Mort Skirboll Jewish Film Festival Opening Brunch

14 Outstanding Films.

As we enter the festival’s 14^th year, we are especially proud to present a premier line-up of 18 remarkable and diverse films that will impact, provoke, and move you. They are documentaries, narratives, tragedies and comedies, mysteries, and love stories. All have won awards and have special meaning to our community of viewers.

The Jewish Film Festival is one of many programs sponsored by The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee. One tenet of our mission is to strengthen Jewish life and identity in our community. The yearly Film Festival that attracts so many movie-goers, both Jewish and non-Jewish, is all about strengthening Jewish life in Sarasota-Manatee. We hope you leave energized, thoughtful, and moved by the rich traditions and culture of Judaism found in movies celebrated around the world.  See you at the movies!

Karaoke – Opening Night Event with Special Guest Moshe Rosenthal, Director of Karaoke

That’s the beauty of karaoke – you don’t have to know how to sing. You sing to express yourself” states Itzik (Lior Ashkenazi), the charming neighborhood of Meir (Sasson Gabay), and Tova (Rita Shukrun) at his intimate penthouse suite karaoke party. It’s also the theme of writer/director Moshe Rosenthal’s Karaoke, that even when the music stops, life is a performance full of vulnerability, mistakes, and if you’re lucky, some fun too. Karaoke is an offbeat, comedic journey that delights and surprises.

Karaoke follows Tova and Meir, a standard aging couple with 46 years of marriage and two grown daughters. They live a comfortable life, with Meir currently on sabbatical from his academic professorship, and Tova running a boutique shop. Their lives get a jolt of excitement from their neighbor from above, Itzik, who invites them to his penthouse for karaoke nights. Tova and Meir fall hard for Itzik’s energetic lifestyle. They enter into a competition amongst their other neighbors and soon themselves, trying to win Itzik’s attention.

The cast for Karaoke excels in their performances. Lior Ashkenazi is effortlessly charismatic as Itzik. He’s the type of guy you want to hate on paper – drives a flashy Maserati, hangs out with models, and jets around the world for his work. He’s also the guy who will stand up to talkative and attention-seeking Tova, politely interrupting her diatribe at a party to ask Meir to speak, as he’s barely said anything the entire night. Itzik is the life of the party, but lurking underneath the neon glow is insecurity, a man so used to performing for others as the lavish playboy, that he can no longer turn it off.

Rita Shukrun is superb as Tova, the stern, perfectionist wife. When Itzik fails to show up at the dinner she meticulously planned in her and Meir’s apartment, she’s seething with every draw of her cigarette and sip of her wine. Later that night, the sounds of melodic karaoke sounds drift down to their balcony, and Tova’s hell-bent on exacting revenge on Itzik, calling in a noise complaint to the cops. Her relationship with Meir is strained; when he calls her out on flirting with Itzik, she bluntly tells him she could have cheated on him during their marriage, had she wanted to. She enjoys Meir’s jealousy, but can’t handle the same treatment when Meir spends more time upstairs with Itzik.

Karaoke is a comedic offbeat journey that delights and surprises.

Perhaps the most moving performance is Sasson Gabay as Meir. He’s a meek man drawn to the confidence of Itzik. He walks the line of wanting to be like Itzik, joining him in snorting cocaine and drinking to excess, and being with Itzik, opening himself to the potential intimacy of his friend. It’s a moving portrayal of an older man coming of age, as Meir realizes he’s been hiding in a comfortable life for so long that he’s unsure of his identity and desires. There’s a tense moment between the two men, with Itzik admitting that he could never settle like Meir. It’s a chilling moment that pushes Meir to confront the limits of their friendship, testing how far he’ll go to prove he’s a changed man, and Gabay plays it with beautiful and haunted vulnerability.

Writer/director Moshe Rosenthal crafts a wickedly fun journey in Karaoke. Tova, Meir, and Itzik are all pawns in each other’s games, and Rosenthal knows how to place them strategically opposite each other. Each character can bring out the best, and sometimes the worst in each other. Rosenthal also plays with their high-rise complex, bringing in the sprawling yet claustrophobic atmosphere of their building. With each penthouse party, the inhabitants gaze up from their balconies, unable to escape the sounds from above. Itzik is gaining a notorious reputation amongst his neighbors. Are they really upset at the revelry in the penthouse, or are they jealous that they’re not invited? It’s a fun environment to play in, and Rosenthal really nails the politics of living in an apartment building.

Karaoke might sing a familiar tune of the weary married couple confronted with change. However, with the excellent performances of Askenazi, Shukrun, and Gabay, Karaoke finds its own spin on the same old song, offering some darkly comedic takes, all orchestrated by writer/director Moshe Rosenthal.

$36.00 per ticket includes soft drinks and Poppycock (with Special Guest Moshe Rosenthal)

South America, 1960. A lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor convinces himself that his new neighbor is none other than Adolf Hitler. Not being taken seriously, he starts an independent investigation to prove his claim, but when the evidence still appears to be inconclusive, Polsky is forced to engage in a relationship with the enemy in order to obtain irrefutable proof.

