New York Jewish Film Festival 2018

Razzia

Opening Night · U.S. Premiere · Q&As with director/co-writer Nabil Ayouch

Five Moroccans are pushed to the fringes in Casablanca by the extremist government in this kaleidoscopic drama, an honest and deeply humanistic portrait of contemporary Moroccans yearning for connection amidst political crisis.

The Cakemaker

Centerpiece Screening · New York Premiere · Q&As with director Ofir Raul Graizer

A gay German baker and the Israeli widow of the man they both loved connect after his death by auto accident in this delicate and graceful exploration of the fluidity of desire and sexuality.

West of the Jordan River

Closing Night · U.S. Premiere · Q&As with director Amos Gitai (moderated by Richard Peña at the 12:30pm screening)

In this powerful and moving new documentary, Amos Gitai returns to the West Bank to better understand the efforts of Israeli and Palestinian citizens to try to overcome the consequences of the 50-year occupation.

Across the Waters

New York Premiere · Q&As with director Nicolo Donato and screenwriter Per Daumiller

A Jewish guitarist and his family barely escape Copenhagen after the Nazis seize control, and set off to a remote fishing village in the north of the country in this masterful suspense thriller.

An Act of Defiance

New York Premiere · Q&As with director Jean van de Velde

Based on the true story of the Rivonia Trial in apartheid South Africa, An Act of Defiance is the story of Bram Fischer, the lawyer who chose to put his life and freedom at risk to defend Nelson Mandela.

The Cousin

New York Premiere · Q&As with director Tzahi Grad

A Palestinian handyman is accused of assaulting a young girl, and the progressive-minded Israeli actor who has hired him to do work on his house steps up as the lone voice in his defense in this morally complex, comic-tinged drama. Preceded by The Law of Averages.

The Dead Nation

New York Premiere

Radu Jude’s (Aferim!) hauntingly beautiful documentary consists entirely of photographs from photographer Costica Acsinte that present idyllic images of pastoral life and audio of diary excerpts from a Jewish doctor, which portray a surging wave of anti-Semitism.

The Impure

U.S. Premiere · Q&As with director Daniel Najenson

During the wave of Eastern European Jewish emigration, thousands of Jewish women were lured with promises of wealth to Argentinian brothels. This trenchant documentary investigates this history, and weaves in the filmmaker’s own personal revelations on the matter. Preceded by Compartments.

The Invisibles

New York Premiere · Q&As with director Claus Raefle, co-writer Alejandra Lopez, and actress Ruby Fee

This extraordinary film tells the story of four of the 1,700 Jews who hid in plain sight in Berlin throughout the war, though the capital was famously declared Berlin “judenfrei”—free of Jews.

Iom Romì (A Day in Rome)

U.S. Premiere · Q&A with director Valerio Ciriaci and producer Isaak Liptzin

An intoxicating short documentary chronicling a day in the life of the contemporary Roman Jewish community is accompanied by two shorts: one made up of a Jewish-Italian family’s heartwarming home movies, recently unearthed by the Centro Primo Levi, the other a hypnotic story of an archivist who becomes part of her own work. Followed by Della Seta Home Movies and Counterlight.

The Last Goldfish

U.S. Premiere · Q&As with subjects Joyce Federman and Gerry Wagschal

When director Su Goldfish discovers as an adult that she has siblings she’s never met, she burrows through her parents’ pasts to uncover the truth in this introspective autobiographical documentary.

Let Yourself Go

New York Premiere · Q&As with director Francesco Amato

A detached psychoanalyst finds his life recharged by the presence of a young, attractive, and undisciplined personal trainer in this comedy, which veers from the intellectual to the delightfully slapstick. Preceded by The Backseat.

Mr. and Mrs. Adelman

New York City Premiere

This hilarious and absurd take on the romantic comedy slyly toys with the cliché of writer and muse, following a man as he transforms from non-committal aspiring writer to fame-obsessed egotist.

