Published: 18 October 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
This year’s festival contains 64 films: a fairly even spread of features and documentaries, enhanced by two historical films, two performance pieces and one animation. In Melbourne and Sydney there are a number of associated events including panels, live performances and even a baking competition, prior to the screening of The King of Börek.
As with all festivals, the toughest part is knowing what to choose. We’ve analysed the program to help you decide.
If you like to be challenged
Two Holocaust-context films strong on moral dilemmas are I Do Not Care if We Go Down in History as Barbarians, the story of an activist artist who stages a massacre of Jews, and Murer – Anatomy of a Trial. The Last Supper, about Jewish Germans choosing to leave or stay, is more of a psychological dilemma, set pre-Holocaust.
The dilemmas of Israeli society are addressed in many films, among them The Cousin, a feature about the suspicion of Arabs, and The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, about a Jewish-Arab relationship. Documentaries exposing Israel’s dark side are plentiful: The Mossad: Imperfect Spies; The Jewish Underground; The Ancestral Sin, about systemic discrimination against Sephardim; and Conventional Sins, addressing widespread sexual abuse in Haredi communities.
For cultural provocation, consider Narcissister Organ Player, a performance piece/documentary exploring gender, sexuality and racial identity.
If you want a laugh
Pickings are slimmer. Seder-Masochism, a creative animation, looks like a lot of fun and so does Thank G-d, Deborah Leiser-Moore’s short theatrical work about Talmudic requirements for sex. Among the features, there are some that promise black comedy and heart-warming moments based on Haredim encountering the secular world: The Unorthodox, a film based on the rise of Shas; Redemption, about a Haredi man who returns to his former life as a rock musician to raise money for his sick daughter and Red Cow, a messianic fantasy/lesbian love story.
If you are looking for inspiration
You can’t go past An Act of Defiance, a dramatisation of the trial of the ten anti-apartheid protesters led by Nelson Mandela, several of them Jewish. This year’s crop of Holocaust films are strong on inspiration stories of resistance, all based on true stories: Sobibor, Who Will Write Our History, 87 Children and A Rose in Winter. On a smaller scale, 93 Queen is a documentary about a woman changing the lives of women in Borough Park in New York.
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If you follow Israeli politics
As well as all those confronting, mostly political Israeli documentaries, , there is Madam Prime Minister, a documentary about Golda Meir, and The Oslo Diaries. The Unorthodox has an important political perspective as well as it’s humour, and Shelter, a feature about a Palestinian woman in protective custody and her Israeli guard, promises to traverse the political to the personal.
If you miss Israeli culture
The Israeli offerings are by no means all about politics. Let’s Dance celebrates Israeli dancing, One Last Bedtime Story explores children’s literature and The Museum takes us inside the Israel Museum. The King of Börek is a story of both business culture and food. Kishon, a documentary on Israel’s celebrated cartoonist and writer, is biographical but Kishon was renowned for his window on Israeli society. If horror is your thing, there is the Israeli slasher, Children of the Fall.
If you are attracted to Jewish Americana
The Jewish contribution to entertainment prompts several documentaries: Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas; Sam Spiegel: Conquering Hollywood; Studio 54; Love, Gilda; and Blue Note Records.
A more disturbing documentary is The Twinning Reaction, another film (like the recent Three Identical Strangers) about the Jewish adoption agency that secretly separated multiple births for a psychological experiment. Can you ever forgive me? is a tragi-comic biopic about the wayward career of celebrity biographer Lee Israel, and Summer 03 is a growing up story about family secrets.
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If you are a people person
Poet Avraham Sutskever (Black Honey), writer Isaac Babel (Finding Babel), producer Michal Waszyńsk (The Prince and the Dybbk) and Musician Itzhak Perlman (Itzhak) are among the cultural figures who are the subject of documentaries at the festival.
Holocaust-themed bio-documentaries include the story of Fredy Hirsch (Dear Fredy), a gymnast and youth leader who provided care to children during the Holocaust; righteous gentile Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas (Dear Ambassador) and, on the other side of the fence, Austrian politician and former German army officer Kurt Waldheim (The Waldheim Waltz).
Escape real life with relationship dramas such as Simon and Theodore; Outdoors, Promise at Dawn; and an interwoven quartet of stories, Saving Neta.
If you like old movies
Choose between the chillingly prophetic The City without Jews, made in Austria in 1924, and The Ancient Law, a scenario reminiscent of The Jazz Singer, made in Germany in 1923.
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Film on Nazi turned Austrian President Kurt Waldheim draws parallels to modern rise of the right (JTA)
Photo: Still from Dear Fredy
