The Jewish Chronicle
UKJFF 2009: The pick of the films
The cinematic highlights of this year's festival, including films from Israel, Germany, America and the UK
October 2, 2009 12:37
The cinematic highlights of this year's festival, including films from Israel, Germany, America and the UK
October 2, 2009 12:37A Serious Man
This dark comedy and the latest film from the Ocar-winning Coen brothers, set in 1967 tells the story of Larry Gopnik, a physics professor in a quiet mid west town, who, after a series of crises, decides to put his faith in three rabbis in his quest to be taken seriously.
Adam Resurrected
The UK premiere of the film by acclaimed director Paul Schrader. Featuring Jeff Goldblum and Ayelet Zurer and with cameos by Sir Derek Jacobi and Willem Dafoe, Adam Resurrected is based on Yoram Kaniuk’s 1969 Holocaust survival novel Adam Ben Kelev. It is the story of Adam Stein, a Berlin circus impresario, played by Jeff Goldblum, who survives a concentration camp by acting as pet ‘dog’ to SS Commandant Klein (Willem Dafoe).
Ajami
The award-winning film centres on the district of Ajami, a poor, crime-ridden neighbourhood in Jaffa where Muslims, Jews and Christians live side-by-side. The film's two directors - one Israeli Arab and the other Israeli Jewish - direct a cast of non-professional locals in this urban drama of real neighbours caught up in an impossible situation.
The directors Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani will attend the screening, which will be followed by a Q&A.
The Bar Mitzvah Boy
The UKJFF has centred much of its programme around the theme of barmitzvah's as the festival is celebrating its 13th year. Suitably then, the festival will show Jack Rosenthal’s BAFTA-winning comedy-drama, first broadcast in the BBC’s Play for Today slot.
Maureen Lipman CBE will be introducing this film, made by her late husband.
Defamation
Director Yoav Shamir travels the world to find the root of antisemitism, the 'world's oldest hatred'. The film searches the boundaries between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and asks if the former being used to excuse the latter?
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion, The Politics of Anti-Semitism, with Anthony Julius, Dr. David Hirsh and Philippa Kowarsky.
Good Intentions/Behind the Intentions
A screening of an episode from the Israeli TV drama, Good Intentions, which centres around two female chefs, one Palestinian, and one Israeli, co-hosting a cookery show despite opposition from their respective communities. This will be followed by a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the series and the organisation that inspired it – The Parents’ Circle Families Forum (PCFF).
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with members of the PCFF and an After Screening Party celebrating the tastes and sounds of the Middle East. This will include a Middle East food demonstration by Israeli and Arab chefs from Minkies Deli.
Jaffa
A modern Romeo and Juliet set in Jaffa. Ronit Elkabetz stars in the film by Keren Yedaya, whose 2004 film Or won five awards at the Cannes Film Festival including the Critics Week Grand Prix and Camera d’Or.
Ronit Elkabetz will attend the screening, which will be followed by a Q&A.
My First War
Unexpectedly drafted as a reservist in the Second Lebanon War, Tel Aviv film school graduate Yariv Mozer takes his video camera along. The film is a first-hand portryal of the war against Hezbollah and into Israeli conscription. service in Israel during active conflict.
Praying with Lior
Illana Trachtman's film centres on Lior, a young boy with Downs Syndrome who loves to pray with his family. His family believe he is 'close to God', but can he really be a spiritual genius?
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with film director Ilana Trachtman and Jodie Lerner of the
Langdon Foundation. The session will be chaired by Leslie Ironside Ph.D., Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, Director of the Centre for Emotional Development.
Shattering Silence
This investigative documentary asks where the wealth of one of Germany’s richest families, the Quandt family, really came from, and the story of BMW. The film gives a detailed back-story of Günther Quandt under the Third Reich. As a result of this film, an enquiry into the Nazi origins of the Quandt family’s wealth has been set up in Germany.
Film director, Eric Friedler, will attend the screening, which will be followed by a Q&A.