CFIC ’09

Henry David & Gaya Traub in A TOUCH AWAY.

From Oct ’09 Spotlight: Kudos to the CFIC committee! Once again they have worked tirelessly to bring Metro Chicago a diverse and outstanding set of films, including features, documentaries, and television shows. There are twenty-six titles in all. Some shorts will be combined with others into a single screening, while one television mini-series will be divided into two separate screenings.

It gives me great pleasure to recommend every single film this year. Of course some are stronger than others, but absolutely every one of these films is well-worth your time and effort, and most of them are far better than the typical fare in your local multiplex, so I strongly encourage you to attend as many as possible.

NEW THEMES

The first time I wrote about the Ma’aleh Film School was in 2006, when the CFIC committee brought us a unique set of shorts with a distinctly religious flavor (see http://www.films42.com/columns/cfic-06.asp). This year, fully 8 of the 26 selections deal with Orthodox life in modern Israel (including both of the short features and all of the television episodes).

I called Hedva Goldschmidt in Jerusalem to learn more. Hedva is the founder of Go2Films. She specializes in distributing Israeli Indies that explore social and multicultural themes. She used to head the Distribution Department at Ma’aleh, and she currently serves as a consultant to the Gesher Multicultural Film Fund. Many of the films on my recent “Highly Recommended” lists have come from Go2Films (something I am only aware of after I see them). Here’s what she said:

“Twenty years ago, when Ma’aleh was founded, most mainstream features were set in Tel Aviv, but Ma’aleh started a revolution. In the search for authentic Jewish voices, Ma’aleh gave confidence; students now have a lot of confidence to deal with very, very complex, and delicate, and provocative issues. They show beautiful ‘kosher’ intimacy between UltraOrthodox couples, and they give voices to peripheral groups in Israel. Now there is also Gesher, and Israeli filmmakers are writing their own stories—personal and authentic—showing the places they come from.”

“Gesher” is the Hebrew word for “bridge,” and the banner on their website is “A Shared Heritage—A Common Destiny.” Show me another country in this world that deals so publicly and forthrightly with internal culture clash!

NEW STARS

Reymond Amsalem heads my Best Actress list this year for her performance as “Galia” in Seven Minutes in Heaven. We know her from supporting roles in Janem, Janem and Three Mothers (both from 2006), but this is her first time on center stage. With her great acting range and hypnotic presence, Amsalem deserves world-wide recognition. Here’s hoping the right parts come her way.

On the other hand, we are seeing Esther Rada on screen for the very first time. Cast as “Almaz” in Zrubavel, she has some intensely dramatic scenes, but also sings several jazzy numbers. As Zrubavel makes it way around the film festival circuit, this Ethiopian beauty will have profound effect on the visual image of “a good Jewish girl.”

The made-for-TV mini-series A Touch Away consists of 8 episodes lasting over 4 hours. What ties it all together is a white hot performance by Henry David as a young Russian immigrant named “Zorik.” Born David Heilovsky, he left Moscow at age 11 and also called himself Henri Hilovsky for awhile, but the decision to call himself Henry David probably signifies that he’s now aiming for well-earned international career.

In 2003, Shemi Zarhin cast Jonathan Rozen as Oshri Cohen’s older brother in Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi; in 2005, Steven Speilberg cast him as Ehud Barak in Munich; this year he plays a supporting role in Lost Islands. But Rozen finally emerges from the background as “Shimon” in Pini Tavger’s award-winning student short Pinchas. Here’s hoping we see him in lead roles in future.

NEW FILMMAKERS

Obviously I see a lot of Israeli films every year and I like many of them a great deal, but even I have to admit that production values are rarely up to American multiplex standards. When I see a technically sophisticated Israeli film, it is cause for celebration, so kudos to Omni Givron, director of Seven Minutes in Heaven, for knocking my sox off with his very first film. Honorable mention goes to Shmuel Beru, also a first-time director, for Zrubavel.

