgia through their strongest talents: music and dance.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Noga Gamlieli
TOPICS: Russia & the former Soviet Union, Music, Israeli Diversity, Immigration, Eastern European Jews
Holidaze
This triptych of stories from SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project, produced by Citizen Film, delivers candid, funny observations of do-it-yourself holiday rituals. Teenage co-directors from a range of backgrounds consider the mysterious relevance of ritual in secular, multicultural lives.
English
TOPICS: Youth, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, North American Jewish Community
Home-Made Hero
From Tel Aviv University, a thrilling story of a mad woman soldier who kidnaps an innocent cab driver for a fatal mission.
In Search of the Bene Israel
Returning to her Jewish grandmother’s birthplace in India, director Sadia Shepard discovers the story of Bene Israel, a tiny Jewish community in Bombay.
English, Hindu, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Sadia Shepard
In the Family
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In this gripping documentary, filmmaker Joanna Rudnick turns the camera on herself as she struggles with an impossible choice—–remove her healthy breasts and ovaries or risk a staggeringly high likelihood of developing aggressive cancer. Followed by filmmaker Q&A.
In Treatment
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Imagine you are in therapy and your shrink is a thoughtful, badly dressed bear of a man who resembles Israeli actor Assi Dayan. Then imagine that when the transference and countertransference are flying so fast you can see trails, your shrink goes to talk to his shrink—who happens to be the all-knowing Israeli grande dame of cinema, Gila Almagor.
Interschriber
Never heard of an interschriber? Uri Kowalski talks passionately about his obscure profession: designing signatures. Each signature, like choreography, expresses the essence of a human life through its shape and movement.
It Kinda Scares Me
A gritty, funny documentary about a Tel Aviv drama coach (Tomer Heymann) and the talented, “delinquent” students he coaches.
Jerusalem Is Proud to Present
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In 2006, Jerusalem hosted the World Pride events, which were planned to culminate in a gay pride parade. Nitzan Gilady’s award-winning documentary weaves together the passions of gay rights activists and religious Jews, Muslims and Christians who oppose them.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Nitzan Gilady
TOPICS: LGBT, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Human Rights and Social Justice, Activism
Jews in Shorts
From rapid koshering services to the tale of a macho young man afraid to jump from a high place, and capped by a sneak preview of the latest film from SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project, this program is a fun and sometimes poignant sample of young Jewish creativity.
TOPICS: 20-Somethings
Love Comes Lately
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Three intertwined stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. At the center is the elderly writer Max (Otto Tausig), whose vivid imagination merges life with fiction. Co-starring Rhea Perlman & Tovah Feldshuh.
English
DIRECTOR: Jan Schütte
TOPICS: Seniors, Romance, North American Jewish Community, Drama, Central European, Art, Literature, & Dance
The Maelstrom: A Family Chronicle
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family.
Dutch, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Holocaust & World War II, Family Relationships, Art, Literature, & Dance, Art & Experimental Film
Max Minsky and Me
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A fun, family-oriented comedy about a bookish 12-year-old girl in modern Berlin who neglects her bat mitzvah studies in order to become a basketball player.
German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Anne Justice
TOPICS: Youth, Family Relationships, Drama, Comedy, Central European, Bar/Bat Mitzvah
Miss Universe 1929—Lisl Goldarbeiter, A Queen in Wien
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The dramatic life of a Jewish Viennese beauty queen as recorded in home movies by the man who loved her from a distance—her cousin.
English, Hungarian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Women, Holocaust & World War II, Central European, Biography, Art & Experimental Film
Mom, I Didn't Kill Your Daughter
Lior and Yuval are a couple; Lior comes from a kibbutz near the Dead Sea and Yuval was born in central Israel. Like many couples, they are opposites: Lior is opinionated and Yuval is introverted. Both were born as women, but throughout their lives they identified as male.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Orna Ben Dor
TOPICS: Women, Romance, LGBT, Israeli Diversity, Family Relationships, 20-Somethings
My Father's Palestinian Slave
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This intimate documentary portrays the unlikely friendship between an undocumented Palestinian worker and his Israeli employer, veteran peace activist Moshe Amirav.
