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Filtered By: Italy Clear All

200 Meters - SFJFF41 Centerpiece Narrative

200 Meters - SFJFF41 Centerpiece Narrative

A Palestinian father embarks on a perilous journey to reach his hospitalized son in this tense yet tender family drama about the human toll of oppression.

Brave Miss World

Brave Miss World

About This Film

An Encounter with Simone Weil

An Encounter with Simone Weil

Documentarian Julia Haslett turns her lens on French philosopher Simone Weil, one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, who was raised by a secular Jewish family and lived during the rise of Fascism in Europe. Haslett eloquently traces Weil’s intellectual identity as it shifted over time; Weil was a trade unionist, a Marxist, an anti-Stalinist, a pacifist, a fighter in the Spanish Civil War and a Christian-influenced mystic.

Facing Windows features dual love stories, one from the 1940s between two Italian Jews and one contemporary story of neighbors who watch each other furtively from facing windows across a street. The erotic tension between a sexy but routine-weary woman (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and her hunky Italian Clark Kent look-alike neighbor (Raoul Bova) gives way to quiet communication and a profound experience when together they befriend Davide , an elderly Jewish man (Massimo Girotti).

In veteran director Amos Gitai’s majestic narrative, the Kedma, a European cargo freighter packed with concentration camp survivors, heads towards Palestine as underground Jewish forces prepare for its arrival and British soldiers position themselves to stop its unauthorized landing. Gitai recreates a tough, anguished reconstruction of an episode in the founding of the state of Israel, which profoundly impacted Jews and Palestinians .

Live and Become

Live and Become

In this sweeping, emotional saga from the director of Train of Life, an Ethiopian boy from a Sudanese refugee camp is airlifted to Israel during Operation Moses, which transported 8,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1984. Adopted by a Mizrahi family, Shlomo grows up, falls in love and serves in the Israeli army but is plagued throughout by two secrets: He was not born a Jew and is not an orphan. Radu Mihaileanu has created a monumental drama following one young man’s epic quest for his roots and identity.See also: Spotlight On: Ethiopian Jews and Jews of Color

Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict

Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict

Born into great wealth yet emotionally rebellious, American socialite Peggy Guggenheim spent a lifetime—and a fortune—breaking society’s rules to become one of the preeminent art collectors of the 20th century and a tireless champion of the avant- garde. This absorbing documentary profiles the bohemian tastemaker who helped discover such talents as Kandinsky, Cocteau, Dali, and Pollock, while pursuing sexual liaisons with the likes of Samuel Beckett and Paul Bowles.

Thy Father's Chair

Thy Father's Chair

In this Jewish Grey Gardens, Avraham is a sixtysomething Orthodox Jew living in Brooklyn in his deceased parents’ family home. Avraham passes his time in his claustrophobic apartment petting his cats and sitting on a dilapidated couch among old newspapers, books, bed bugs and rotten food. When a deep cleaning crew arrives, he finally has to face his fears and confront his inability to separate himself from the past. —Shevi Loewinger

Tulip Time--The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano

Tulip Time--The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano

Dutch Jewish sisters Sandra, Giuditta and Caterinetta Lescano, known as Trio Lescano, were the Italian equivalent of the Andrews Sisters. They were immensely popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s until the Italian fascist ideology forced them into silence. Tulip Time is a fascinating profile of the swinging Trio Lescano, who went from being circus performers to darlings of the Fascist elite to pariahs because they were Jews.

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