TOP PICKS

My top pick in the Feature category this year is Seven Minutes in Heaven. Some critics have compared it to Christopher Nolan’s 2000 breakthrough film Memento, but it’s really much closer in tone to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic Vertigo.

Reymond Amsalem plays “Galia,” one of the few survivors of a catastrophic suicide bombing, and Givron surrounds her with excellent visual effects and sound design which keep us trapped inside her head, and locked into her point of view. As Galia struggles to regain her memory of the event, she flashes backwards in time only to find herself inexplicably gasping for breath, but when she tries to put it all behind her, she suddenly realizes she’s walking down a street filled with ghosts. A fight with her lover upset their morning routine and caused them both to board the fateful bus. Was his death her fault? Who gave her the butterfly necklace and when?

Galia follows a twisted path to a convoluted conclusion, but once I knew the answers, I watched the whole film again, and I’m convinced it earns its ending. In many ways Galia is the female equivalent of “Liraz” (the solider Oshri Cohen played in Joseph Cedar’s Oscar-nominated film Beaufort), both of them living in a constant state of siege that most Americans only started to appreciate on 9/11.

My top pick in the Documentary category is A Fire Within, a fascinating film about the Jewish community of Iquitos. Located near the headwaters of the Amazon River roughly equidistant from Lima (Peru), Manaus (Brazil), and Quito (Ecuador), Iquitos is more or less in the middle of nowhere, but yes, there is a genuinely Jewish community there. Who knew? Unlike the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico who seek genetic evidence of relationships that have been buried for centuries, the Jews of Iquitos trace their names back to the headstones in their cemetery, remembering relatives only a few generations past. What to do when they decide to make aliyah? 

CFIC ’09 BONUS

Read my interview with Rabbi Alex Felch about A Fire Within: FelchSidebar

My top pick in the Documentary Shorts category is The Rabbi’s Daughter and The Midwife about two UltraOrthodox women fighting poverty and despair in Israel’s Hareidi slums. Who knew there were Hareidi slums? Adina Bar-Shalom (the Rabbi’s daughter) trains Hareidi women to become credentialed social workers. Rachel Chalkowski (head nurse and legendary midwife at Shaare Zedek Medical Center of Jerusalem) is a witness to the hardships of Hareidi women raising 10 or more children while their husbands dedicate themselves solely to the study of Torah. To parrot what I said in my introduction: Show me any other country in this world where the religious community scrutinizes itself on camera with such brutal honesty.

TOP PERFORMANCES

Reymond Amsalem heads my Best Actress list (for her performance as “Galia” in Seven Minutes in Heaven), closely followed by Ethel Kovenska (as “Pola” in Valentina’s Mother). However, her co-star Sylvia Drori (who plays “Valentina” in Valentina’s Mother) is hands-down my Top Pick in the Best Supporting Actress category. Based on a story by award-winning Israeli novelist Savyon Liebrecht, Valentina’s Mother is a heart-breaking film about a Holocaust survivor who thinks the young Polish woman working for her is a long lost friend from childhood. Valentina is left alone to cope as best she can as Pola descends deeper and deeper into dementia, but it’s a credit to Drori that we’re never quite sure about Valentina’s motives. I also loved Hadar Galron in Bruriah, although I think her screenplay needed a bit more work.

Meir Desai heads my Best Actor list for his charismatic performance as family patriarch “Getea” in Zrubavel. Getea Zrubavel is an Ethiopian Tevye doing his best to stay strong as he steers his large family through troubled waters. Getea was a well-respected military man in Ethiopia, but in Israel he’s a dark-skinned immigrant who still speaks Amharic and must rely on his children for their Hebrew skills. But he carries himself with tremendous dignity, and provides his family with a strong moral anchor, always looking to the future even after tragic losses.