S.F. filmmaker tells the story of the Jewish family who saved Jefferson’s estate.

Today, Monticello — Thomas Jefferson’s plantation in the hills overlooking Charlottesville, Virginia — is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a popular tourist attraction. But the fate of the property was very much in doubt following Jefferson’s death in 1826. It lay in disrepair for eight years until a Jewish Navy lieutenant came along, bought the place, and began restoring it as a way of honoring Jefferson’s legacy.

Uriah Phillips Levy and his nephew, Jefferson Monroe Levy, owned Monticello for 89 years, longer than Jefferson himself. Their story is the subject of independent filmmaker Steven Pressman’s new documentary, “The Levys of Monticello.”

What happened to survivors of the Holocaust was complex and nowhere near resolved as individuals all over the world and the State of Israel continue to negotiate reparations with Germany. But the whole concept of settlement payments has been hugely controversial for Jewish groups who cannot place a financial sum on the moral magnitude of Jewish persecution and annihilation. Roberta Grossman’s 75-minute documentary Reckonings explores the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and how the conversation about reparations first began.

Germany’s willingness to engage in discussions about responsibility for the Holocaust and to confront its actions as a nation is one of the most interesting aspects of its Post-war history. Reckonings actively admire this, charting the process first for Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, from public statements within Germany through to the signing of the first Luxemburg Agreements with Israel and the Claims Conference while explaining the nervousness of Jewish representatives as they pushed this, already controversial, agreement to its conclusion.

The focus in Reckonings is on the debate over whether restitution was ever possible and Grossman clearly presents the two strands of negotiation; first the larger claim made by Israel, for the establishment of the state following the influence of displaced refugees and survivors in the late 1940s, and the individual claims managed by the Claims Conference seeking compensation for stolen property and goods taken by the Nazis. On the whole, that division is well managed by the documentary, and the complex negotiation over many days in the conference room is clear – sometimes with dramatic reconstruction and at others with letters or official records underscoring an experience in which two Jewish organizations met separately with the German delegation as well as with each other to ensure voices were well represented.

The film is also very clear on the context of the European conference, repeatedly referencing the horrors of the Holocaust itself in original footage and photographs as a reminder of the scale of the discussions. It also examines the debt negotiations being conducted simultaneously in London as Germany was pressed to pay for damages to British and American property. But the film’s most important contribution is to record the testimony of Holocaust survivors who received reparations as well those who formed part of the delegations to understand the moral challenges of accepting a settlement and the, often very positive, use they put it to, including paying for their education.

Reckonings is occasionally confusing in its reference to individuals representing the Jewish groups, particularly cutting from photographs to an actor portraying them, and there is too little time to really understand who they all were and the different roles they played with any clarity. Yet, the film does emphasize the ongoing discussion of reparations to which Germany continues to attend, and why this is a continuing conversation. Forgiveness is more complicated, something many in the film both in the 1950s and today think will never come. Germany, at least, seems to have made its peace with that.

In 1850, the composer and occasional philosopher Richard Wagner published the antisemitic essay “Jewishness in Music.” The screed is infamous for its assertion that Jews were responsible for everything that had gone wrong in art and society. In that essay, Wagner further attacked the Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn. He asserted that Mendelssohn “has shown us that a Jew can have the richest abundance of talents and be a man of the broadest culture but still be incapable of supplying the profound, heart-seizing, soul-searching experience we expect from art.”

The essay also launched Wagner into the public‘s consciousness as a virulent antisemite, where he remains firmly lodged. Despite his artistic genius, Wagner is reviled in most, if not all, Jewish spaces. In Israel, live performances of his music are unofficially banned. Over the years, the ban has acquired the gravity of law in the same way Jewish tradition adheres to the observance of a long-time custom as if it were law.

“You Will Not Play Wagner,” a short one-act play that has been adapted as a film, doubles as the sternest of commands. The time is the current day, and the settings are Lenox, Massachusetts, New York, and Tel Aviv. Esther, a Holocaust survivor and wealthy patron of the arts, is the benefactor of an annual competition to name the best living conductor in the world. Yakov, a young, exceptionally talented Israeli, is favored to win the competition until he decides to conduct a piece by Wagner for his final presentation.

In a recent conversation with JewishBoston, Lilia Levitina, the film’s director, described the film as “venturing into the very brave territory, and hard questions of Jewish identity.” Levitina is forthright about her neutral position on the question of whether Wagner’s music should be performed live in Israel. Neither does the original play deliver any pronouncements, something Levitina admires about the late Victor Gordon’s script. Gordon died in 2021 of COVID-19.

For Levitina, Gordon’s play grapples with going beyond an artist’s biography and only considering the work. “Do we negate the work of artists who were awful people and abusers?” she asked. “One of the things that I love about the play is that it doesn’t give you a definite answer—it doesn’t take sides. It simply poses a question for the audience to think about.”

