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| Rare display of rare films |
Jewish film-making is burgeoning, especially with
movies from Israel, as this year’s Jewish Film Festival showcases,
writes Kim Janssen
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Turn Left at the End of the World
Hiding From Hitler
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CINEMA may be more than 100 years old, but Jewish films have
mostly been left to independent film makers on both sides of the
Atlantic and, increasingly, the burgeoning Israeli film industry.
Rarely screened in Britain, more than 30 will get the exposure
they deserve at this year’s UK Jewish festival which starts
in Hampstead on Saturday, running until November 17. Festival
Director Judy Ironside has travelled the world sourcing movies
and she feels the 2005 program is the richest yet.
She said: “The Israeli film industry has really got its feet
on the ground and there are some extremely good films coming out
now.
“It will take time for distributors to catch on and for them
to build a wider audience, but films like Ushpizin, Turn Left
At The End Of The World and The First Time I Was Twenty have been
enormously popular.”
Ms Ironside believes viewers will gain a richer understanding
of Israel than the sometimes simplistic versions media coverage
of the Palestinian conflict can generate. She said: “There’s
a real theme of identity at the moment; there are people of so
many nationalities who come to Israel to live and each of them
is different and is trying to find a voice and the cinema is a
great forum for that.”
It’s not just Israeli film, of course. Ms Ironside is particularly
pleased to have two entirely British films in the festival, Hiding
From Hitler and Song of Songs, although she concedes it is still
difficult to fund Jewish films in the UK. With that in mind the
festival last year set up a £15,000 prize for young film-makers.
The first winner, Jes Benstock, will premiere his short, Holocaust
Tourism: Whatever Happened to Never Again, at the Screen on the
Hill in Belsize Park, the festival’s main venue.
And just as the definition of Jewishness has been widening in
recent years – the planned multimillion pound London Jewish
Community Centre proudly boasts “we won’t be checking
at the door that you have a high enough level of chicken soup
in your blood” – the festival program takes a broad
enough view of Jewish experience to include Shake Hands With The
Devil, a documentary about the Rwandan genocide. Ms Ironside said:
“This really isn’t a Jewish film at all but there are
clear parallels with the Holocaust and we will have a panel discussion
after the screening to see what we can learn from them.”
Another of the festival’s highlights is the screening of
Everything Is Illuminated – the adaptation of the best selling
first novel of Jonathan Safran Foer.
The film, which has had rave reviews in America, stars Elijah
Wood.
It tells the story of a young American going to the Ukraine to
find a woman who saved his grandmother from the Nazis. Based on
his family’s story, Jonathan is the main character. He hires
a guide and the story focuses on the comical relationship between
the pair and Jonathan’s quest.
• The UK Jewish Film Festival goes on a national tour
from November 27.
Movie which dips into the history of
a team spirit
By DAN CARRIER
The Hakoah Swimming Club |
AMONG THE 40 films that make up the film festival is a documentary
that tells the story of the Hakoah Vienna Athletics Club –
a series of teams established in 1909 for Jewish sportsmen and
women who had been barred from joining Austrian sports clubs.
They produced some of the premier athletes of their generation
– and then were faced with the unenviable choice of
turning down the chance to compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Watermarks, which is due to be shown on Sunday at the Screen On
The Hill in Haverstock Hill, tells the story of Hakoah’s
female swimming team. They had swept the boards in the Austrian
championships but then declined to swim in the Olympics.
One of the seven swimmers, who are all now in their 80s, is Ann
Marie Pisker. She moved to London to escape the Nazi persecution
soon after the Anschluss of Germany and Austria, and is due to
attend the screening. Ann Marie, 83, recalls: “We wanted
very much to show Austria how good Jewish sportspeople could be,
because people thought we never had any history of sports.”
Directed by Israeli filmmaker Yaron Zilberman, the film has interviews
with all the swimmers – cut with footage from the period.
Ann Marie recalls how her father did not want her to join. She
says: “The trainer told my father I had natural ability and
would I like to learn to swim properly.”
But she had to over come her father’s fears.
“Once, a man from the Hakoah water polo team was surrounded
by some youths from a Nazi club,” she says. “They were
threatening him. I ducked underneath them and grabbed hold of
his arm and they were so surprised they let him go.”
When it came to the Olympics, Ann Marie says it was an easy decision
to make. “They had signs up at their swimming pools that said
no Dogs and Jews, she recalls. “That made the decision for
me.”
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UK Jewish Film
Festival Programme 2005
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| Tricycle |
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Saturday November 12
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8.30pm |
The Bee Season |
Sunday November 13
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2pm |
Shake Hands With the Devil |
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4.45pm |
Channels of Rage/West Bank Story |
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6.45pm |
The First Time I Was Twenty/Jai |
Monday November 14
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6.45pm |
Wall |
| Tuesday November 15 |
6.45pm |
Distortion/God on Our Side |
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| The Screen on the Hill |
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| Saturday November 5 |
6.30pm |
Everything Is Illuminated |
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9pm |
In Her Shoes |
| Sunday November 6 |
12pm |
Looking for the Lost Voice |
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2.20pm |
Sam Speigel Retrospective |
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4.5pm |
Watermarks |
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7.20pm |
The First Time I Was Twenty |
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9.35pm |
Metallic Blues/Devil and Manny Schmeckstein |
| Monday November 7 |
1.45pm |
The First Time I Was Twenty/Tale of The Goat |
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3.50pm |
Sentenced to Marriage |
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5.15pm |
Keep Not Silent |
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7.25pm |
Little Jerusalem |
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9.25pm |
Turn Left at the End of the World |
| Tuesday November 8 |
1.30pm |
Live and Become |
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4.15pm |
The Divan |
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6.40pm |
The Soulkeeper |
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9pm |
Ushpizin/West Bank Story |
| Wednesday November 9 |
1.30pm |
Turn Left at the End of the World |
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3.40pm |
Forever Yours/ The Future Is Behind You |
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5.20pm |
Hiding From Hitler |
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7.15pm |
When Do We Eat |
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9.10pm |
Song of Songs/Holocaust Tourism |
| Thursday November 10 |
2pm |
When Do We Eat/West Bank Story |
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4.15pm |
Imaginary Witness |
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6.40pm |
Go For Zucker |
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8.35pm |
Fateless |
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