UK Jewish Film Festival
Screenings and educational events take place at cinemas across the UK.
22 October 2004 - 31 January 2005 (selected titles)
The UK Jewish Film Festival is delighted to offer highlights from the 2004 programme to venues across the UK. The festival offers an eclectic international selection of features, documentaries and short films that explore Jewish experience, perspectives and politics in the broadest sense.
The thought-provoking programme reflects contemporary Jewish experiences from around the world as well as those from the past. Special programmes this year include education events concerning the conflict in the Middle East and the Holocaust, rare archival films from Eastern Europe and a special tribute to Jack Rosenthal.
The UK Jewish Film Festival on Tour features the following titles.
Features
Only Human (Seres Queridos)
Dominic Harari, Teresa Pelegri | Spain/Argentina | 2004 | 89 mins
A Jewish Meet the Parents, and reminiscent of Billy Wilder and early Almodovar, Only Human explores relationships between lovers, families, Arabs and Jews.
Rosenstrasse
Margarethe von Trotta | Germany | 2003 | 136 mins
An anonymous street in the heart of Berlin seems an unlikely location for one of the most amazing acts of resistance of World War II, but it was here that a small group of women took on Hitler's SS and won...
Twin Sisters (De Tweeling)
Ben Sombogaart | Netherlands | 2002 | 135 mins
Nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Twin Sisters is an epic love story based on the Dutch bestseller by Tessa de Loo.
Documentaries
Arna's Children
Juliano Mer Khamis, Danniel Danniel | Palestine/Israel/Netherlands | 2003 | 84 mins
On the West Bank, Arna Mer opened a theatre centre for children from Jenin to help them to express their frustrations, anger and fear. Arna's son filmed her work in the seven years before her death, returning five years later to find out what had become of the children she worked with.
Behind Enemy Lines + A Saturday Walk
Dov Gil-Har | Israel | 2003 | 65 mins
Benny Hernes, a captain in the Israeli police force, and Adnan Joulani, a Palestinian journalist, travel together through the landscape of the Intifada, which takes them from Jerusalem and the Holocaust Memorial of Yad Vashem to the Temple Mount and the Jenin refugee camp.
Forerunners + A Good Uplift
Pazeet Mili Ben Hayl, Galit Gala Shaked | Israel | 2004 | 60 mins
What does it take for Israelis to bend it like Beckham? Forerunners is the story of three Israeli women who share a dream to form a team to get public recognition and play professional football.
Lullaby + A Different War
Adi Arbel | Israel | 2003 | 52 mins
More than 60 babies were killed during the last Intifada in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority territories. 11 Israeli and Palestinian mothers describe the unbearable pain caused by the killing of children in the region.
Mame Loshn, Kinder Loshn + Orders of Love
Tommy Schwarcz, Avi Lehrer | Israel | 2002 | 54 mins
This warm and engaging documentary looks at the changing response to Yiddish in Israel and finds the writers and poets and ordinary people who are trying lovingly to revive the language in Israel today.
Special Event
The Yuri Morozov Archive of Silent Films accomanied by the Sound & Light Cinematic Duo
Various directors | 1910-26
The unique UK Premiere of the Yuri Morozov Archive (Kiev) contains some of the earliest cinematic representations of east European Jewish communities.
Tribute to Jack Rosenthal
Jack Rosenthal, who died earlier this year, was one of the most influential, inventive and accessible writers working in British television. Clocking up an extraordinary 250 scripts (including 129 episodes of Coronation Street), his work often drew on autobiography and frequently featured British Jewish characters.
The Evacuees
Alan Parker | UK | 1975 | 75 mins
Directed by Alan Parker, this was Rosenthal's first drama for the BBC and follows the story of two young Jewish boys uprooted from Manchester during the Second World War and sent to live in Blackpool.
The Bar Mitzvah Boy
Michael Tuchner | UK | 1976 | 75 mins
A Jewish boy thinks seriously about the meaning of his forthcoming Bar Mitzvah and realises the limitations of his father and other male members of the family. Rosenthal's script is brilliant, funny and touching.
Bye Bye Baby
Jack Rosenthal, Edward Bennett | UK | 1992 | 100 mins
An exploration of the often hilarious world of a young Jewish lad conscript and how he survives the Russians, the Royal Navy and the relationship with his girl back home – all the while aided and abetted by the most famous sex symbol the world has ever known.
Education
I Am You Are
Various directors | Israel | 2004 | 90 mins
These five short films have been made by groups of Israeli and Palestinian young people working together on issues reflecting their identity and the reality of their day to day lives.
