PROGRAMME DIRECTOR RECOMMENDS!
Our very festive 20th the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival is already opened and we do not have enough words to describe how excited and proud we are to present you our program! During two weeks we will offer retrospectives in cooperation with POLIN museum, short film programs, workshops, expert panels and of course the best, newest Jewish themed films from around the world, many of them made by wonderful women filmmakers. In this special edition we expect prestigous filmmakers as guests, who will join the screenings and will answer your questions. This festival is dedicated to our audience! We work for you and hope very much to have you with us!
Here are my recommendations:
Charlotte – a beautiful animation feature film for adults directed by Éric Warin and Tahir Rana and based on the biography of the Jewish painter Charlotte Salomon. Salomon was without a doubt a genius artist. In the age of 24 She created a masterpiece and named it: "Life? Or Theater?" . For two years she worked feverishly, quickly and determinedly, and in the end she produced 1,300 paintings that laid out for future readers and art lovers the story of her life full of obstacles and tragedies. For 760 of the paintings she attached texts, directing instructions and suggestions for musical accompaniment. Salomon ́s murder at the age of 26 in Auschwitz, when she was five months pregnant, cut short a intriguing artistic career. After the war, Salomon's father published the series as a book and donated the original work to the Museum of Jewish History in Amsterdam.
There are controvertional moments in the film and a television interview that was made in the 1963 with Salomon ́s parents that make this film espacially worth watching.
The film ́s Producer, Julia Rosenberg, who had the initial idea for the film, will be our guest in the screening and will answer the audiance ́s questions.
Charlotte - KINOGRAM cinema, 17.11.2022, 8:15 PM
TICKETS: KINOGRAM CINEMA
Evolution - this masterpiece was directed by the intriguing Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó (Pieces of a Woman). He made the film together with his partner, the screenwriter, Kata Weber, who will be our special guest in the screening and will answer the audience ́s questions
Evolution tells in three episodes the fragmented story of three generations in a European Jewish family. Each episode is constructed extremely virtuously by one single shot and features one character that also appears in the next character's episode. The third part of the film is a coming of age story entwinded with today's identity politics and antisemitism. It is a must see film to any cinema lover.
Evolution - KINOGRAM cinema, 18.11.2022, 6:00 PM
TICKETS: KINOGRAM CINEMA
Cinema Sabaya - Young Israeli director, Orit Fouks Rotem, blurs in her debut full length film the boundaries of fiction and documentation. She does this in a sophisticated way, one that raises ethical and aesthetic questions as part of the film ́s stylistic and narrative world.
In the film, eight women, Jewish and Arab, young and old, single and married, come to a film workshop held at a local community center. The workshop is conducted by a young director (Dana Ivegi). The film follows the developing dynamics between the women and in the process reveals cultural and generational differences, and also political tensions between the Jewish and Arab women. “Sabaya” means “women” in arab but an incorrect pronaunciation of the word means “captive”. This confusion, of course, is not accidental - and Fox Rotem's film deals with women who are captives in their lives.
This film represents Women Cinema in its best!
CINEMA SABAYA - KINOGRAM cinema, 18.11.2022, 8:00 PM
TICKETS: KINOGRAM CINEMA
Farewell Mr. Haffmann - based on Jean-Philippe Daguerre's worldwide successful play, the writer-director Fred Cavaye presents the audience with one of those unimaginable Holocaust stories. Farewell Mr. Haffmann, to my opinion the best Holocaust-themed film of 2021, styled in a minimalistic way, goes through a number of dramatic twists and turns, and provides unforgettable roles played by France’s legendary actors Daniel Auteuil and Gilles Lellouche.
A breathtaking, heartbreaking drama with a twist. Not to be missed!
Farewell Mr. Haffmann - KINOGRAM cinema, 16.11.2022, 8:00 PM
TICKETS: KINOGRAM CINEMA
1341 Frames of Love and War – an extraordinary documentary dedicated to Israel ́s most critically acclaimed MAGNUM war-photographer – Micha Bar-Am. Director Ran Tal, who was a guest of our festival 2014 with his documentary Garden of Eden, chooses in 1341 Frames of Love and War, key images from over half a million negatives taken by Bar-Am and presents a life time journey through still photos – the personal life of the photographer - entwined with almost 90 decades of world history and wars. Life that begins in Berlin in 1930, moves to Palestine and then to the establishing of Israel, depicting key historical moments in the lives of the Jewish and Israeli people, sometimes in one frame, exposing the personal price that was paid for this legendary career and the tremendous changes that Israel and the Zionist project underwent in the last few decades. It is a rare opportunity to watch Bar-Am talking about his life and work.
1341 Frames of Love and War - POLIN Museum, 20.11.2022, 3:00 PM
TICKETS: POLIN MUSEUM
HOPE TO SEE YOU IN PERSON AT THE FESTIVAL,
LIHI NAGLER, WARSAW JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR