SURVIVING WITH WOLVES
This powerful drama has been caught up in a massive controversy in Europe and the US, centred on the best-selling book by Misha Defonseca upon which it is based. The film, superbly directed by veteran French-Jewish filmmaker more...
A TOUCH AWAY
If you thought smartly written and superbly acted television dramas were the provenance of the British, think again. A Touch Away takes a slice of contemporary Tel Aviv life and spins a marvellous multi-family drama that will leave more...
BLESSED IS THE MATCH
Hannah Senesh was a Hungarian Jewish resistance fighter and poet. The child of educated parents in Budapest, Hannah’s early years ran parallel to the growth of anti-Semitism in Hungary and led her to fiercely embrace Zionism. After more...
CHILDREN OF THE SUN
Director Ran Tal’s documentary explores the fabled world of the Israeli kibbutz movement from a largely unexplored perspective – that of the first generation of children who were born on the kibbutzim and lived there for most of more...
CIRCUMCISE ME
Yisrael Campbell looks more like a rabbi than a comedian, but don’t be fooled by the big black hat, frock coat and Hassidic side-curls. An Orthodox Jew, he is seriously funny and his life story will leave you laughing long after you more...
THE CLOWN AND THE FUHRER
Europe during the 1940s: bombs are going off everywhere and the Nazis occupy Denmark. But these are nothing like the fireworks and on-stage dramas that envelop Charlie Rivel (1896-1983) – then Europe’s most famous and popular more...
DANCING ALFONSO
An entertaining documentary from Barak Heymann, who with brother Tomer has been hailed as Israel’s and documentary’s answer to the Coen Brothers! This is a humorous and pitch-perfect portrait of a gaggle of senior citizens who more...
DISENGAGEMENT
In this powerful contemporary drama from Israel’s most celebrated filmmaker, Amos Gitai (Kadosh, Kippur), the luminous Juliette Binoche stars as Ana, a French woman who is reunited with her younger Israeli more...
GO IN PEACE, RAIN
What’s in a name or, for that matter, important about a national anthem? Even the State of Israel, which officially adopted Hatikvah as its anthem only a few years ago – after more than 50 years of more...
JELLYFISH
There may be no more beguilingly beautiful or original Israeli film than this marvellously realised début from the gifted team of Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen. Winner of the Camera d’Or for Best First Feature at last more...
JUST AN ORDINARY JEW
A tour-de-force from Oliver Hirschbiegel, director of the Berlin Bunker box-office smash, Downfall. Based on a book by Swiss author Charles Lewinsky, this mesmerising screen drama addresses the thorny issue of what it means to be more...
LETTERS TO JENNY
The continuing vitality of contemporary Spanish filmmaking can be seen in this compelling film that tells not one but two stories of life and love. It is the story of a mother, Laura, whose love for her daughter, Jenny, is so close that, in more...
MAX MINSKY AND ME
In the world of Jewish film, an often serious and mature genre, it is
rare to come across family-oriented comedies, so imagine our delight to find Max Minsky and Me, a little gem of a story set, of all places, in present-day
more...
MODUS OPERANDI
In this powerful documentary, director Hugues Lanneau and screenwriter Diane Pelersztejn (our Festival Programmer) claw away at the post-war mythology of their beloved Belgium. What they have unearthed about this bastion of liberalism and more...
MY FATHER, MY LORD
There may be a no more perfectly realised film this year than this début from gifted Israeli writer-director David Volach. Winner of the top award at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York, the story is simplicity itself. more...
ONE DAY YOU'LL UNDERSTAND
Veteran Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai’s newest film is as moving as it is profound. First screened at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, and at a swag of major international festivals since, it explores nagging questions thrown up more...
RESTLESS
A major departure for veteran Israeli filmmaker and Festival favourite Amos Kollek (Fast Food, Fast Woman and Queenie in Love), Restless is an edgy psychological drama that explores the underbelly of contemporary more...
THE SEVEN DAYS
Three generations of a Moroccan-Jewish family dream of hitting the road in this heartfelt drama directed by acclaimed Israeli actress Ronit Elkabetz (The Band’s Visit) and her brother Shlomi Elkabetz. It is 1991, during the more...
SHOAH BY BULLET
In this extraordinary documentary, French priest Father Patrick Desbois, and his inter-faith team of researchers, crisscross present-day Ukraine in order to piece together what happened there during the Holocaust.After Hitler’s more...
STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME
Given what we know about the Nazi concentration camps, it is difficult to think of them as anything other than places where millions of lives were lost. Indeed, it is almost too difficult to think of them as places where life struggled to more...
THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION
A heart-warming story that blends drama and comedy into something deeply moving and utterly unique. In 1970 Brazil, a military régime has ruled the country since 1964, but 12-year-old Mario’s biggest concern is whether Brazil more...
ZONE LIBRE
Actor-turned-writer-director Christophe Malavoy has wrought a heart-warming and at times hair-raising portrait of Jewish life in France under the German Occupation. It is 1942 and a Parisian family has managed to flee Nazi-occupied France more...
