Cock Fight

Director : Sigalit Liphshitz

Israel 2000 13 mins

On a hot summer day, Marziano is driving his chickens to the market. Upon arriving at a Palestinian roadblock, he is bought to a halt.

Europa Europa

Director : Agnieszka Holland

Germany/France/Poland 112 mins

Based on the true story of a young German Jew who survived the Holocaust by falling in with the Nazis. Solomon Perel (Marco Hofschneider) is the son of a Jewish shoe salesman coming of age in Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler. In 1938 13-year-old Solomon flees to Poland when a group of Nazis attack his family home. When German forces storm Poland, Solomon's fluent German allows him to join the Nazis as a translator, posing as an ethnic German. In time, "Peters" is made a member of the elite Hitler Youth and he lives in constant fear that his secret will be discovered. Solomon's close calls include an attempted seduction a gay officer, and a relationship with a beautiful but violently anti-Semitic woman.

Jew Boy Levi

Director : Didi Danquart

Germany/Switzerland/Austria 2002 92 mins

A peaceful, isolated community is engulfed by the hatred and violence of the outside world in this taut drama set in pre-war Germany. Levi, the Jewish cattle dealer, makes his annual trip to a remote farming village hoping to conduct his business and win the hand of Lisbeth. But the poison of Nazi propaganda has changed the town and threatened Levi and Lisbeth's love, making them a target and time is running out. This award-winning feature debut of documentary filmmaker Didi Danquart from the play by Thomas Strittmatter is a riveting, often shocking tale that, using a stunning tapestry of images, explores the effects of exclusion and hostility with unflinching honesty.

Keep Not Silent

Et Sheaava Nafshi 

Director : Illi Alexander

Israel 2004 52 mins

Three Orthodox women fight for self fulfillment and acceptance within their homes and communities. They are religious Jewsih women, and lesbians, who are not ready to give up the complexity of their identity.

With unique attentiveness, the filmmaker documents their painful stuggle to consolidate what might seem to some a contradiction in terms: to reconcile their intimate selves, their faith and sexuality, with the conventions and rules of Orthodoxy and their close communities.

Knowledge is the Beginning

Director : Paul Smaczny

Germany 2005 90 mins

World-renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian writer Edward Said have generated controversy and admiration with the founding of their West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999. This documentary follows a unique
musical collaboration, dedicated to furthering the cause of peaceful co-existence in the Middle East, bringing together young musicians from both sides of the divide: Syrians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Palestinians and Israelis. The film chronicles all five summer workshops in Weimar and Seville, Barenboim's visit to Ramallah and Jerusalem in 2004, as well as highlights of the European tour in 2005.

An integral part of the documentary is the footage of the orchestra's co-founder Edward Said, a noted literary critic, scholar and advocate for Palestinian independence. For him the orchestra was ‘one of the most important things I have done in my life'. For Barenboim, the orchestra is a metaphor for what could be achieved in the Middle East.

Late Marriage

Director : Dover Koshashvili

Israel/France 2001 102 mins

Zaza is a 32-year old Israeli bachelor, handsome and intelligent, and his family wants to see him married. But tradition dictates that Zaza has to choose a young virgin. She must be beautiful and from a good family, preferably rich. Zaza's parents, Yasha and Lily drag Zaza to meet potential brides and their families. Zaza has no choice. He plays along with his family, advocates of the suffocating traditions of their Georgian Jewish heritage. But Zaza always manages to somehow get out of being engaged. What his parents don't know is that Zaza is already in love. Judith is sensuous, strong and intriguing. She's also a divorcée with a 6-year-old daughter. So Zaza has kept Judith a secret from his family. He will have to choose between respect of the strict confines of family and tradition, or the love of his life.

Le Grand Role

Director : Steve Suissa

France 2004 89 mins

Set in Paris, French Jewish actor Maurice and his three fellow thespian friends have been waiting years for their big break. The future looks bright when the famous American director Rudolph Grishenberg offers Maurice the part of Shylock in his Yiddish screen adaptation of "The Merchant of Venice". But his fortunes reverse quickly when Maurice learns that the role must go to another more famous actor.

Left Luggage

Director : Jeroen Krabbe

Holland 1998 100 mins

Set in Antwerp, Belgium in the early 70's, a tale about Chaja, an impetuous, liberal-minded philosophy student, and her complex relationship with her parents who are Holocaust survivors. With the help of a family friend, she secures a job as a nanny for a Hassidic Jewish family, the Kalmans, whose world and lifestyle are alien to her liberated self. Chaja adores the Kalmans' five-year-old son Simcha and becomes emotionally attached to him. Through her relationship with the family she gains insight into the lives of her own parents, who are survivors of a concentration camp.

Little Heroes

Director : Itai Lev

Israel 2006 76 mins

Suitable for children aged 8+ and their families An exciting adventure story in which four children embark on a courageous journey together into the Negev desert. Erez, a young boy, struggles to cope with his father’s death and live up to his legacy, and to make matters worse he also has to deal with the bullies in his class. His life changes when he meets Alicia, an immigrant girl from Russia and together with her brother and another boy, Lior, from a kibbutz, they form a heroic team to overcome adversity. In the process they learn a lot about themselves and each other. This is one of the first children’s films to have been made in Israel and it was a resounding hit at an open air screening at the 2006 Jerusalem International Film Festival.

Live and Become

Va, Vis et Deviens 

Director : Radu Mihaileanu

France/Israel 2005 143 mins

An epic story of love, survival and identity. A Christian mother forces her nine- year-old son to declare himself Jewish in order to be included in Operation Moses, the rescue mission staged by Israel to enable the Ethiopian Jewish community to escape the famine of the mid-eighties. He arrives in Israel, where he is given the name Shlomo. Officially, he is an orphan and after a difficult, rebellious start, he is adopted by a French Sephardi family. Shlomo grows up fearing that his secrets will be discovered, but whatever happens he never forgets his real mother who stayed behind in the camp and he dreams of finding her again.