Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival 2020

Time	Items
All day
4pm	16:00 Respiro
5pm	17:00 Eid \| Theatrical Release
6pm	18:00 Black Tea
7pm	19:00 The Holdovers
8pm	20:00 Emilia Pérez \| Theatrical Release 20:30 Taboo: Amos Guttman

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Monday | 31.12.29

The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival's first-ever online edition is on it's way. As We are happy and proud to continue with our annual Festival, offering the audience a special cultural experience, featuring some of the best Jewish titles of the past year. The films were handpicked by our team of curators and offer a fascinating selection of features and documentaries from the past year shedding light upon Jewish life in cinema from different and unique perspectives. This year’s selection includes surprising comedies, stars, cinematic discoveries, a glimpse into the lives of Lucian Freud, Modigliani, Einstein and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as well as personal stories, thought-provoking films and encounters with filmmakers and actors.

Tickets: Single film – 20 NIS / Festival Pass for the full program – 120 NIS

For viewing window, ordering, and watching the films, please click on the film's picture.

The films and Festival Pass are available for ordering and viewing via the Cinematheque Online website>>>

American Pickle will be available beginning November 11. All other films will be available to watch beginning November 12.

All the films will be open to watch in Israel until the end of the Festival on November 22, at midnight, except for Resistance, which is open to watch until November 17 at midnight.

Wednesday | 04.11.20 to Thursday | 19.11.26

Films

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Monday | 28.10.30

International Panorama

Opening Film: An American Pickle (USA 2020) | Dir.: Brandon Trost

Herschel and Sarah escape 1919 Eastern Europe for America in search of a better future. Lo and behold, Herschel wakes up 100 years later to discover his great-grandson, Armed with a pickle recipe and a set of traditional values, Herschel tries to survive the 21st century. An amusing comedy that balances between direct humor and sophisticated satire.

Sunday | 01.11.20 to Monday | 25.11.30

A Call to Spy (USA 2020) |Dir.: Lydia Dean Pilcher

The extraordinary story of three female agents recruited as spies by Winston Churchill’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) for Britain in occupied France during the first days of World War II.

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Monday | 25.06.29

Resistance (UK/France/Germany/USA 2020) + Jesse Eisenberg and director Jonathan Jakubowicz in conversation

Before he became the world-famous mime Marcel Marceau, he was Marcel Mangel, an aspiring Jewish actor who joined the French Resistance to save thousands of children orphaned at the hands of the Nazis. Based upon an inspiring true story, Jesse Eisenberg stars in this compelling drama.

Friday | 30.10.20 to Tuesday | 24.07.29

Shiva Baby (USA 2020) | Dir.: Emma Seligman

A young Jewish woman gets in hot water when she attends a shiva where she meets past and present people from her life. Following rave reviews following its world premiere at SXSW and the Toronto Film Festival, Shiva Baby is not to be missed.

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Tuesday | 24.07.29

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Monday | 31.12.29

Documentary Film

Holy Silence (USA 2020) | Dir.: Steven Pressman

This thought-provoking new documentary takes a fresh look at a topic that has sparked controversy for decades - the Church's response to the rising Nazi threat and antisemitism spreading across Europe during the years leading up to World War II.

Wednesday | 21.10.20 to Monday | 31.12.29

The House on Wannsee Street (Argentina/Germany 2020) | Dir.: Poli Martínez Kaplun

When award-winning Argentinean filmmaker Poli Martínez Kaplun decided to dig deep into her family history, she found a shocking discovery. Questions of identity, resilience, compassion, and the plight of displaced persons are brought to life as Poli confronts her mother and aunts about the hidden Jewish identity.

Saturday | 31.10.20 to Monday | 25.11.30

The Lesson (Germany 2020) | Dir.: Elena Horn

The Lesson explores how German children who are coming of age are taught to deal with the nation’s Nazi past. In doing so it reveals the contradictions on the issue within the cultural landscape of modern day Germany.

Saturday | 31.10.20 to Monday | 25.11.30

Memory is our Homeland (Canada, 2019) | Dir.: Jonathan Durand + Conversation with director

From 1942 to 1952, more than 18,000 Polish women and children lived across Africa as World War II refugees. This is the story of how they ended up there and why their history was erased, told through the filmmaker's attempt to piece together his family connection to it.

