The warm weather brings with it Rochester’s largest summer
film event: the annual JCC Ames Amzalak Rochester
International Jewish Film Festival. Marking its 17th year, the festival
celebrates Jewish culture and heritage through nine days of film screenings,
live performances, guest directors, and post-film discussions. The RIJFF begins
Sunday, July 9, and runs through Monday, July 17, at The Little Theatre (240
East Avenue), the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum (900 East
Avenue), and the Hart Theater at the JCC (1200 Edgewood Avenue).
The
festival’s closing night will be at a new venue this year, Nazareth College’s
Arts Center (4245 East Avenue), for a screening of the Oscar-nominated
documentary short film, “Joe’s Violin.” The short follows the moving story of
Holocaust survivor Joe Feingold, who donates his prized violin to a school
instrument drive, allowing it to reach the hands of Brianna, a young Bronx
schoolgirl. That screening will be followed by a performance from
Nashville-based Americana
duo Wisewater, featuring Webster-native Kate Lee
and Forrest O’Connor — both are members of the O’Connor Band, which recently
took home the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.
What follows
is CITY’s take on 10 highlights from this year’s lineup, which is just a hint
of what you can expect to find over the course of the festival. General
admission tickets to each film are $12 ($10 for JCC members) and $5 for
students; matinee tickets are $9 ($7); opening and closing night tickets are
$20 ($15); festival passes are $185 ($170); and matinee passes are $60 ($45). For
more tickets and a full schedule of films and events, visit rjff.org. Tickets
can also be purchased by calling 461-2000 or in person at the JCC.
The festival gets started with the family-friendly fantasy “Abulele,” from Israeli director Jonathan Geva. Still coping
with grief over the death of his older brother, 10-year-old Adam (Yoav Sadian) is befriended by the
Abulele, a giant, mythical creature resembling a
large gorilla with a deep, gravelly voice and the cat-like eyes of Toothless
from “How to Train Your Dragon.” As Adam helps the Abulele
keep one step ahead of the mysterious government forces who are hunting him,
the friendly beast helps the young boy feel a little less alone in the world. Geva is clearly going for an “E.T.” style tale and, some
pacing issues aside, it’s a charmingly heartfelt, small-scale adventure story. (Sunday,
July 9; 1 p.m.; Dryden Theatre)
An
unfortunate accident leads to a major rift in a small, tight-knit Jewish
community in RIJFF’s Opening Night selection, “The Women’s Balcony.” When the balcony of the
neighborhood’s gender-segregated synagogue collapses during a bar mitzvah
celebration, the incident leaves the rabbi’s wife in a coma and the rabbi
himself unable to carry out his duties. The devout congregation’s future seems
in jeopardy, until a new, charismatic young rabbi helpfully offers up his
services. However, it soon becomes clear that he intends to enforce some rather
conservative ideas about faith and worship, and many of those ideas have to do
with keeping the women of the synagogue in check. Then the rebuilt synagogue is
unveiled and no longer has a section for the women. The congregation
immediately splinters along gender lines, leading to all-out battle of the
sexes. Smart direction from first-timer Emil Ben-Shimon and a sharp script from
Shlomit Nehama offer up a
light-hearted, but meaningful (and often quite funny) examination of sexism and
religious fundamentalism. (Sunday, July 9; 7 p.m.;
Dryden)
“In Between” is a
vibrant, modern, and sometimes heartbreaking story of three Palestinian women
sharing an apartment in Tel Aviv. Layla (Mouna Hawa) is a lawyer,
determined to live uncompromisingly on her own terms; Salma (Sana Jammelieh) is an aspiring DJ and lesbian, though she
remains closeted to her conservative Christian family. The pair’s lives of hard
work and even harder partying is disrupted momentarily when the third room in
their flat is taken by Nour (Shaden Kanboura), the Hijabi
friend of a cousin who’s moved to the city to complete her graduate studies.
