Special Events
at the UK Jewish Film Festival 2009
Gala Screenings and Receptions; Celebrity Guest: Ronit Elkabetz; talks; discussions; short film programme and after film parties.
West End Gala: A Matter of Size
UK Premiere Mon 2 Nov 2009 | 7pm | Vue West End
"Sipur Gadol"
Director: Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor
Israel 2009 90 mins
Language: Hebrew with English subtitles
Winner of the Audience Award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival
In this highly original Israeli comedy there is plenty to discover about turning life around and making something out of being socially unacceptable when the unwritten rule is that 'thin is beautiful'.
Film 7pm
Reception 9.15pm: A buffet reception will take place in the Vue Bar after the screening.
Tickets: 60 pounds in advance from UKJFF. Call 020 3176 0048
Sponsored by the Rudnick Family
Opening Night Gala: A Serious Man
Special Preview Sat 7 Nov 2009 | 8.30pm | Odeon Swiss Cottage
Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
USA 2009 105 mins
Language: English
A Jewish masterpiece. The Coen Brothers bring their infinite and original sense of humour to focus on an every day sort of man who witnesses the world turning against him.
The Opening Night Gala is sponsored by Bank Leumi (UK) plc
Centrepiece Gala: Jaffa
UK Premiere Sat 14 Nov 2009 | 7.15pm | Tricycle
Director: Keren Yedaya
Israel/Germany/France 2009 106 mins
Language: Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles
Cast: Starring Ronit Elkabetz, Dana Ivgy and Moni Moshonov
What if Romeo and Juliet were alive today and living in Jaffa? Mali, a young Jewish woman, has a secret relationship with Toufik, the Arab mechanic who works in her father's garage.When they discover that she is expecting a child, they decide to run away together. However, tensions mount between Toufik and Mali's racist brother and the ensuing confrontation changes the young lovers' destinies forever.
Ronit Elkabetz will attend the screening, which will be followed by a Q&A. There will be a pre-screening reception.
Sponsored by Stella and Samir Joory
Closing Night Gala: Hello Goodbye
UK Premiere Thu 19 Nov 2009 | 8pm | Tricycle
Director: Graham Guit
France, Israel, Italy 2008 95 mins
Language: French with English subtitles
Starring Gérard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant and Lior Ashkenazi
Enjoyably eccentric black comedy, starring Fanny Ardant and Gerard Depardieu as a wealthy Parisian couple who relocate to Israel in the grip of a mid-life crisis.
Hello Goodbye is sponsored by Veronique and Jonathan Lewis
Screening with:
Gefilte Fish There will be a post-screening reception during which the winner of the UKJFF Audience Award will be announced
Special event: Good Intentions
Wed 18 Nov 2009 | 7pm | Tricycle
000000.JPG) A screening of an episode from the groundbreaking TV drama "Good Intentions", which centres around two female chefs, one Palestinian and one Israeli, co-hosting a cookery show despite intense opposition from their respective communities. This will be followed by "Behind the Intentions", a behind-the-scenes documentary about the
making of "Good Intentions" and the organisation that inspired it - The Parents' Circle - Families Forum (PCFF), a unique peace organisation that brings together Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost loved ones in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Robi Damelin and Ali Abu Awwad, members of the Parents Circle- Families Forum.
All ticket holders are invited to our Good Intentions After Screening Party- a special event celebrating the tastes and sounds of the Middle East, and exploring possibilities of promoting co-existence and positive dialogue through food and music. This will include a Middle East food demonstration by Israeli and Arab chefs from Minkies Deli.
