THE FIRST TIME I WAS TWENTY

Opening film night

THE FIRST TIME I WAS TWENTY
Feature film, Direction: Lorraine Levy, France 2005, 93 mins., French with English subtitles

Guest: director, Lorraine Levy

Marilou Berry brilliantly plays a talented, slightly oddball teenager in suburban 1960s Paris. The shrewd, witty sixteen-year-old, who plays the double bass, longs to join the all-male school jazz band and drags her loving and very normal family into her problems.
GLOW ROPES

Opening film night

GLOW ROPES – The Rise and Fall of a Bar Mitzvah EmCee
Feature film, Direction: Edwin M. Figueroa und George Valencia, USA 2005, 90 mins., English

A politically extreme, satirical and zany comedy about the over the top Bar / Bat Mitzvah parties and their organisers in the USA. Best film award at the New York International Latino Film Festival 2005.

Guest: George Valencia, co-director, leading actor, screenwriter and co-producer (see photo above)

BELZEC

BELZEC
Documentary, Direction: Guillaume Moscovitz, France 2005, 100 mins., French/Polish with English subtitles

Much less is known about the Belzec concentration camp in Southern Poland than the other Polish camps. With little archive material to draw on and only four survivors, Guillaume Moscovitz has to rely on the inhabitants of Belzec to reconstruct the past, raising questions about how much the locals knew.

Followed by panel discussion with Guillaume Moscovitz, Prof. Wolfgang Benz, director for the institute of research into Antisemitism TU Berlin, Daniel Wildmann, deputy director, Leo Baeck Institute London und Ellen Presser, Israelitische Kultusgemeinde München.

WEST BANK STORY

WEST BANK STORY
Musical / short film, Direction: Ari Sandel, USA 2005, 21 mins., English

A charming, turbulent musical comedy about David, an Israeli soldier and Fatima, a waitress in a Palestinian fast food restaurant. An unlikely love story set in the midst of hostilities between rival falafel bar clans in West-Jordan – with a happy ending.

Guest: Ari Sandel

MATCHMAKER

MATCHMAKER
Documentary, Direction: Gabrielle Antosiewicz, Switzerland 2005, 70 mins., Swiss German with English subtitles

Lovable, attractive, and utterly Jewish? That is where the problems start. In this amusing and informative film, the search for the right man begins in the kitchen. Can the candidates bake challah? How much do they know about Jewish customs and traditions? Unimpressive results mean that further enquiries have to be made amongst friends and acquaintances.

Guest: Gabrielle Antosiewicz

LITTLE JERUSALEM

LITTLE JERUSALEM - La petite Jerusalem
Feature film, Direction: Karin Albou, France 2005, 94 mins., French with English subtitles

Karin Albou’s impressive first feature film deals with the lives of a working class Tunisian-Jewish family in Paris, focussing on two sisters with very different views. Mathilde is strictly religious, whilst Laura studies philosophy with an almost religious zeal. Laura’s conviction that romantic love is a fantasy falters when she meets Djamel, an Algerian Muslim.

Guest: Karin Albou
Introduction: Peter Stephan Jungk

USHPIZIN

USHPIZIN
Feature film, Direction: Gidi Dar, Israel 2004, 90 mins., Hebrew with English subtitles

Filmed in an orthodox quarter of Jerusalem, where cameras are generally taboo, Ushpizin centres on Moshe und Malli, a childless couple with financial troubles. Moshe’s faith and commitment are put to the test when the couple invite two suspicious characters from Moshe’s less orthodox past into their succah. This is a rare cinematic link between secular and orthodox communities.

Introduction: Rebbezin Nechama Ehrenberg, Berlin

MELTING SIBERIA

MELTING SIBERIA
Documentary, Direction: Ido Haar, Israel 2004, 72 mins., Russian/Hebrew with English subtitles

With talent, drive and the spirit of a Russian soul, young Israeli director, Ido Haar documents his search for his maternal grandfather, a Red Army hero who left his grandmother while she was pregnant and was never heard of again. A successful end to Ido’s quest will raise questions about whether the gulf between Israel and Russia can ever be overcome…

Guest: Ido Haar in discussion with Christa Maerker, Berlin

NINA´S HOUSE - La Maison de Nina

NINA’S HOUSE - La Maison de Nina
Feature film, Direction: Richard Dembo, France 2005, 109 mins., French with English subtitles

Set in an orphanage near Paris, Richard Dembo’s melancholy film shows how young Jews attempt to come to terms with life after surviving the horrors of the 2nd World War. Dembo, born in 1948, spent a summer in such an institution and it was there that he met Nina, the inspiration for the film. He died in 2004, during the post-production for the film.