Jonathan Rozen is my Top Pick for Best Supporting Actor as “Shimon” in Pinchas. “Pinchas” (Anthony Berman) is a Russian kid living with his single mother (Evgenya Dodina). The lonely little boy decides he wants to be religious, and to his mother’s dismay, Shimon, an upstairs neighbor, takes Pinchas under his wing. Pinchas is only 30 minutes long, so Rozen doesn’t get much screen time, but he still manages to combine virility with great gentleness. Kudos to filmmaker Pini Tavger—casting Rozen against the always excellent Evgenya Dodina shows great instincts.

Eldad Fribas, who plays a paramedic named “Boaz” in Seven Minutes in Heaven, is also wonderful in his supporting role. With so many wars and so much time spent in the Reserves, it’s fascinating to me that Israeli directors continue to emphasize the menschlikeyt of Israeli men rather than their machismo. Henry David, Jonathan Rozen, Eldad Fribas, they all have the looks to be action heroes, but in this year’s films they’re all so much more.

Speaking of Henry David brings us back to A Touch Away. When I saw the 4 DVDs for this TV mini-series in my bag, I sighed, picked up the first one, and figured I would chip away over a few days. Wrong! I was totally riveted and ended up watching all 8 episodes back-to-back until almost 2 AM! No wonder A Touch Away was an Israeli phenomenon!

The story is a Bnei Barak version of Romeo and Juliet, with David as a Russian immigrant named “Zorik Mints” and Gaya Traub as an Orthodox woman named “Roha’le Berman.” But be honest: how much does Shakespeare really tell us about the four Capulet and Montague parents? Extended runtime gives director Ron Ninio and his writing team the luxury of fully developing the Berman and Mints families, so that their story really does become a microcosm (parts of which were even filmed in Moscow). And the ending took me completely by surprise. I can honestly say that, even halfway in, I had no idea what to expect, but really, it’s perfect.

TZIVI’S “BEST OF FEST” LIST

Best New Feature Film:
Seven Minutes in Heaven

Best Actress in a Feature:
Reymond Amsalem in Seven Minutes in Heaven

Best Actor in a Feature:
Meir Desai in Zrubavel

Best Supporting Actress:
Sylvia Drori in Valentina’s Mother

Best Supporting Actor:
Jonathan Rozen in Pinchas

Best Documentary over 60 Minutes:
The Fire Within

Best Documentary under 60 Minutes:
The Rabbi’s Daughter & The Midwife

And here is my personal ranking of twenty-five of the twenty-six films on this year’s schedule (minus Snapshots which was not available by press time):

Narrative Features—Highly Recommended:

Jerusalem Syndrome

Shivah

Seven Minutes in Heaven

Valentina’s Mother

Zrubavel

Narrative Features—Recommended:

Bruriah

Eli & Ben

Father’s Footsteps

Lost Islands

Mrs. Moscowitz & the Cats

Documentaries over 60 Minutes—Highly Recommended:

The Fire Within

Documentaries over 60 Minutes—Recommended:

Blessed is the Match

Holyland Hard Ball

Documentaries under 60 Minutes—Highly Recommended:

The Green Dumpster Mystery

The Name My Mother Gave Me

Rabbi Firer: A Reason to Question

The Rabbi’s Daughter & The Midwife

The Woman from Sarajevo

Documentaries under 60 Minutes—Recommended:

The Israeli Doc Challenge

Voices from El Sayed

The Woman in the Bubble

Short Features under 60 Minutes—Highly Recommended:

Meltdown

Pinchas

TV Series—Highly Recommended:

A Touch Away

TV Series—Recommended

Srugim

Reminder: Language is often the best clue you have to a character’s full identity, so you must also listen carefully as you watch. Most often the characters speak Hebrew, of course, but some of the characters in this year’s films also speak one or more of the following: Amharic, Arabic, French, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish. Today’s Israelis continue to live in a rich multicultural stew!

Photo: With CFIC founder Bev Braverman on 11/4/09 🙂