31st Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film

The Boy

Director Yahav Winner z”l • 25 min • Israel • 2023 • Hebrew with English subtitles

Avinoam and Barak, father and son from a kibbutz bordering the Gaza strip, face an approaching war each in their own way. Barak wants to stop everything, and Avinoam wants to stop Barak. One night, when Barak disappears, Avinoam is forced to accept that his child needs help.

Sirens

Director Erez Tadmor • 22 min • Israel • 2017 • Hebrew with English subtitles

As missiles rain down on Tel Aviv, a frustrated Israeli couple faces a series of misadventures after an early morning call from the fertility doctor in this frantic, funny, and surprise-filled Israeli Academy Award winner for Best Short Film.

Asa Turns 13

Director Sali Elimelech • 30 min • Israel • 2017 • Hebrew with English subtitles

As Asa prepares for his bar mitzvah, he must also cope with his mother’s death. He embarks on a sad and sometimes humorous journey through the neighborhoods of Netivot, a southern Israeli town where his mother’s grave, which he has never visited, is waiting for him at the end of the street.

Dear God

Directors Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv • 13 min • Israel 2014 • Hebrew with English subtitles

Dear God depicts romantic Jerusalem seen through the eyes of Aaron, a guard at the Western Wall. One day, a beautiful, mysterious woman puts a note between the holy stones and Aaron decides to fulfill her deepest wish.

Director Benny Fredman • 111 min • Israel • 2023 Hebrew, Yiddish with English subtitles

A young and recently married Orthodox man’s dream to open a computer store in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem turns into a violent nightmare when the entire neighborhood sees him as an existential threat. Turning his entire world upside down, the threat enters his home and puts his marriage to the test as he faces the reality of his own free will within a predetermined world.

Director Ron Frank • 92 min • United States • 2023 • English

Born Jerome Silberman to an assimilated Milwaukee Jewish family, his childhood buddies called him Jerry—but the world would come to know him as Gene Wilder. The endearing comic genius starred in an extraordinary string of films, from the timid Leo Bloom in Mel Brooks’ The Producers to the strange and magical title role in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, to the comedy classics of Blazing Saddles, The Frisco Kid, and Young Frankenstein. Now, in this affectionate and touching documentary, the full measure of Wilder’s gifts is on display – as a comedic actor, writer, director, and mensch.

Director Lex Gillespie • 86 min • United States • 2023 English

With a trove of lost-and-found archival footage and a cast of characters endowed with the gift of gab, The Catskills journeys into the storied mountain getaway north of New York City that served as a refuge for Jewish immigrants fleeing poverty as well as a lavish playground for affluent Jewish families. Bungalow colony proprietors, guests, waiters, comedians, hoteliers, and beauticians share colorful tales of Catskill farms, boarding houses, and luxury resorts, painting a picture of vibrant American Jewish life and culture in the 20th century.

Director Ady Walter • 109 min • Ukraine • 2023 Yiddish with English subtitles

Photographed in a shtetl that the production team constructed outside Kyiv, this single-shot film is entirely in Yiddish. Set in the 24 hours before the Nazi invasion of Ukraine, SHTTL tells a story about life, love, and hope in an unnamed Yiddish Ukrainian village at the border of Poland. Amid communal tensions between tradition and modernity, two young men fight over a woman they both desire to marry.

Director Philippe Le Guay • 93 min • France • 2023 • French with English subtitles

What begins as a charming wartime romance between Jean—a sweet Catholic boy in Paris—and Annette—his feisty Jewish artist girlfriend—turns into a gripping tale of star-crossed lovers in this handsomely realized drama based on actual events. Set in Nazi-occupied Paris, The Story of Annette Zelman is a tale of love and resistance that plumbs the depths of human passion, prejudice, and betrayal.