JIFF 2021: Films that build bridges, make us laugh, cry and think

Published: 8 February 2021

Last updated: 5 March 2024

DEBORAH STONE finds the best of this year’s Jewish International Film Festival, which opens next week in Sydney and Melbourne THE CROWDED FOYER SCHMOOZING and free pickles will presumably be absent from this year’s Jewish International Film Festival. In the time of coronavirus, such rituals have turned into risks. So, it is just as well that the program for this year’s festival offers some excellent upbeat alternatives. While there is more than the usual tranche of Holocaust-related films and a disturbing film for Opening Night, the program is also quite strong on heart-warmers and optimistic visions that cross traditional boundaries. BRIDGE-BUILDERS [gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="40913"] My annual spreadsheet for exploring the offerings of the festival has never had this category. But several films this year offer perspectives that emphasise connections between Israelis and Palestinians, hopeful, if challenging, escapes from a year of bad news. The most interesting is Abu Omar, a drama about a grieving Palestinian father who attempts to cross the Israeli border to bury his son and is befriended by a young Israeli woman who is pregnant with an unwanted child. Crescendo is about an attempt to create a youth orchestra that brings together Israeli and Palestinian musicians. It promises a stirring score as well as a political message [The Jewish Independent will host a discussion with the film's co-writer]. WATCH TRAILER A non-fiction bridge-builder which approaches the heart through the stomach is Breaking bread, a documentary about the A-Sham Arab Food Festival in Israel with the tagline “Hummus has no borders”. Beyond Israel, Anton offers a vision of connection across cultures through the eyes of two children, a Jewish and Ukrainian boy navigating friendship in post-World War I Eastern Europe. SWEET OR SILLY [gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="40914"] Staying upbeat, films that offer warm relationships, black humour, or light relief are plentiful. The darkest of the comedies is Born in Jerusalem and Still Alive, a film about a couple of tour guides who take tourists to terror sites. It encapsulates the idea that Jewish humour is a way of dealing with generations of pain. WATCH TRAILER Dark humour with a gentler spin is Shiva Baby, about an American girl who, at a family Shiva, stumbles across the man she is having an affair with. WATCH TRAILER Humour derived from cultural clashes makes an appearance in Golden Voices, the story of two Russian voiceover artists trying to find a footing in Israel, and in the satirical romance The Sign Painter, an oddball comedy about a Latvian tradesman who wants to marry a woman from the shtetl. For sheer silliness, there is Honeymood, an Israeli comedy about a couple on their wedding night. For beauty that lifts the spirit without making any demands, try the nature documentary Kinneret. SIGNIFICANT FILMS [gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="40915"] Incitement, the Opening Night film, is guaranteed to be one of the festival’s most disturbing. It is a dramatisation of the radicalisation of Yigal Amir, the man who assassinated Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. It won Best Film at the 2019 Ophir Awards, Israel’s Oscars. It is sure to provoke supper conversation. WATCH TRAILER Esau, based on the novel by Meir Shalev, tells a story of sibling rivalry with Biblical echoes. With a high-profile cast including Harvey Keitel, Lior Ashkenazi and Shira Haas, it promises to be the festival’s drawcard. Important documentaries explore contemporary politics, heavily weighted towards US involvement with Israel. The Human Factor examines the failure of Middle East peace negotiations. Kings of Capitol Hill delves into the operations of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the powerful and controversial lobby group for Israel in Washington. ‘Til Kingdom Come goes south into the world of American Evangelicals and their relationship with Israel. [gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="40919"] Significant World War II stories continue to emerge. Holy Silence examines the failure of the Vatican during the Holocaust, suggesting that if Pius XI had not died on the eve of World War II the outcome of the Holocaust could have been quite different. Churchill and the Movie Mogul looks at the production of propaganda films, and The Mystery of the Black Book explores the Soviet Union’s suppression of the stories of Soviet Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Made with a mixture of animation, archival footage and contemporary interviews, the latter also promises to be a creative film experience. WATCH TRAILER [gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="40918"] Closer to home, Jez: A Letter for Life is a devastatingly sad cinematic portrait, a film made by the former Jewish Board of Deputies president Jeremy Spinak, as a letter to his baby twins while he was dying from cancer. Made by Spinak’s cousin Mitzi Goldman, the film aired on the ABC last year in a shorter version but can be seen in full at the festival. WATCH