Sunday, July 28, 7 pm
Area rabbis promise a lively discussion following the showing of a critically acclaimed film at the Naro Expanded Cinema. They will discuss, Fill the Void, an award-winning Israeli drama about a naive 18-year-old girl in an ultra-orthodox Hasidic community who dreams of finding the perfect match in an arranged marriage.
The movie is directed by Rama Burshtein, the first ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman to write and direct a feature-length film for a general audience.
Released last year in Israel during a particularly intense period of political and social tension between secular and ultra-Orthodox Hassidic Jews, the film was Israel’s submission in the foreign-language category for the Academy Awards. It won seven prizes at the Ophirs, the Israeli Oscars.
The film is presented as a pre-Virginia Festival of Jewish Film event, a collaborative effort between the Simon Family JCC and the Naro Expanded Cinema. Mark Robbins, chairperson of the Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, presented by Alma* and Howard Laderberg, says “This is a highly anticipated film that we are excited to present to the community. We are lucky that the Naro is bringing it to the area.
“As the Virginia Festival of Jewish Film presents its 21st year, we are adding fresh ideas and making exciting changes. One such change is our new Facebook page,” says Robbins. Another change is adding multiple venues for the 2014 films, from the Oceanfront to Norfolk, and points in between.
“Working with the Naro Expanded Cinema to bring a ‘Beyond the Festival’ film is one way we are hoping to expand our audience base,” says Robbins.
For more information about the event, visit www.narocinema.com.
The Simon Family JCC is a constituent agency of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater
by Leslie Shroyer