World of Jewish Flicks – September

In many ways September is the beginning of a new year. School starts up again after a long summer break, film studios begin releasing the films they consider Academy Award contenders, and DVD companies gear up for the big Christmas season and begin releasing their summer blockbusters for home consumption.

September is also the beginning of a new film festival season in Toronto. Every year close to one hundred film festivals enliven the Toronto landscape and the granddaddy of them all gets underway on the first Thursday after Labour Day.

Yes, it is time for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), probably the biggest and certainly one of the most important film festivals in the world. This year promises to be a special festival. Not only will TIFF be screening over 300 feature films, documentaries and shorts, it will be premiering some of the biggest films of the year.

And in the World of Jewish Flicks, the Festival will be screening some 15 Israeli films and five or six other films of Jewish interest. This is the largest bonanza of Jewish films ever presented by TIFF.

What makes this year special is the fact that TIFF is inaugurating a new program. Its City To City program will concentrate on one specific city each year. This year, because the city of Tel Aviv is celebrating its 100th anniversary, TIFF decided to put the spotlight on that city and will be presenting ten films that focus on Tel Aviv. These ten films attempt to show a realistic picture of the city and of Israel. It shows its problems and its accomplishments.

These films include several classic films, such as The Big Dig, a comedy released in Israel in 1969 that was written and directed by one of Israel’s leading satirists, Ephraim Kishon, and Life According to Agfa, a film made in 1992 by Israeli screenwriter, director and actor Assi Dayan, which looks at some of the issues confronting a wide range of Israeli society during that time in Israel’s history.

Another film in this series is Bena, a new film by first time feature film director Niv Klainer about a father and his attempts to keep his schizophrenic teenaged son out of an institution.

Big Eyes was produced in 1974 and was directed by Israeli film icon Uri Zohar. It deals with a group of people who strive for happiness through their relations with each other. It’s a more personal film than many other films of that time period.

The Bubble shows off Tel Aviv’s free-thinking attitude towards gay relationships, including one between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian. It created quite a reaction when first shown by TIFF in 2006 and when it was shown by the Toronto Jewish Film Festival a short time later.

A History of Israeli Cinema Part 1 and Part 2 is exactly what the title suggests. It gives a careful and very detailed history of Israeli cinema and shows how the film industry in Israel has grown from very modest beginnings until today, when it is producing films that are recognized and acclaimed around the world.

Jaffa examines the ancient port city, which contains a mixed population of Muslims, Jews and Christians. Although the city is now a part of the greater city of Tel Aviv, Jaffa retains many interesting areas that go back several years that the local inhabitants wish to preserve. Other groups in the city are trying to modernize and gentrify these areas, and this is making it difficult for the older communities to remain where they are and to retain the ancient characteristics of the city that make it a charming place to live.

Kirot delves into the world of prostitution and assassination in the backstreets of Tel Aviv, while Phobidilia deals with a protagonist who has taken refuge from the world in his apartment and refuses to leave.

In addition to the films on Tel Aviv, TIFF will also be screening an additional number of the latest releases by the Israeli film industry. These include Carmel, the latest work of director Amos Gitai; Eyes Wide Open, a film about a religious young man in Jerusalem and the temptations of the modern world; Five Hours From Paris, a romantic story of new love; Google Baby, a film about surrogate motherhood; and Lebanon, a film set during the first Lebanon War in 1982 and the dilemma of a small group of Israeli soldiers trying to decide whether to kill or be killed.

Other Jewish films include Ahead of Time, a documentary about the fascinating Ruth Gruber. Now 97 years old and still going strong, Ruth Gruber was born in Brooklyn and lived in Germany for three years while studying for her PhD prior to World War II. She witnessed the rise of Nazism and became a foreign correspondent and photojournalist.

In 1944, Gruber was instrumental in getting the United States to accept a group of 1,000 Jewish refugees into the United States, and was the only journalist allowed to board The Exodus in 1947 while it was anchored off the coast of France and obtain interviews with the survivors attempting to make their way to Palestine. She covered the Nuremberg trials and was always an outspoken commentator on world affairs.

Also being screened this year at TIFF is Marc Levin’s documentary, Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags, a look at the history of New York City’s garment district and how it was the place for new immigrants, especially Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, to start the climb up the ladder of American society.

One film that everyone seems to be waiting for with great anticipation is A Serious Man, the latest film by the Coen Brothers. This comic drama is set in the Coens’ home state of Minnesota in the year 1967 and deals with a number of Jewish characters and the troubles that life has dealt them.

There are probably other films at this year’s festival that would qualify as Jewish content, but as we haven’t had a chance to see them yet, we will have to leave any discussion of them to a later time.

If you can make your way to the Toronto International Film Festival, I’m sure it will be a rewarding experience for all of you.

Until next month, good viewing and maybe we’ll see you in one of the movie theatres showing films during TIFF.

Larry Anklewicz is the Programme Coordinator for the Toronto Jewish Film
Festival, He has written and lectured on Jewish films for many years and is the author of “A Guide to Jewish Films on Video”.