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Welcome! This year we
bring you 26 films from nine different countries and
an Israeli eight-part hit TV series, making the
Festival truly an international film experience!
The number “18,” means chai or “life” in Hebrew; it
also suggests “coming-of-age” and many films this
year fit into that category: Sixty-Six, our Opening
Night film, is about a British boy who learns about
the importance of family when his Bar Mitzvah falls
on the same day that Britain plays against Germany
in the 1966 World Cup Soccer finals; Dear Mr.
Waldman is about the young son of Holocaust
survivors in Tel Aviv in the early 1960s who risks
losing his father’s love in order to give his father
what he thinks his father wants; Sweet Mud, another
Israeli film, is about a boy balancing his love for
his mentally ill mother against his desire to be
accepted by his kibbutz; and The Year My Parents
Went On Vacation is about a 12-year-old Brazilian
boy forced to adapt to an alien society when his
left-wing parents flee from the military regime.
Interestingly, many of these “coming-of-age” films
are based on the directors’ own real life
experiences as are four other films: Beaufort, a
powerful drama about the withdrawal from Lebanon in
2000, draws on the director Joseph Cedar’s own IDF
service there; Arranged, a charming story about two
young Brooklyn women—one an Orthodox Jew, the other
a Muslim—who both are going through “arranged
marriages”, comes directly out of screenwriter Yuta
Silverman’s life; Souvenirs, a wry, funny, poignant
film about a road trip the filmmaker made with his
father, a veteran of WW II’s Jewish brigade; and the
heart-rending My Father/My Lord about an Orthodox
Jew’s conflict between faith and family which grew
out of director David Volach’s growing up in a
religious family of 19 siblings.
Finally, it’s a coming of age for Israeli cinema as
well. Nearly half of this Festival’s films come from
Israel and all have been accepted to prestigious
festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Toronto,
and Tribeca where they’ve won top prizes. Not more
than a dozen years ago, this couldn’t have happened
but now it has. And you get to see them here first!
As always, the festival has something for everyone:
romances and comedies such as Bad Faith and My
Mexican Shivah; heart-warming docs such as The
Cemetery Club; the side-splitting doc Making Trouble
about three generations of Jewish women comedians;
the political doc Hothouse; gritty films that deal
with social issues such as Steel Toes and Someone to
Run With; Holocaust-related films such as Freeland
and Rape of Europa; and for TV fans mourning the
demise of The Sopranos, there’s A Touch Away, a TV
series about an Orthodox Jewish family living next
door to new Russian immigrants which had Israelis
glued to their TV sets.
We even have films for sports fans! The First Basket
documents how Jews have played a significant role in
the game since the early 20th century, while
Orthodox Stance profiles a young Russian immigrant
from Brooklyn who combines his devotion to Orthodox
Judaism with his dedication to boxing.
One function of great film is to take us where we
can’t go, to see things in a way we couldn’t through
the director’s lens, and to gain new perceptions and
insights into people and the world. The fact that we
do this in a darkened theatre, sitting next to
strangers, and yet emerge feeling part of a
community is one of the wonders of the Palm Beach
Jewish Film Festival!
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