Sponsored by Lowy Mitchell Foundation, The Pears Foundation
In partnership with the Jewish Community Centre for London
Abraham Fund
Forgiveness Project
Celebrity Guest: Ronit Elkabetz
We are delighted to welcome Ronit Elkabetz as our special guest at
the 13th UK Jewish Film Festival. Elkabetz has made over 20 films
since 1991, many of which have been featured at the UKJFF where
she has become a significant face of Israeli cinema directed by
Dover Koshashvili ("Late Marriage"), Amos Gitai ("Alila") and Keren
Yedaya ("Or"). Her most celebrated recent films have been "The Band's
Visit" (directed by Eran Colirin) and "The Seven Days" (which she
directed with her brother Shlomi Elkabetz).
Elkabetz has won Israeli Oscars for Best Actress in "Sh'chur", and in
"Late Marriage".
Born in Beersheva, Elkabetz began her acting career at the age of
24. She has distinguished herself as a powerful actor who takes on
roles which are highly demanding and which demonstrate an
extreme intensity of emotion and sexuality. She is highly regarded as
a script writer, actor and director as revealed in her first feature, "To
Take a Wife". Elkabetz radiates a combination of undisguised sexuality
and tense fragility which mark her out as an actor with incredible
charm and a talent that is being recognised increasingly both in
Israel and in France.
Elkabetz features in four films in the UKJFF 2009 programme.
The UKJFF is delighted to be able to bring Ronit Elkabetz to our
audiences in London and we eagerly await the screening of her films
in the festival.
Special event: The Politics of Anti-Semitism
Sun 8 Nov 2009 | 4.45pm | Odeon Swiss Cottage
What is anti-Semitism today two generations after the Holocaust? Following the screening of "Defamation", there will be a panel discussion looking at current perceptions of anti-Semitism, its relationship with politics and whether a 'new anti-Semitism' has emerged. Our guest speakers will be lawyer and writer Anthony
Julius. His book, Trials of the Diaspora: A History of English Anti-Semitism will be published by Oxford University Press in February 2010. Dr. David Hirsch, Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and the founding editor of Engage, a website for those working to understand and to oppose contemporary anti-Semitism; and Phillipa Kowarsky, a leading producer and distributor based in Israel ("Sweet Mud"; "9 Star Hotel"; "Defamation").
Jerusalem: Beyond the Borders
Thu 12 Nov 2009 | 6.30pm | ICA
000000.png) Following the screening of City of Borders, Sa'ar Nathaniel, the first openly gay city council member in Jerusalem and Ellen Goldberg, Executive Director of New Israel Fund UK, which works to promote freedom, justice and equality for all Israel's citizens, will discuss issues of gay and minority rights and the challenges and prospects for co-existence between opposing communities and religions in Jerusalem and in Israel as a whole.
You are invited to join us after the discussion in the ICA bar where DJ Kobayashi will be on the decks.
Sponsored by New Israel Fund for equality and social justice
Brief Encounters in Israel
Sun 15 Nov 2009 | 4pm | Everyman Hampstead
A striking selection of outstanding new short films from Israel's promising young filmmakers.
BFI Mediatheque: Oy Britannia
Tue 17 Nov 2009 I 18:20 I BFI Southbank (NFT2)
000000.JPG) To celebrate the launch of Oy Britannia at the BFI Mediatheque, UKJFF and BFI bring you a very rare screening of the 1933 film "Loyalties", Basil Dean's groundbreaking tale of anti-Semitism in British high society. Available to view free from November 2009 at the BFI Mediatheque, Oy Britannia is a new collection of films and television programmes from the BFI National Archive exploring a century of Jewish representation on British screens, from extremely rare silent footage and artists' work to TV favourites and contemporary short films. There are Mediatheques at BFI Southbank, London, QUAD, Derby and Central Library, Cambridge. For more information see www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque "Loyalties" will be screened with "Citizen 63: Barry Langford" (1963), John Boorman's lively documentary portrait of a Jewish entrepreneur in Brighton, along with a selection of newly discovered footage from the Oy Britannia collection. This event will be introduced by Sylvia Paskin, editor of "When Joseph Met Molly: A Reader on Yiddish Film." In partnership with the British Film Institute
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