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Slovak interpreter Ali Ungar wants to find out the circumstances of his parents’ death at the hands of a Nazi officer and perhaps exact revenge. The officer’s son is still alive, but once Ungar finds him, the expectations become less expected. The odd couple sets out on a road trip through the lush green fields of Slovakia to unearth one story where endless stories of atrocities lie buried and are more nuanced than either had imagined.
When Berlin was declared “Judenfrei” (officially “free of Jews”) in 1943, there were still 7,000 Jews secretly residing in the capital of the Third Reich. They survived by hiding in attics, basements, warehouses and sometimes disguised in plain view walking among their fellow Germans. The Invisibles is a gripping documentary/narrative hybrid about the inspiring resourcefulness, resiliency and courage shown by four young adults living in dire conditions with an uncertain future.
The past is present in this collection of innovative animated short documentary films: rediscovered letters from lovers during World War II; the walls of a Tel Aviv building from 1924 that have seen it all; the personal objects of departed parents; the reemergence of an estranged father; and the true tale of the secret agent who caught Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.
Truth can be found in the oddest places. This year’s collection of documentary shorts finds moments of epiphany whether it be in a fast food restaurant, performing in a death metal band, in a truck loaded with Israeli bananas traveling to Gaza, unexpected success in a Crown Heights ultra-Orthodox community, or contemplating loss while gazing at a sugar maple tree in Atlanta.
How do we stand in the company of others? This year’s collection of narrative shorts presents defining moments when people are confronted with personal decisions, albeit in very public settings: a Rosh Hashanah dinner gathering; the rooms of an assisted-living center; an awkward bat mitzvah in England; the living room of an Israeli family home in the midst of a chemical attack; and, finally, in an idyllic summer camp in the Catskills.
Abraham, an 88-year-old tailor in Buenos Aires, has waited decades to fulfill a promise to a distant friend who helped him escape the Holocaust in Poland during the war. The cantankerous Abraham (in a heartfelt performance by Miguel Ángel Solá) clashes with everyone whose help he needs. But he seems to be mysteriously blessed, as the very people he fights with become his guardian angels, helping him each step along the way.
Gilda Radner was an instant sensation when she burst onto the scene with her brilliant, fearless and uproarious SNL performances, and when she died after an epic battle with ovarian cancer, a piece of us left with her. SFJFF38 is thrilled to open the Festival with this endearing, exuberant and intimate tribute that uses rare personal recordings, clear-eyed journal entries and interviews with SNL cast members to bring Radner back into our lives.
NEXT WAVE SPOTLIGHT. In 2007 Banksy slips into Palestine to paint on the West Bank Barrier. Someone takes offense at a piece depicting an Israeli soldier checking a donkey’s ID. A local taxi driver decides to cut it off and sell it on eBay. What follows is a story of clashing cultures, art, identity, theft and black market. Like Banksy’s art would be meaningless without its context, so the absence of it would be meaningless without an understanding of the elements that brought his artwork from Bethlehem to a Western auction house, along with the wall it was painted on.
In Nazi-occupied Paris, the young writer Marguerite Duras strikes up a delicate, high stakes entanglement with a Vichy collaborator named Rabier, who promises preferential treatment for her imprisoned husband in exchange for her attention and collaboration. As the drumbeat of arrests of Jews and political dissidents continues, the now-celebrated experimental author is wracked with fear for her husband and the friends and anti-Nazi activists whose identities Rabier pressures her to reveal.
Considered one of the elite intelligence agencies in the world, the Mossad was created in 1949 as an insurance policy to defend the state of Israel. Utilizing intimate interviews, first person accounts, startling archival photographs and news footage, some leading figures in Israel’s intelligence community reveal their successes, failures and near misses. Although many were reluctant to discuss highly sensitive topics with the media, the cold calculations of their secret operations gradually unfold.