Though remarkably different on the surface, the women soon bond as they
navigate between tradition and the freedom of living on their own in a
predominantly Jewish society. From Arab-Israeli writer-director Maysaloun Hamoud, “In Between”
focuses on the bounds of sisterhood and the strength it takes to forge one’s
own path with the confidence to be exactly who you are. (Monday, July
10; 11 a.m.; JCC Hart Theater)
Inspired by
a true story, “Fanny’s
Journey” follows a group of eight Jewish children on a desperate
quest for survival as they flee Nazi-occupied France. With the threat of German
invasion imminent, boarding school headmistress Madame Forman (Cecile de
France) attempts to spirit her young charges out of harm’s way, but
circumstances beyond her control leave 13-year-old Fanny (Léonie Souchaud) in charge of the group as they navigate
their way to the safety of the Swiss border. Filmmaker Lola Doillon
shows great skill in tackling the material from a child’s eye view, and without
ever talking down to her audience. She has a remarkable way with her child
cast, who capably carry the film on their young shoulders. (Monday, July
10; 6 p.m.; Little Theatre)
“Germans and Jews” examines the legacy of the Holocaust and the ways, more than 70 years later, it
still colors the relationship between Germany and its Jewish population. As the
country’s citizens continue to work at striking a balance between remembering
and healing, younger generations are left to grapple with their country’s role
in history (in many cases the part their own family members may have played).
In tackling a fascinating and thorny subject, director Janina Quint wisely
never sets out to provide concrete answers, leaving viewers to decide for
themselves the path through guilt and reconciliation in seeking a way to move
forward together. (Monday, July 10; 8:30 p.m.; Little Theatre)
The
inspirational “My
Hero Brother” celebrates the bonds between brothers and sisters as
it follows a group of young people with Down syndrome as they set off on an
expedition through the Himalayas with their siblings. Director Yonatan Nir gives us an intimate look at both the physical and
mental challenges of living with Down syndrome as well as the complexities of
growing up alongside someone with special needs. (Tuesday, July
11; 6 p.m.; Little)
Writer-director
Asaph Polonsky brings a light touch to the heavy
subject of grief in his debut feature, “One Week and a Day,” which finds middle-aged
suburban couple Eyal (Shai Avivi)
and Vicky (Evgenia Dodina)
processing the recent death of their 25-year-old son. The film begins just as
Shiva (the Jewish period of mourning) has ended, and as anyone who has
experienced it knows, that’s when grief gets the opportunity to truly kick in.
Husband and wife cope in their own ways: for Eyal
that means spending as much time as possible smoking weed with his neighbor’s
son (Tomer Kapon); and Vicky
is eager to dive back into her normal daily routine. But it’s clear both are
doing anything they can to avoid actually dealing with their loss. Polonsky brings a necessary, mordant humor to a story about
being forced to transition back into normal life when you’re not sure “normal”
is still possible. (Wednesday,
July 12; 6 p.m.; Little)
In his weird
and wonderful documentary “Monsieur
Mayonnaise,” director Trevor Graham follows artist and filmmaker
Philippe Mora as he researches his late father’s exploits in the French
Resistance, hoping to turn the extraordinary story into the subject of a
graphic novel. This is probably the only documentary to incorporate archival
footage of Hitler, Marcel Marceau, and the nuttiest clips from werewolf flicks
“The Howling II” and “Howling III” (both directed by Mora). The framing
structure featuring Mora as a film noir detective adds nothing to an already
stuffed narrative, but thankfully it doesn’t detract from its wildly
entertaining story either. (Thursday, July 13; 11 a.m.;
JCC Hart Theater)
“We are made
of memory,” someone says late in “Shalom
Italia,” a compelling documentary from director Tamar Tal Anati. The filmmaker chronicles a trip undertaken by Bubi, Andrea, and Emmanuel, three octogenarian brothers in
search of the cave in Tuscany where as children their family hid to escape the
Nazis. The journey soon turns into a poignant examination of memories and how
they shape our identity, asking us to consider what we remember from our lives,
how we remember it, and occasionally what we choose to forget. The screening
will be followed by a Q&A with the director. (Sunday, July
16; 7:30 p.m.; Dryden)
Check back on Friday for additional film coverage, including a review of irreverent
nun-centric comedy, “The Little Hours,” starring Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, John
C. Reilly, and Dave Franco.
This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2017.