Introduction: Régine-Mihal Friedman, guest: Jessica Vaturi-Dembo

DIAMETER OF THE BOMB

DIAMETER OF THE BOMB
Documentary, Direction: Steven Silver, Andrew Quigley, UK / Canada 2005, 85 mins., OV English

This film investigates a bomb explosion on the number 32 bus in Jerusalem, one of 75 suicide attacks by Palestinian terrorists since the beginning of the Intifada in 2000. It links the stories of a group of Jews and Arabs, all of whom were somehow connected to one of the victims killed in the attack.

Introduction: Eldad Beck, Berlin

RINGL AND PIT

RINGL AND PIT
Documentary, Direction: Juan Mandelbaum, USA 1995, 60 mins., OV English

A fascinating portrait of Grete Stern and Ellen Auerbach, two avant-garde artists who met in Berlin in 1929. They set up an advertising photographic studio and soon gained international recognition, but when the Nazis came to power, they fled Germany and went their separate ways. The two women contemplate their work and lifelong friendship in this lively, humorous film.

Guests: Juan Mandelbaum, Dr. Inka Graeve-Ingelmann, Pinakothek der Moderne, München

LOCAL CALL - Ne quittez pas

LOCAL CALL - Ne quittez pas
Feature film, Direction: Arthur Joffé France 2004, 102 mins., French with English subtitles

Felix Mandel’s problems begin when he gives away his fathers old cashmere coat to a homeless man. He soon receives a furious phone call from his father, who died two years ago. When Mandel is asked to get the coat back, he sets off to search for it, running up an enormous mobile phone bill, losing his job, his wife and perhaps even his mind.

Introduction: Régine-Mihal Friedman

ROOTS

ROOTS
Feature film, Direction: Pawel Lungin, Russia / France 2005, 104 mins., Russian with English subtitles

These days, it is hip to travel to the land of one’s ancestors and discover one’s ‘roots’. So Eduard wonders how he can cash in on the Jews who want to visit the Shtetl of their forefathers. When he discovers that it was destroyed long ago, he persuades the neighbouring village to take over this role, even coaxing a few locals to play the long lost relatives of the Western tourists.
PERSONAL GOALS

PERSONAL GOALS
Short film, Direction: Ron Carmeli, Israel 1997, 16 mins., Hebrew with English subtitles

A nine-year-old wants to please his football-crazy father, but all his attempts at sport end in failure. Will love triumph over macho pretensions?
PROVENCE UNITED

PROVENCE UNITED
Feature film, Direction: Ori Inbar, Israel 2002, 90 mins., Hebrew with English subtitles

In the draw for the quarter final of the national football championships, Giv´at Tzurim, a third-league provincial football team is selected to play against Maccabi Tel Aviv, the countries top team. The ten days between the draw and this historic match are unforgettable. PROVENCE UNITED is about people who dream of another life and for whom football is everything.

Guest: Youval Friedman, screenwriter

UNDERDOGS: A WAR MOVIE
Documentary, Direction: Dovon Tsabari, Rino Tzor, Israel 1997, 80 mins., Hebrew with English subtitles

An exciting documentary about the football team in the central Israeli town of Beit Shean. The team, in which Arabs and Jews play side by side, is the town’s pride and joy. This film will captivate even football haters.
ÜBER DIESES UND JENES LEBEN

Poetry in the cinema: Wladimir Fridman live (In Russian)

ÜBER DIESES UND JENES LEBEN (About this life and that)

Songs and monologues from the Russian singer, entertainer and actor, Wladimir Fridman, who plays the lead role in LETTERS FROM RISHIKESH.
KLEINE MIRIAM'L

KLEINE MIRIAM'L
Short film, Direction: Yael Reuveny, Israel 2005, 19 mins., Hebrew/Yiddish with English subtitles

Mussia Scheinfeld (also known by her stage name, Kleine Miriam´l), a veteran actress of Yiddish theatre, simply refuses to adapt to life in an old people’s home. She longs to return to her flat in Tel Aviv.

Guests: director, Yael Reuveny und leading actress, Dalia Friedland

CUP FINAL
Daniel Hendler als Ariel in El Abrazo Partido

LETTERS FROM RISHIKESH
Feature film, Direction: Daniel Wachsmann, Israel 2004, 90 mins., Hebrew with English subtitles

Alex Weisman, a 45-year-old widow, travels to New Delhi to meet his daughter, Anna. In his search for Anna, he is introduced to her world, her new friends and the man she loves, a young Israeli. Whilst he gets to know his daughter’s life and tries to relate to her, he is forced to confront himself and his own past.

Guest: leading actor, Wladimir Fridman

MADE IN ISRAEL

CUP FINAL
Feature film, Direction: Eran Riklis, Israel 1991, 105 Mins., Hebrew with German subtitles.

It is the summer of 1982 and football-mad boutique owner, Cohen, has tickets for the World Cup in Spain, but he has also been conscripted to the frontline of the war raging between Israel and Lebanon. To make matters worse, he is then captured by a PLO group, led by Ziad, and taken to Beirut. But at least both Cohen and Ziad are die-hard fans of the Italian national football team.

Introduction: Igal Avidan, Berlin