Praise the Lard

U.S. Premiere · Q&As with director Chen Shelach

This documentary explores one of the biggest taboos in Judaism—pork—and how the existence of Israel’s pork industry came to exemplify much of the tension inherent in Zionism. Preceded by The Red House.

The Prince and the Dybbuk

U.S. Premiere · Q&A with The Prince and the Dybbuk directors Elwira Niewira & Piotr Rosolowski and A Hunger Artist director Daria Martin on 1/11

Michał Waszyński is remembered as a Polish aristocrat, Hollywood producer, a reprobate and liar, an open homosexual and husband to an Italian countess, and director of one of the most important Jewish films of all time, The Dybbuk. But who was he really? Preceded by A Hunger Artist.

Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me

Q&A with director Sam Pollard

In this exhilarating documentary, long-time Spike Lee collaborator Sam Pollard pays tribute to multi-talented, multi-racial entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. by scrutinizing the political complexities and contradictions that defined his career.

Tracking Edith

New York Premiere · Q&As with director Peter Stephan Jungk and producer Lillian Birnbaum

This documentary follows filmmaker Peter Stephan Jungk’s journey to understand his great aunt, the Austro-British photographer Edith Tudor-Hart, who lived a double life as a spy for the KGB and created the Cambridge Five, the Soviet Union’s most successful spy ring in the United Kingdom.

Shorts Program

Q&A with directors Bas Berkhout, Margaux Fitoussi & Mo Scarpelli, Pearl Gluck, Leonhard Hofmann, and Frank Stiefel

Six shorts from around the world run the gamut from documentary artist portraits to character dramas to experimental narratives.

Avanti Popolo

Two Egyptian soldiers stranded in the Sinai Desert in the aftermath of the Six-Day War try to make their way back to safety across the Suez Canal in this absurd comedy that paints a humanistic, antiwar picture of Middle Eastern politics.

The Dybbuk

Introduction by Lisa Rivo

A rich, ethnographic tapestry of Jewish legend, The Dybbuk is one of the finest films ever produced in the Yiddish language, filmed just before the outbreak of WWII and presented here in a brand-new restoration.

Late Summer Blues

Q&A with director Renen Schorr

Late Summer Blues follows a group of high school graduates during the summer before they’re conscripted into the army. Restored after thirty years, this Israeli classic portrays the paradox of Israeli adolescence in raw, deeply human terms.

The Mission of Raoul Wallenberg

Q&A with director Alexander Rodnyanskiy on 1/15

The Mission of Raoul Wallenberg investigates the mysterious circumstances surrounding the disappearance and death of Raoul Wallenberg—who had saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in Budapest—following the end of WWII.

Siege

Siege is the story of a widow whose husband was killed in the Six-Day War and who wants to begin to put her grief behind her. But her late husband’s friends and family have other ideas—they expect her to remain in mourning for the rest of her life.

One Day You’ll Understand

Q&As with director Amos Gitai

When a middle-aged French businessman, discovers a trove of wartime letters from his late father, he discovers that his mother, Rivka (Jeanne Moreau), is a Jew. Moreau is splendid in this film, directed by Amos Gitai, screening in tribute to the legendary late actress.

Drawing the Iron Curtain: Maya Balakirsky Katz with J. Hoberman

This selection features shorts from the Soviet Union’s animation studio Soyuzmultfilm, which was as pervasive and influential in the Soviet imagination as Disney was in America’s. Art history professor Maya Balakirsky Katz and film critic J. Hoberman will discuss how the studio brought together Jewish artists from all over the USSR and served as a haven for dissident artists.

Talking Movies: Master Class with Sam Pollard

Free Event

Join Sam Pollard, director of NYJFF Main Slate selection Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me, for a behind-the-scenes master class on documentary filmmaking. An Emmy and Peabody award-winning director, Sam Pollard has directed and produced numerous documentary films.