TRAILER OUT OF THE VAULT Shot on location in Auschwitz in 1948, The Last Stage is one of the first Holocaust films made. It uses non-professional actors and draws on individual testimonies. It is a historical document and an important inclusion. A new film based on an older work is Red Fields, a musical based on the Israeli anti-war rock opera Mami, which was a cult play in the 1980s. The fact that it’s remains a curiosity of the past, politically as well as musically, is something of a tragedy but it is interesting to see it revived. NEW HOLOCAUST STORIES [gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="40916"] It wouldn’t be a Jewish Film Festival without Holocaust films. There are at least 16, which even by JIFF standards is a lot but Holocaust horror is blessedly absent. Eighty years on, a new generation is finding buried stories and creative ways of exploring the ethical dilemmas raised by the Holocaust. The most interesting is Persian Lessons, about a Jew in a concentration camp who fools the guards that he is Persian and then finds himself inventing a language to survive the SS officer who wants to learn Persian. WATCH TRAILER Thou Shalt Not Hate is a contemporary Holocaust legacy drama which encapsulates a tense ethical dilemma – should the son of a Holocaust survivor leave a Nazi to die? Another Holocaust legacy drama is The Last Picture Show in Bucharest, the story of an Israeli soldier who deserts to hunt down the man who killed his father. Those who, like me, loved When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, the childhood story based on the life of author Judith Kerr, will be interested to see it finally turned into a film. The refugee tale, while Holocaust driven, is not traumatic and is an excellent story for children. The Last Vermeer is a thriller based on a Nazi art theft, An Irrepressible Woman dramatises the remarkable true story of Janot Reichenbach, a wealthy Jewish woman who followed her politician lover, Leon Blum, the Prime Minister of France, to Buchenwald and The Shepherd, Waiting for Anya, and A Starry Sky Above the Roman Ghetto, each of which creates a drama based on hidden Jews and the righteous who saved them. Three documentaries excavating untold individual stories from the Holocaust are Love, It was Not, the story of a Jewish woman forced into a relationship with an SS officer, Broken Dreams, the story of the “Polish Shirley Temple” and The Oath, a biopic about psychiatrist, Naum Balapan, chief doctor of the Sevastopol psychiatric hospital who, with the help of his wife he saved dozens of innocent people from genocide. TV BINGES Israel is gaining a reputation for excellent television. The documentary Israel: The Land of the TV Series explores the booming industry, and the festival offers several examples. Unchained is a drama exploring the work of a rabbi cum investigator working to free women unable to get a divorce; Nisman is a two-part true crime series based on the 1994 Buenos Aires terror attack; and, for those who can’t wait for Netflix, the full third season of the Haredi family drama Shtisel screens at the festival. CHARACTER SKETCHES Documentaries based on the lives of individuals are again numerous. The most curious is They Call me Dr Miami, about celebrity plastic surgeon Michael Salzhauer, whose life is divided between Brazilian Butt Lifts and the commitments of a frum family man. Others captured in documentary portraits are judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words), billionaire George Soros (Soros), filmmaker Alan Pakula (Alan Pakula: Going for Truth), former Israeli PMs Menachem Begin (Menachem Begin: War and Peace) and iconoclastic Israeli politician Dov Khenin (Comrade Dov). Two films dramatise interesting lives with artistic licence. Honorable Men is a political thriller based on the rise and fall of former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert. Adventures of a Mathematician explores the dawn of the nuclear age through the story of mathematician Stanislaw Ulam. ROMANCE AND RELATIONSHIPS [gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="40917"] Relationship films tend to be heavy on girl-meets-boy themes, but this year’s offerings are much more diverse. Three deal with ageing in creative ways – and all three could equally have been labelled “heart-warmers”. Here we Are is the story of a father who must let his autistic son move away. Love in Suspenders is about a widow and widower who connect despite the disapproval of their adult children. Africa is a memoir-drama about an ageing parent told by his son. WATCH TRAILER FOR LOVE IN SUSPENDERS [gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="40920"] Other relationship dramas include Minyan, the story of two closeted gay men which is the only LGBTQI film in the festival; Asia, a mother-daughter conflict drama; and The End of Love, a long-distance relationship drama, which with its emphasis on remote communication is a particularly fitting end to a festival in which everything from business meetings to Seders happened on-screen. WATCH TRAILER FOR ASIA ON FRIDAY: Hear Ashley Browne's podcast interview with JIFF directors Eddie and Lindy Tamir Photo: Still from Bornin Jerusalem and lucky to be alive