Hebrew, Swedish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Appenzeller, Nathanel Goldman Amirav
TOPICS: Palestinian, Middle East Conflict, Israeli & Arab Relations, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Family Relationships, Arab Culture
My Olympic Summer
8mm home movies from the 1970s and the discovery of an unopened letter from his mother are the potent and poetic ingredients of San Francisco–based director Daniel Robin’s reexamination of his parents’ relationship, set against the background of his own failed marriage. His father’s participation in the 1972 Israeli Olympic hostage crisis plays a crucial role.
English, German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Daniel Robin
TOPICS: Local Filmmakers, Family Relationships
The Old Stores
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A wistful portrait of Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s quirky small shops—a button store, an (analog) watch repair shop, an old-fashioned barber—as they wrestle with their fast-paced surroundings and contemplate change in the face of modernization.
Operation Mural Casablanca 1961
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Operation Mural is the incredible but true story of the smuggling of 530 Jewish Moroccan children to Israel, under the guise of a holiday trip to Switzerland, in the spring of 1961.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yehuda Kaveh
TOPICS: Seniors, Mizrakhim, Israeli Diversity, Immigration, History, Biography
Out of Focus
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Out of Focus captures the creativity of Ohad Naharin, Israel’s “rock star” choreographer and director of Batsheva Dance Company.
Perlasca, An Italian Hero
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What makes a man risk his life for people he doesn’t know? Perlasca is a taut drama about one Italian man’s remarkable courage in saving 5,200 Hungarian Jews.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Alberto Negrin
TOPICS: Italian Jews, Holocaust & World War II, History, Drama, Biography
Praying In Her Own Voice
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An excellent documentary about the contentious struggle of Women of the Wall for the right to wear prayer shawls and read Torah scrolls aloud at the Western Wall.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yael Katzir
TOPICS: Women, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Orthodox Judaism, Israeli Diversity, Human Rights and Social Justice, Activism
The Quest for the Missing Piece
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The Quest for the Missing Piece is a hilarious romp through the debate over circumcision.
German, Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Oded Lotan
TOPICS: Spirituality & Jewish Identity, LGBT, Israeli Diversity, Family Relationships
Roads
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Thirteen-year-old Ismayil searches for a new life for himself and his younger brother outside the Arab drug slums of the Israeli city of Lod.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Lior Geller
TOPICS: Israeli Diversity, Israeli & Arab Relations, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural
Saved By Deportation: An Unknown Odyssey of Polish Jews
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With wit and charm, this documentary follows two lively eighty-somethings back to the scene where, by a fluke of history, they survived the Holocaust: in Stalin’s Siberian gulag.
English, Polish, Russian, Uzbek, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Slawomir Grunberg
TOPICS: Seniors, Holocaust & World War II, Central European
The Secrets
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Naomi and Michelle come to Safed to study in an orthodox women’s seminary. While seeking spiritual knowledge, they embark upon a secret journey of rituals and forbidden love.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Avi Nesher
TOPICS: Women, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Romance, Orthodox Judaism, LGBT, Israeli Diversity, Drama
Sixty Six
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A London boy’s bar mitzvah party is threatened by a coinciding soccer match in this charming nostalgic comedy. Helena Bonham Carter and Stephen Rea co-star.
Spell Your Name
In today’s Kiev, masked characters in colorful traditional attire dance in a circle for the winter celebration of Koliada; one dancer steps forward, pulls fake products from his pockets and begins a barter monologue, enacting the traditional stereotype of “the Jew.”
