Film Topics
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: 20-Somethings, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Music
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: 20-Somethings, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural
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.
It Kinda Scares Me
A gritty, funny documentary about a Tel Aviv drama coach (Tomer Heymann) and the talented, “delinquent” students he coaches.
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
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: 20-Somethings, Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance, Women
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: 20-Somethings, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II
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: 20-Somethings, Drama, French, Romance, Women
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: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
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: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, LGBT
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: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli Diversity, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
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: Anti-Semitism, French, History, Immigration
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: Anti-Semitism, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, LGBT, Romance
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: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
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: Arab Culture, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity
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: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
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: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Palestinian, Women
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: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Russia & the former Soviet Union
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: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II, Immigration, Music
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: Art & Experimental Film, History
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.
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: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II
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: Art & Experimental Film, Biography, Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Women
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: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Russia & the former Soviet Union
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: Art, Literature, & Dance, Music, North American Jewish Community
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: Art, Literature, & Dance, Dance, Romance, Seniors
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: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II, Immigration, Music
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: Art, Literature, & Dance, Central European, Drama, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
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: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II
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.
Stalags–Holocaust and Pornography in Israel
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
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: 20-Somethings, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II
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: Art, Literature, & Dance, Drama, Family Relationships, French, Romance, Women
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: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Middle East Conflict, Youth
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: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Central European, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Youth
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.
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: Biography, Family Relationships, History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Women
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.
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: Art & Experimental Film, Biography, Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Women
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: Biography, History, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim, Seniors
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: Biography, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews
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: Biography, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance
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: Art, Literature, & Dance, Central European, Drama, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
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: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Central European, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Youth
Miss Universe 1929—Lisl Goldarbeiter, A Queen in Wien
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
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: Art & Experimental Film, Biography, Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Women
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: Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Seniors
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.
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: Central European, Holocaust & World War II
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.
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: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
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: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Central European, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Youth
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.
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: Art, Literature, & Dance, Dance, Romance, Seniors
Out of Focus
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Out of Focus captures the creativity of Ohad Naharin, Israel’s “rock star” choreographer and director of Batsheva Dance Company.
Arab Labor
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
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: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
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: Drama, Holocaust & World War II, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
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: Anti-Semitism, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, LGBT, Romance
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.
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: Art, Literature, & Dance, Central European, Drama, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
Max Minsky and Me
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
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: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Central European, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Youth
Perlasca, An Italian Hero
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
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: Biography, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews
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: Drama, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Orthodox Judaism, Romance, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
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.
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.



















