“More Than I Deserve,” tells an intersecting story of two communities in Israel, new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and the ultra-Orthodox

Pini Tavger’s More Than I Deserve tells an intersecting story of two communities in Israel, new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and the ultra-Orthodox, that have both often been stereotypically portrayed in the past. But Tavger, an actor making his feature directorial debut who won the Best Screenplay Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival for this film, manages to find a fresh and engaging story to tell about them. The characters, who live in the shadow of mainstream Israeli society, feel real, in a drama where everyone is flawed and searching for redemption.

The movie is told through the eyes of Pinchas (Micha Prudovsky), a pre-teen who lives with his mother, Tamara (Ana Dubrovitzki) in Haifa. They immigrated a few years ago from Ukraine and the two of them are all alone in the world. She works nights in a hospital and is having an affair with a married man she hopes will leave his wife, although she knows as well as we do that he won’t. She tries to be a good mom but she is depressed and cynical and doesn’t have much energy left for Pinchas.

The plot gets going when he learns that boys from his class who are going to have bar mitzvahs that year can get free lessons from Shimon (Yaakov Zada-Daniel), an ultra-Orthodox man. Pinchas wants to have a bar mitzvah like all the other kids and asks Tamara to sign the form but she laughs at him.

They eat ham and she doesn’t think that this bar mitzvah business has anything to do with them. But Pinchas persists and manages to take lessons behind her back, becoming increasingly close to Shimon. Almost overnight, Shimon becomes a father figure to this lonely kid.

Tamara is upset when she learns about the lessons but as she gets to know Shimon a bit better, she appreciates how he is helping her son – her married lover barely says hello to Pinchas on the way to her bedroom. Shimon’s story emerges gradually. He is newly observant and became religious after struggling with drug addiction.

PINCHAS ADMIRES Shimon, but he lives with his parents and doesn’t have a real job. Tamara can see Shimon’s limitations, but as they spend time together, Shimon and Tamara are drawn to each other and a romance develops between them. Their relationship complicates Pinchas’ feelings for Shimon and gets Shimon into trouble with his rabbi and others who want him to marry an observant woman they consider suitable for him, as well as with his parents, who look down on Tamara.

The title of the movie is an answer that Shimon gives Tamara when she asks him why he isn’t married. When he is set up on dates by a matchmaker, they try to pair him with women who are right for him, according to the strict social norms of the religious community. “Apparently, I want more than I deserve,” he tells her. This phrase resonates throughout the movie, as all three of the main characters so clearly deserve more than life has given them and yet are told by the people around them repeatedly that they don’t count for much.

Director Guri Alfi is looking to change romcoms from their streaming, no-name rut with his theatrical directorial debut One More Story.

Yardan (Dina Sanderson) is a journalist who doesn’t believe in love and is more interested in advancing her career than finding it. Her dream is to have her book published, but no one is willing to take a chance on her. An opportunity does present itself, however. The sleazy editor at the newspaper she works for, Amos (Lior Ashkenazi), agrees to help her if she agrees to send her hopelessly-romantic friend Adam (Maayan Blum) out on a date every day with a different woman for a whole month and write a series of articles about his experiences. The slant of the articles is supposed to highlight the pointlessness of modern romance, but when he unexpectedly falls in love her plans fall into disarray and force her to reconsider the choices she’s made.

One More Story isn’t your typical rom-com. Most romcoms are predictable and follow a very similar structure. This is part of the reason why they’ve lost their popularity over the years. At times One More Story threatens to walk the same path but then veers off in its own direction. It doesn’t lose the cynical edge it has going in and stays rough from start to finish. Unlike many romcoms, the story has a point to it, and it wants to make sure you understand what it is.

One More Story gives you many of the same things you will find in more traditional romcoms, but it makes sure to avoid going down the same road. It’s for a much broader audience that wants something more than the same old, some old. It’s a fun ride and one that is well worth going on.

Set in Paris from May 1941 (i.e. during the Nazi Occupation), this is a tense, superbly written and acted and pitch-perfect morality tale. The themes are large – compromise, duplicity, greed, inhumanity… – but the focus is determinedly narrow, and it’s all the more powerful for that.

Daniel Auteuil plays Joseph Haffmann, an exceptionally talented jeweler who is a Polish Jew, and who arranges for his family to flee to a safe part of France. Haffmann stays behind (very briefly being the plan), hides in the basement, and nominally sells the business to his assistant Francois Mercier (Gilles Lellouche). Mercier does a roaring trade in jewelry and is decidedly unethical to a point way beyond what might be excusable or unavoidable under the circumstances. What follows is for the most part a three-hander involving these two men and Mercier’s wife Blanche (Sara Giraudeau). All three actors are impressive.

If the premise of the tale is relatively straightforward, you may be assured that there’s a great deal more to it, none of which you should know going in.

Farewell Mr. Haffmann feels and looks like a play – most of the film is set inside one building – and was indeed based on a play of the same name by Jean-Philippe Daguerre. But it loses absolutely nothing in the transition to the big screen from any supposed ‘staginess’. This is a first-rate drama with considerable cumulative intensity – and a quorum of irony – and it’s unreservedly recommended.