Russian, Ukrainian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Sergey Bukovsky
TOPICS: Seniors, Russia & the former Soviet Union, Holocaust & World War II, Eastern European Jews
Stalags–Holocaust and Pornography in Israel
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During the early 1960s, a new pulp lit emerged in Israel. “Stalags” pocketbooks featured camp prisoners sexually assaulted by buxom SS officers. Controversial and popular, Stalags were condemned as porn. This documentary asks, what did they really mean?
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ari Libsker
TOPICS: Holocaust & World War II, Art, Literature, & Dance, 20-Somethings
Stefan Braun
Fabulous archival footage of Tel Aviv’s gay life from the 1950s immerses us in the world of society furrier Stefan Braun and the man who loved, worshipped and stood by him for 39 years, Eliezer Rath.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Itamar Alcalay
TOPICS: Romance, LGBT, Israeli Diversity, Biography
Strangers
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Handsome Eyal and knockout Rana meet by chance on a subway in Berlin. But he’s Israeli and she’s Palestinian—setting in motion a passionate story exploring the boundaries of nationality, culture and the heart.
Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Guy Nattiv, Erez Tadmor
TOPICS: Romance, Palestinian, Israeli & Arab Relations, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Drama
Tehilim
A father’s mysterious disappearance throws his family into a personal and spiritual crisis in this engrossing, beautifully acted drama set in modern Jerusalem.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Raphaël Nadjari
TOPICS: Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Orthodox Judaism, Family Relationships, Drama
Tel Aviv by Girls
This free-spirited and mesmerizing docu-fiction hybrid explores the complexity of modern womanhood and the fragility of human relationships.
French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tiffany Tavernier, Eliette Abecassis
TOPICS: Women, Romance, French, Drama, 20-Somethings
Tell Your Children
This beautifully crafted and powerful fiction short is the story of a little girl surviving the January 1945 mass murders by the Arrow Cross at the Danube's bank in Hungary.
Three Times Divorced
The harrowing story of a Gaza-born woman locked in the battle of a lifetime for custody of her six children, and locked out of the legal process.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ibtisam Mara'ana
TOPICS: Women, Palestinian, Israeli Diversity, Israeli & Arab Relations, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Human Rights and Social Justice, Family Relationships, Arab Culture
To See if I'm Smiling
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To See If I’m Smiling tells the powerful stories of six Israeli women soldiers who did their army service in combat units in the occupied territories.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tamar Yarom
TOPICS: Women, Middle East Conflict, Human Rights and Social Justice
Toyland
1942: what happens when a German kid believes that his Jewish neighbors are going to Toyland? A beautiful and moving story about lies and guilt.
German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Jochen Alexander Freydank
TOPICS: Holocaust & World War II, Central European
Tulip Time—The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano
The popular Trio Lescano—three Dutch Jewish sisters—were the 1930s Italian equivalent of the Andrews Sisters in the 30s, until fascism forced them into silence.
Dutch, Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tonino Boniotti, Marco De Stefanis
TOPICS: Women, Music, Italian Jews, Holocaust & World War II, Family Relationships
Two Lives Plus One
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In this comedic drama, a Parisian schoolteacher’s newfound independence puts a strain on her conventional family when an attractive publisher takes an interest in her writing.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Idit Cebula
TOPICS: Women, Romance, French, Family Relationships, Drama, Art, Literature, & Dance
Volevo Solo Vivere (I Only Wanted to Live)
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A unique window into the Italian Jewish Holocaust experience, this documentary features testimonies of nine Italians who survived Auschwitz, including Liliana Segre, who will be present for an onstage interview after the screening.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Mimmo Calopresti
TOPICS: Italian Jews, Holocaust & World War II
We Were Exodus
The men who volunteered to crew the Exodus were a ragtag team of Jewish World War II veterans from several countries and mariners with a conscience from all over the world. Their recollections are the masts upon which Jean-Michel Vecchiet hangs the structure of his impeccably researched documentary about the ship Exodus ’47, which was both haven and prison to thousands of Holocaust survivors.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Jean-Michel Vecchiet
TOPICS: Immigration, History, French