WJFF SHORTS PROGRAM 2021

OUR PROGRAM WITH SHORTS presented by Lihi Nagler & Nir Ferber is ready!

A year ago the shorts program presented by our great festival team from Berlin: Lihi Nagler & Nir Ferber, was watched by nearly 2.000 viewers! So here you go! With a great pleasure we would love to invite you to their program again! The partner of this year's program is the Jewish Film Festival Budapest - JCC BUDAPEST!

The cinema premiere of the WJFF Shorts Program will take place in MINDSPACE Warsaw - Hala Koszyki, on November 17th and 19th at 6:00 pm. Entrence is free and open to public, but number of tickets is limited. To reserve your free ticket email us at info@wjff.pl with a subject "SHORTS IN MINDSPACE" and a date of a screening.

WJFF SHORTS PROGRAM: Family Tides

MINDSPACE - Hala Koszyki, November 17th at 6:00 PM

In good times and in bad, in sickness and in health… Though the force of family ties in these six films makes the protagonists return to the past and to the traditions, but the strength of individuality will not give up without a fight.

Every home needs a door, to have the close ones safe inside – and keep the rest of the world outside. We all know though that these four walls of comfort can be suffocating, than how can we break free? Six protagonists are fighting these doors. Some of them are shut in their face: Bracha, carrying a mattress on her back late at night, hopes desperately for a few days of refuge at her mom, just so she could get back on her feet (“Bracha”). Everyone is ready for the synagogue to celebrate Susam’s Bar Mitzvah, but they find themselves take turns in front of his locked bedroom, trying to reach out and understand why he doesn’t open (“Susam”)….. Other doors are gates out of our sight: A young woman’s illness provokes a religious community to make a deal with god and sacrifice their lives, in hope that the book of life is not yet sealed (“Tale of Life”). The resemblance between Sonya, a local missing girl and Michaela, who arrives to the Polish city where her grandma survived the Holocaust, raises suspicion that the past isn’t buried under a lock and key (“Sonya”)….. And there are exits doors for a better tomorrow: Itzik finds happiness in his profession as a bookbinder, but he yearns for a divine encounter that will release him from the chains of obedient normality (“The Binding of Itzik”). Hours before her best friend wedding, Shoshana decides that the white dress and makeup cannot cover feelings, so she tries to make things right, before the door closes (“Something Blue”). 

Six short films from Turkey, Hungary, USA, Israel and Poland that expose what lies behind the façade and what can unleash the family ties:

Bracha, Mickey Triest and Aaron Geva, 12 min, Israel, 2020

Sonya, Shira Sznaider, 26 min, Israel/Poland, 2021

The Binding of Itzik, Anika Benkov, 17 min, USA, 2020

Tale of Life, David Bodrogi, 17 min, Hungary, 2021

Something Blue, Yisrael Rohn Rigler, 13 min, Israel, 2021

Susam, Sami Morhayim, 18 min, Turkey, 2021

After the screening there will be Q&A with Ewa Łepecka, the executive director of “Sonya”.

WJFF SHORTS PROGRAM: Touching the Intangible

MINDSPACE - Hala Koszyki, November 19th at 6:00 PM


It can be visible on the surface of the skin, hidden in the accent or rooted in the back of your mind. Between politically correct and personal responsibility, in the realm of the hectic present and the memory of the past, five films asks – is it still possible to track hints of individual voices and basic humanism? 

We live in an era of blurred hierarchies and alternative realities so why are we still so racists? Can we really learn a lesson from the past? Five stories reveal the endless Jewish-German-Israeli-Palestinian (negative) symbiosis. Each one demonstrates how much the personal is political. 

Julia, a dedicated history teacher in France, faces the changing reality in her school when she dares talking more personally about the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.  Will she lose her job? („The Inspection“).  Reanacting the Nazi past in film becomes a capitalistic trend in the last decades. How can Uli and Didi from a village in Brandenburg-Germany cope with the demands of their clients who make a so-called historical film? Who will end up in the fake concentration camp’s oven? („Kollegen“) Ali, a young Palestinian, who immigrated to Berlin, returns to a family visit in Israel. When he understands that he made a mistake returning to his homeland, he drives to the desert of Sinai, Egypt only to encounter a group of Jewish Israelis. Will he reveal his identity to them? („Paradise“). A Polish girl is in love with a Palestinian boy. She comes to Israel to meet him and finds herself in the realm of all the stereotypes about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Will her love survive? („Once Upon A Time In Israel“). Tikva Gideon, an Israeli woman with Ethiopian origins wins the BIG BROTHER ISRAEL 2020. Such a victory to the openness of the society! Or not? Taking a taxi back home after her winning, Tikva learns more about the Israeli society in times of the pandemic. Will she overcome? („Please Behave“)

Five short films from France, Germany, Israel and Poland that ask us if it is still possible to track hints of individual voices in the hectic present in which we live:

The Inspection, Caroline Brami and Frederic Bas, 13 min, France, 2021

Paradise, Asaf Saban, 33 min, Israel, 2021

Kollegen (Good German Work), Jannis Alexander Kiefer, 14 min, Germany, 2020

Once Upon A Time in Israel, Weronika Szyma, 11 min, Poland, 2021

Please BehaveMaor Zaguri, 29 min, Israel, 2020

After the screening there will be Q&A with Directors Weronika Szyma (Once Upon A Time In Israel) and Asaf Saban (Paradise) – STAY TUNED!

To reserve your ticket email us please at info@wjff.pl with a subject "SHORTS IN MINDSPACE" and let us know which screening (date of show) you are interested in!

JOIN OUR EXCLUSIVE SHORT PROGRAMS in MINDSPACE WARSZAWA - HALA KOSZYKI:

November 17th and 19th, 2021!

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