Claus Mueller

Held for the 24th time from January 14 to 27 at New York’s Walter Read theatre Center the Jewish Film Festival offered an expanded selection. Organized by the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center the main program presented 22 features from 13 countries including several co-productions, 36 films in special programs and four seminars. Compared to last year’s edition the program has become more differentiated to reach its goal of proving a broad exploration of the Jewish character and history, Israel themed stories and emerging events. Films selected excelled in the contents covered and in most cases in their production value.  In four special programs noteworthy productions were presented including but not limited to Three Women (Ernst Lubitsch), Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick), The Birdcage (Mike Nicols) and The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo). The War Against War special program is an original section showcasing antiwar films from the 50’s and 60’s. Equally innovative was the New York Noir sidebar which presented dark views of the city from the late 40’s by the Jewish directors Robert Siodmack (Cry of the City) and Jules Dassin (The Naked City).

In the United States there are more than 100 Jewish film festivals, a number that has been growing steadily over the last year. The expanded New York Jewish Film Festival is probably the largest given its appealing selection for the huge Jewish community in the New York area and for those interested in Jewish and Israeli affairs. As distinct from many other festivals this festival has a track record of launching films into distribution.  After their selection for the NY Jewish festival, numerous films entered theatrical distribution including this year’s Oscar winner Ida, Bethlehem, The Congress, The Jewish Cardinal, Plus, and When Jews Were Funny, available through the VOD platform. Several selections from the 2015 programs are now in theaters like Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz), Felix and Meira (Maxime Giroux), Let’s Go (Michael Verhoeven), and Deli (Erik Greenberg Anjou). The festival achieves what many film makers want, to reach a larger community.

Among the productions  which had a special appeal are:

MUSES OF ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, Asaf Galay & Shal Betser, Israel, 2014

Presented with an appealing human touch through extensive interviews and archival footage are the multiple involvements Singer had with a female translators who had worked for him estimated at about 48. But the story transcends the themes of love sex and betrayals. It recreates his biography and elucidates his writing career. Far beyond being just companions the translators helped him to master the English language and become a respected author. After all, he only wrote in the Yiddish language.  The translators had different recollections and stories covering facets of his personality and existence, but more importantly, they provided Singer with themes and events for his stories. They did not take credit for their contributions, an essential support he was reluctant to acknowledge. The visual documentation of the film generates an outstanding portrait of a complex and demanding character.

THE ZIONIST IDEA, Joseph Direman and Oren Ruavsky, USA 2014

This is a meticulously researched and presented documentary about the history of Zionism from the origin to contemporary Israel. It follows the perception of the residents of Palestine and Israel who were participants in the decade old struggle. Superb archival footage illustrates the different strains of past and present Zionism which passed from a dream to the deeds of settling and establishing the homeland Herzl suggested. Hopeless appears but not impossible is the contemporary dream of solving the conflicts. From the socialist interpretation of the twenties, the settling of Jewish communities, the displacement of Palestinians from their land by force, and several wars, the impasse of current conditions has come about. Against the background of a right wing drift of Israeli politics and public sentiments some Zionists advocate to retain the West Bank by force if necessary. Others, who are in the minority search for a democratic solution reflecting the contradiction which has continued for decades. In the 1940s Palestine the minority population of Jews stayed and the majority of Arabs left or were expelled without being allowed to return, a contingency of war. By 1967, 700,000 Jews from Arab countries had moved to Israel. After Israel’s pre-emptive strike, the Egyptian and Syrian armies were defeated in the 6 day war and Israel held with the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, all the historic land claimed by some of her political parties and conservative factions. After all, Israel enjoyed for the first time a Jewish territorial unity.  Today, radicals on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides are more driven by religion and faced by a shrinking number of moderates.  For the settlers there has been a shift to a religious war, a stark contrast to Rabin’s conviction expressed in the Oslo accords that the partition in two nations and a discussion of two state solutions is necessary. The Zionist conception of the state is debated again in Israel ranging from the goal of self-determination embraced by some to the conviction of keeping the occupied areas held by others.  Small and vocal communities search for peace and oppose the ever growing settlements. 

By presenting juxtapositions of events and personal testimonies from both sides this provocative presentation of Zionism in Israel’s history is a learning experience. We observe the weakening of democratic values and on both sides a decline of tolerance, disillusionment, and the absence among leaders of a reasonable vision for the future. Ethnic nationalism linked to religion creates a Jewish state where Arabs are second class citizens. In that state a   Palestinian national identity cannot be accepted and dialogue becomes impossible.

FELIX AND MEIRA, Maxime Giroux, Canada, 2014 

Meira lives with her husband and infant in a Montreal n orthodox community. She has an adventurous mind, a strong sense of self and stands up to her husband who is immured in rituals. Articulating that in the closed orthodox setting she cannot express herself she feels lifeless. Felix, to whom she is drawn in a chance encounter, comes from upscale professional background and appears to be drifting with no sense of direction. He is also alienated from his family and but seems to be detached from Meira with whom he has fallen in love.  Meira emancipates from her husband and family and leaves with her infant daughter to join Felix in Venice. She has gained her freedom and realizes that she will be shunned from her family and community, but also knows that she cannot escape completely her tradition. Felix and Meira is beautifully enacted low budget film with great photography capturing the neighborhoods of Montreal, Brooklyn and the Venice scenery offering a touching story dialogued mostly in Yiddish

DELI MAN, USA 2014, Erik Greenberg Anjou

Serving like a secular culinary temple the Deli is an essential Jewish cultural institution and was in earlier periods paramount in Jewish neighborhoods. From the founding of this institution in the 1840s by German immigrants to the early 19th century more than 30 thousand delicatessen restaurants were set up. Today they have declined to hundreds because of not being able to survive the aggressive real estate market, demographic changes, upward mobility, and a shift in culinary preferences. DELI MAN is a superb documentary depicting the developments of Delis and of several families maintaining them over generations. There is an intriguing history of the dishes served, and of the social functions these restaurants maintained. Their success in shifting from ethnic to main line food also contributed to the demise of the classical Jewish Deli where the consumption of food came close to a religious experience. In New York City so the film reports there are only four major delis left, including the well know Katz, They survive because they own the Deli and the building it occupies rather than renting the space. Greenberg shares an enlightening and uplifting story.

LET’S GO, Michael Verhoeven, Germany 2014

Verhoeven presents in this startling sensitive feature film two holocaust survivors who decide to stay in Germany rather than leaving for another country. Their daughter Laura lives in the United States but returns when her father dies and her comatose sister is hospitalized. Laura tries to better understand her peculiar family. Through elucidating flashbacks the film reconstruct the family’s passage from survival in the first post-war years, managing a restaurant, and living in a Munich reform settlement with some other survivors.  The parents never discuss the past with their children. Avoidance of strangers is mandatory with the father taking on a stern role. Emotional withdrawal is shown by the mother who is totally detached from Laura and cannot show grief about the passing of her husband and hospitalized daughter. Rather she finds refuge in Jewish rituals. Outside the family setting Verhoeven shows their alienation from the environment in an understated way. Laura, like others in the post-holocaust generation cannot escape the experiences of her parents. She can only accept being Jewish after she learns at the end of the film that her mother’s coldness is due to a traumatic concentration camp experience.  At the end of the film an allied officer commands her father “Let’s go” when her father is hiding in a camp barracks, a motto that now holds for her.

The festival delivered on the promise of an outstanding and relevant program adding thought provoking sections

Claus Mueller

filmexchange@gmail.com.