2009 Competition

We are the first Jewish Film Festival in Poland that has ever existed. We are sorry to announce that this year our Festival will be about 65 percent smaller, as the Capital City of Warsaw, the candidate for European Culture Capital 2016 did not support us financially. They made selection and did favorite other Jewish Film Festival in Warsaw.

Films in the competition screenings of the 7th WJFF 2009:

Fiction feature films

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Adam Resurrected
.
Ein Leben für ein Leben - Adam Resurrected
dir. Paul Schrader
Israel, Germany, USA, 2008, 102’





In the aftermath of WWII, a former stage performer who was saved from a gas chamber becomes the ringleader at an asylum for Holocaust survivors. A film starring Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe.

Karlove Vary, Haifa Film Festival, Berlinale

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Broken Promise
Broken Promise
Uvodna stanka
dir. Jirí Chlumský
Slovakia, Czech Republic, USA, 2009, 129’




Based on the true story of Martin Friedmann, a talented Jewish soccer player from a small Slovak town who had to make risky lifetime decisions in order to survive in WWII. When Friedmann sees his family taken to Poland one by one, he voluntarily goes to a work camp where he finds out that he is not safe anywhere. He survives the last selection for Auschwitz, and through a series of events joins up as a partisan under the new name “Petrasek,” with a band of Soviet-led-guerillas that are even bigger anti-Semites than the Germans.

Karlove Vary, Haifa Film Festival, Berlinale, Slovakian Candidate for Oscar`10

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Inglourious Basterds
.
Inglourious Basterds
dir. Quentin Tarantino
USA, Germany 2009, 159’




In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

Cannes Film Festival`09: Won for Best Actor Christoph Waltz, Nominated for Golden Palm Quentin Tarantino

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa
dir. Karen Yedaya
Germany/Israel, France, 2009, 105’




"In the heart of Jaffa, a city nicknamed "the Bride of the Sea" by the Israelis, Reuven's garage is a family business. His daughter Mali and his son Meir, as well as Tawfik and Hassan, a young Palestinian and his father, work there for Reuven. No one suspects that Mali and Tawfik have been in love for years. As the two lovers are secretly making their wedding arrangements, tension builds between Meir and Tawfik…"

2009 Cannes Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Awards: Nominated to Award of the Israeli Film Academy (Best Actress, Best Music)

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

The Gift To Stalin
.
Podarok Stalinu
dir. Rustem Abdrashev
Kazakhstan, 2008, 99’




Story of a little boy named Sasha who is sent to Kazakhstan. He is saved from death by an old Kazakh man, Kasym, who takes the boy to his home. The film is set in 1949. The title, The Gift to Stalin has two significances. In 1949, the Soviet government carried out a nuclear test for the anniversary of Stalin’s 70th birthday. Many innocent people fell the victims to the nuclear test. The other significance is about Sashka’s dream. He hopes that if he gives Stalin a gift, he will be able to see his parents again, not knowing that they were killed..

Palm Springs International Film Festival`09, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival`09, Vesoul Asian Film Festival`09: won for Award Category/Recipient(s), for Emile Guimet Award - Special Mention, for Golden Wheel, for High Schools Award

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Mary and Max
.
Mary and Max
dir. Adam Elliot
Australia, 2009, 88’




MARY & MAX is a claymated feature film from the creators of the Academy Award winning short animation HARVIE KRUMPET. It is a simple tale of pen-friendship between two very different people; Mary Dinkle, a chubby lonely eight year old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horovitz, a 44 year old, severely obese, Jewish man with Aspergers Syndrome living in the chaos of New York. Spanning 20 years and 2 continents, Mary and Max's friendship survives much more than the average diet of life's ups and downs. Like Harvie Krumpet, MARY AND MAX is innocent but not naïve, as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual difference, trust, copulating dogs, religious difference, agoraphobia and much much more..

Annecy International Animated Film Festival`09: Won Feature Film Award, Berlin International Film Festival`09 Won Crystal Bear, Ottawa International Animation Festival Won Grand Prize

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

The Wedding Song
.
The Wedding Song
dir. Karin Albou
France, Tunisia, 2008, 100’





The film of a director of LITTLE JERUSALEM. The Nazi occupation of Tunisia strains the bonds of friendship between a Muslim woman and a Sephardic Jewess who are both preparing for their marriages.

Palm Spring Fest`09, Seattle Int Film Fest 09, Arab Film Festival San Francisco 09

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Zion and his brother
.
Zion and his brother
dir. Eran Merav
Israel, France, 2009, 90’




Zion, aged 14 and his brother Meir, 17, are facing a crisis in their relationship after a terrible accident. They keep the secret to themselves and it haunts them until, finally, Zion re-examines his loyalty towards his older brother and decides that he is ready to take responsibility for his own life.

Flanders International Film Festival 09: Won for Best Screenplay, Nominated for Grand Prix, Sundance Film Festival`09: Nominated for Grand Jury Prize

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

The Year My Parents Went On Vacation
.
O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Ferías
dir. Cao Hamburger
Brasil, 2007, 104`




In 1970, near the World Cup, Daniel Stern and his wife Miriam leaves Belo Horizonte in a hurry and scared with their ten years old son Mauro in their Volkswagen. While traveling to São Paulo, the couple explains Mauro that they will travel on vacation and will leave Mauro with his grandfather Mótel. Daniel promises to return before the first game of the Brazilian National Soccer Team in the Cup. The boy is left in Bom Retiro, a Jewish and Italian neighborhood, and waits for Mótel in front of his apartment. When the next door neighbor Shlomo arrives, he tells the boy that Mótel had just had a heart attack and died. Alone and without knowing where his parents are, the boy is lodged by Shlomo and the Jewish community. Through the young neighbor Hanna, Mauro makes new friends, cheers for the Brazilian team and sees the movement of the police and militaries on the streets while waiting for his parents. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION was Brazil's submission to the 2007 Oscars.

