Odeon Trafford Centre

Dir. Dror Shaul, Israel, 2006, 90 mins, Hebrew/French with English subtitles

In a kibbutz in the 1970s, Dvir, a 12 year old boy faces the harsh demands of the collective while struggling to make room for, and bring happiness to, his emotionally unstable mother. Without a father around and living away from his mother in the children's house, Dvir is determined to help his mother find solace and start a new life.
Based on the personal memories of writer-director Dror Shaul, this accomplished film cuts through the romantic idea of the kibbutz, focusing on the individual struggle to find love and fulfilment within the rigid rules of this
community.

Cornerhouse

Dir. Jamie Kastner, Canada, 2007, 83 mins, English/French/German with English subtitles

Finding himself irritated but intrigued when asked “are you Jewish?”, secular young Canadian filmmaker Jamie Kastner takes his cue from documentary cinema’s rabble-rouser-in-chief Michael Moore and goes in search of the motivations and meaning behind what he’d long felt to be a loaded question. His odyssey gets under way with a belated barmitzvah in orthodox Brooklyn, before going global and taking him from Amsterdam to Auschwitz, via Jerusalem.

Cornerhouse

Dir. Ido Haar, Israel, 2006, 78 mins, Arabic/Hebrew with English subtitles

From his parent’s home town between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, filmmaker Ido Harr used to watch groups of men frantically crossing the busy highway. It was not clear where these figures came from or where they were rushing to. In 9 Star Hotel Haar sets to find out, as he joins a diverse group of Palestinian construction labourers working illegally on the building site of a new Israeli town, across the road from the West Bank.

Odeon Trafford Centre

Described as “‘Sex and the City’ French style”, love is the theme as a group of young, beautiful Sephardic women interweave their days with laughter and flirtation, followed inevitably by their Jewish mothers, popping in and out to chase and scold them about their frivolous lives. Fun with witty one-liners and great joie de vivre.

 

Cornerhouse

When twelve-year-old Mauro's parents need to go on the run because of their involvement in resisting the repressive 1970s Brazilian government, they drop him off at the home of his orthodox Jewish grandfather in Sao Paolo. The neighbourhood and its denizens are mostly a mystery to the lovable boy, whose own lack of Jewish upbringing is much commented upon by his grandfather's taciturn neighbour Shlomo, who takes him in. Thus begins a strange number of months, filled with Mauro's awakening political consciousness and immersion in the Jewish culture of Sao Paolo's Bom Retiro district.

Cornerhouse

In the Jewish quarter of Mexico City, Moishe Tartakovsky, a much loved patriarch, collapses and dies while dancing at a Jewish theatre group celebration. There is an immediate gathering for the funeral in Mexico City. After the burial, an eclectic group of family and friends, gather for the shivah (the 7 day Jewish mourning ritual). They are observed by Yiddish speaking ‘spirits’ who are about to lead his soul on to the next world.

Cornerhouse

 ‘Reconciliation’, says Robi Damelin, whose son was killed by a Palestinian sniper in 2002, ‘might sound eccentric to you, but it is not, it works’. Focusing on the fascinating attempts by bereaved people from both sides of the Israeli Palestinian conflict to meet, talk and find new ways of living together, this heartrending documentary goes beyond the news headlines to the courageous and painstaking path of ordinary people who beg for a different future.