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Monday | 31.12.29

Portrayal (Canada 2020) | Dir.: Billie Mintz

From a young age, the secret of his late grandfather about the fate of his art works has haunted Roman. The film follows Roman's incredible journey, full of twists and turns, as he tries to put together all the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Monday | 31.12.29

Tuesday | 27.10.20 to Monday | 31.12.29

Great Jewish Minds

Albert Einstein: Still a Revolutionary (USA 2020) | Dir.: Julia Newman

Using a wealth of rarely seen archival footage and correspondence alongside illuminating interviews, filmmaker Julia Newman makes the case that Albert Einstein’s example of social and political activism is as important today as are his brilliant, ground-breaking theories.

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Monday | 29.07.30

Exhibition on Screen: Lucian Freud - A Self Portrait (UK 2020)

The Royal Academy of Arts in London, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, is bringing together Lucian Freud’s self-portraits. Spanning nearly seven decades his self-portraits give a fascinating insight into both his psyche and his development as a painter.

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Monday | 29.07.30

Maverick Modigliani (Italy 2020) | Dir.: Valeria Parisi

The life and work of the avant-garde painter who became a classic contemporary artist loved and imitated worldwide. The film takes us through museum halls of the Albertina in Vienna, the splendid exhibition dedicated to the artist at Livorno, as well as the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the great museums and art collections in Paris.

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Tuesday | 29.10.30

RUTH: Justice Ginsburg in her Own Words (USA 2020) | Dir.: Freida Lee Mock

How does a person rise to the U.S. Supreme Court despite closed doors and legal and social barriers? RUTH: Justice Ginsburg in her Own Words tells the improbable story of how Ruth Bader Ginsburg became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. A compelling authentic, poignant, and powerful portrait.

Saturday | 31.10.20 to Monday | 25.11.30

Tuesday | 20.10.20 to Monday | 31.12.29

Israeli Cinema

A Private Death (Israel 2020) | Dir.: Marianna Bar

A Private Death tells of the great love story between Haya Schreiber, a sixth-generation Jaffa-born Jew and Tewfic Hanania, a Christian Orthodox Jerusalem-born Arab that began in 1930s Jerusalem.

Wednesday | 21.10.20 to Monday | 31.12.29

The Church (Israel 2020) | Dir.: Anat Tel

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, shared by 6 Christian sects whom are trying to maintain the status quo. 2 Muslim families claiming to be the key custodian, and Johnny, is keeping the peace in the church.

Monday | 02.11.20 to Thursday | 28.11.30

Raymonde El Bidaoia (Israel 2020) | Dir.: Yael Abecassis

Armed with a camera, Yael Abecassis followed her mother—legendary Moroccan singer Raymonde—in an attempt to understand and redefine their relationship. Transposed and transformed, mother and daughter remain entwined, bound by guilt, admiration, pain, and above all—limitless love and music.

Saturday | 14.11.20 to Monday | 25.11.30

Wednesday | 21.10.20 to Wednesday | 23.10.30

Classics

Children Must Laugh (Mir Kumen On) (Poland 1938) | Dir.: Aleksander Ford

A rare record of Jewish life in Poland before WWII, the film is set at the Medem Sanatorium near Warsaw that provided care and an escape for some 10,000 children between 1926-1939. The film follows three children as they gradually overcome their emotional withdrawal and distrust and enter the communal life of the institution. Newly restored.

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Monday | 28.10.30

Searching for the Vilna Gaon

On the occasion of the Year of the Vilna Gaon and of the history of the Jews of Lithuania - a short film and two panel discussions. This video has been commissioned by the Lithuanian Culture Institute in cooperation with Lithuanian cultural attachés. Viewing is free.

Thursday | 29.10.20 to Monday | 25.11.30

Sh’chur (Israel 1994) | Dir.: Shmuel Hasfari + Hanna Azulai Hasfari and Rafael Balulu in conversation

Hanna Azulai’s film tells the story of a 13-year-old who struggles with the demons that fill the life of her Moroccan family in Israel of the 1970s. This is Hanna Azulai's semi-autobiographical and semi-fictitious story of her childhood and it reveals a side basically unknown in the life of the Moroccan community, a side full of color and passion. New restored digital print.

Saturday | 31.10.20 to Monday | 25.11.30

Wednesday | 28.10.20 to Tuesday | 21.05.30

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