Berlinale, Washington Jewish Film Festival, Awards: Golden Bear Nomination



Feature documentaries

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

At Home in Utopia
.
At Home in Utopia
dir. Michal Goldman
USA, 2008, 57`





New York City cops in the Great Depression called it Little Moscow, but for the 2,000 Jewish immigrant residents of the United Workers Cooperative Colony, a.k.a. “the Coops,” it was their first taste of the American dream. AT HOME IN UTOPIA bears witness to an epic social experiment, following two generations of residents and their commitment to radical ideas of racial equality and rights for tenants and workers.

New York Jewish Flm Festival, MJFF

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Being Jewish in France p.I, II
.
Comme un juif en France
dir. Yves Jeuland
France, 2007, 77’ + 112’





A fascinating and provocative exploration of French-Jewish history from the 19th c until now in the commentaries of distinguished Jewish politicians and artists. Exclusive archive photos of the 1930s and the after-war period. The length of the documentary is its value.

Jerusalem International Film Festival

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Born twice
.
Narodzona poraz drugi
dir. Michal Nekanda - Trepka
Poland, 2008, 42’




Soon description of the film.

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Faces
.
Faces
dir. Gerard Maximin
Israel, Netherlands, Palestine, Belgium, 2007, 75’





A French artist J.R. and his friend Marco open the biggest illegal photographic exhibition of all time. Enormous photos of Israeli and Palestinian people are displayed on both sides of the wall separating Israel from Palestine. They evoke in the inhabitants surprising reactions...

Doc Film Festival Amsterdam

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Ordinary March
Zwyczajny marzec
Zwyczajny marzec
dir. Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz
Poland, 2008, 57’





On 30 January 1968, the play "Dziady" by Kazimierz Dejmek was taken off the playbill of Warsaw National Theatre. The decision of the authorities triggered violent student protests. A spontaneous rally next to the Adam Mickiewicz monument was brutally dispersed by police. At the same time a conflict erupted in the Middle East.. In the People's Republic of Poland, a drive began against Zionists and "revisionists". The author investigates why this hateful action was supported by a huge part of society and what drove those who were against it. Old film chronicles are accompanied by commentary from Adam Michnik. Translated by Monika Miziniak | Edited by Patricia Koza

Awards and selections

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Run for Your Life
.
Run for Your Life
dir. Judd Ehrlich
USA, 2008, 95’




A unique story of Fred Lebow, the founder of the New York City Marathon and the Smiley?, which couples archival footage and the urban funk music of 70’s and 80’s with a myriad of exclusive interviews with politicians, reporters and famous runners. A moving story of fighting for ideology and life.

Toronto Jewish Film Fetival, Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

ZDF presents:
Shahidas - Brides of Allah

Shahidas - Brides of Allah
Shahidas - Brides of Allah
dir. Natalie Assouline
Israel, Germany, 2007, 76’





A brave attempt at showing Palestinian women imprisoned in Israel after failed suicide attacks. Natalie Assouline, an Israeli director, records the everyday life creating portraits of self-controlled women desiring to fight at all costs.

Berlinale, FIPRESCI Award, Rome Film Fest 09

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Stumbling Stone
.
Stolperstein
dir. Dorte Franke
Germany, 2008, 75’





A documentary which depicts the struggle for recognition of one of the most widely spread monuments of the Holocaust and artistic projects all around the world – ‘Stolpersteine’ (‘Stumbling Stones’) – brass plates paved for remembrance of the victims of national socialism.

New York Jewish Film Festival, United Kingdom Jewish Film Festival

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
.
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
dir. Emily and Sarah Kunstler
USA, 2009 90’




filmmakers Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler explore the life of their father, the late radical civil rights lawyer. In the 1960s and 70s, Kunstler fought for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr. and represented the famed “Chicago 8” activists who protested the Vietnam War. When the inmates took over Attica prison, or when the American Indian Movement stood up to the federal government at Wounded Knee, they asked Kunstler to be their lawyer.

Sundance, nominated to Grand Jury Prize



Short fiction films and animations

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Gevald
.
Gevald
dir. Netalie Brown
Israel, 2008, 15’




It is the story of how gay parade in Jerusalem is cancelled by a powerful religious opponents. As a result, a young religious woman decides to go against the stream.

Berlinale, 1st Award at TLV Film Festival

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

In Another Time
.
In Another Time
dir. Lloyd d’Souza, Nevin Millan
USA, 2008, 15’




Set in New York City, a subtle and delicate portrait of the fascination between a Hasidic Jew and a young Afro American It portrays the social strictness that ruled America in the beginning of the 20th century and that does not allow them to have true relations.

Palm Springs Short Film Festival, Los Angeles Short Film Festival

Short documentaries

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Decalogue After Decalogue
Dekalog po dekalogu
Dekalog po dekalogu
dir. Beata Hyzy - Czolopinska
Poland, 2008, 27’





A film about everyday longing and solitude in the spiritual as well as emotional sphere. A quest to find God and one’s place in the world. It is a moving story of a family. Patronage over the film: Krzysztof Piesiewicz and Maria Kieslowska.

Awards and selections

cinema: Kinoteka, PKiN Defilad 1 Place, Warsaw

Mama L’Chaim
.
Mama L’Chaim
dir. Elkan Spiller
Germany, 2008, 5’





62-year-old Chaim lives with his 95-year-old mother, a former concentration camp prisoner, giving her the 24 hour care. Both lively, merry and witty, they make a well-matched duo and never give up hope.

LIDF - The London International Documentary Festival, Belinale `09