2016 Competition

2016 NON COMPETITION SCREENINGS
     Program 2016

Narrative features

POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 23, Thursday, 20:45
Polish premiere. Q&A with actor Maciej Marczewski

The Interrogation
Przesłuchanie
dir. by Erez Pery
Israel , 2016, 80` (competition)

In 1946, Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss, the longest serving commander of Auschwitz concentration camp, is awaiting trial in a Polish prison. Albert, a young and successful Polish investigation judge, is appointed to interrogate Höss and get a perfect confession out of him. The encounter between the two men will unveil the frightening routine and banalization of evil that took place in the camp. By introducing the use of Zyklon B in Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss carried out the most efficient mass killing process ever known, which claimed the lives of approximately 1.1 million people. The film is based on the memoirs Höss wrote before his execution.



POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 25, Friday , 20:30 PM

One Week And A Day
Dzień po żałobie
dir. by Asaph Polonsky
Israel , 2016, 98` (competition)

Within one day, a grieving father steals medicinal marijuana from a hospice, skips work and hangs out with his estranged neighbor’s son while his wife tries to get back to her daily routine as she fights off school teachers, stray kittens and dental clinic workers. Each of them tries to handle their son’s death differently…

Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English, Polish.
Cannes Film Festival 2016, Jerusalem Film Festival 2016 – Best Israeli Feature Film


POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 26, Saturday ,20:45 PM
Polish premiere

The Origin of Violence
Historia przemocy
dir. by Élie Chouraqui
France, Germany , 2016, 110` (competition)

Nathan Fabre teaches in a French-German school while working on his thesis about French resistance during World War II. During a research trip to Buchenwald, he discovers a photograph of a concentration camp prisoner who strikingly resembles his own father. Back in France, still haunted by the image, Nathan looks to his father for answers but is met with impenetrable silence...

In partnership: French Institute


Language: French. Subtitles: English, Polish.
San Francisco Jewish FF, UK Jewish FF


POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 24, Thursday, 20:15 PM

The People vs. Fritz Bauer
Fritz Bauer kontra Państwo
dir. by Lars Kraume,
Germany , 2016, 105` (competition)

Germany, 1957. Attorney General Fritz Bauer receives a crucial proof that could help him bring the elusive Adolf Eichmann to trial in Israel. Bauer does not trust German authorities, not very determined to punish Nazis at that time. He therefore passes the information on Eichmann’s whereabouts to Mosad… As a result, he risks being accused of high treason. Bauer’s only ally is the young prosecutor Karl Angermann...

Language: German. Subtitles: Polish
2016 – German Film Awards: Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Costumes; 2015 – Award of the German Critics’ Association; 2015 – Best Film; 2015 – Locarno International Film Festival: Audience Award.


POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 21, Monday ,19:00 PM
Polish premiere. Q&A with director and actors.

Persona Non Grata
Persona Non Grata
dir. by Cellin Gluck
Japan , 2016, 139` (competition)

The true story of Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat who saved thousands of Jewish lives during World War II and is the only Japanese recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. The film follows true events, from Sugihara’s early days in Manchuria to his appointment as consul in Lithuania during the war. The diplomat, called “Japan’s Schindler”, decides to act against orders, put his career and family at risk and start issuing transit visas for Jews seeking refuge, thus helping them escape from the Nazis. Persona Non Grata’s cast includes Academy Award-winning actor Toshiaki Karasawa, as well as Polish actors Borys Szyc and Agnieszka Grochowska.

Language: Japanese, English. Subtitles: English, Polish




POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 26, Saturday, 13:45 PM
Polish premiere.

Pickle Recipe
Przepis na kiszone
dir. by Michael Manasseri
USA , 2016, 97` (competition)

Joey Miller is the undisputed king of Detroit MC's. He's also a single father and deeply in debt. To make matters worse, during his latest, one-of-a-kind wedding performances, all his prized sound equipment gets destroyed in a freak accident. To add insult to injury, his daughter Julie's Bat-Mitzvah is only weeks away and she's counting on him to MC her party. He turns to his shady Uncle Morty, who agrees to give him money to get back into business. Under one condition: Joey must steal his Grandmother Rose's most prized possession: her famous top secret dill pickle recipe. And it's a recipe which she’s vowed to take to her grave.

Language: English. Subtitles: Polish.
LA JFF 2016 – Audience Award Winner, Best Comedy


POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 27, Sunday , 19:00
Closing Ceremony.

Remember
Niepamięć
dir. by Atom Egoyan
Canada, Germany , 2015, 94` (competition)

Academy Award nominated director Atom Egoyan creates a thrillingly fast-paced revenge story. Powerful story of an old man fighting dementia, who embarks on a mission of finding the blockfuhrer from Auschwitz who is responsible for the death of his family. The film stars Oscar Winners Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau, as well as… Dean Norris, the famous Hank from Breaking Bad. Remember won a 10-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.

Language: English. Subtitles: Polish.




POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 27, Sunday, 16:30

The Tenth Man
Dziesi±ty mężczyzna
dir. by Daniel Burman
Argentina , 2016, 80` (competition)

After many years away, Ariel returns from New York to his childhood home in the bustling Jewish quarter of Buenos Aires, known as El Once. Over the course of seven days, during the vibrant holiday of Purim, Ariel seeks to reconnect with his father, who runs a Jewish charity. Daniel Burman once again focuses on the relationship between father and son. Ariel gradually allows himself to be drawn into the center of a vibrant and fascinating community.

Language: Spanish. Subtitles: English, Polish.

In partnership: Embassy of Argentine in Poland.

Tribeca Film Festival 2016 – Jury Award


Feature documentaries

POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 26, Saturday , 15:45

Bogdan's Journey
Przy Planty 7/9
dir. by Michal Jaskulski i Lawrence Loewinger
Poland , 2016, 90` (competition)

The Kielce pogrom took place in 1946, a year after WWII had ended and became a symbol of Polish post-war anti-Semitism. For 35 years, under communism in Poland, the pogrom was a forbidden subject, but it was never forgotten. Bogdan Białek, a Catholic Pole, embarked on a decades-long journey to heal the wounds and bridge the divide. Over time and with great effort, he managed to persuade the people of Kielce to confront a painful piece of their hidden history. This is a story about change and ultimately reconciliation. It's a story about contemporary Poland and its Jewish past. It's a story a man who transforms the attitudes of his fellow citizens and pays the price for doing so.

Language: Polish. Subtitles: English.




POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 27, Sunday, 14:45
Polish premiere

Germans and Jews
Niemcy i Żydzi
dir. by Janina Quint
USA , 2016, 76` (competition)

Today, Europe’s fastest growing Jewish population is in Berlin. Germany is considered one of the most democratic societies in the world, assuming the position of moral leader in Europe as it embraces hundreds of thousands of refugees. None of these developments could have been imagined in 1945. Through personal stories, Germans & Jews explores the country’s transformation from silence about the Holocaust to facing it head on. Unexpectedly, a nuanced story of reconciliation emerges in this provocative, enlightening film.

Language: English. Subtitles: Polish.




POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 22, Tuesday , 18:00
Polish premiere. Q&A with filmmakers and hummus workshop!

Hummus The Movie!
Humus!
dir. by Oren Rosenfeld
Israel , 2016, 70` (competition)

Hummus – the delicious, nutritious superfood sweeping America – has the power to bring Muslims, Christians and Jews together… in the Middle East, America and around the world. We meet three characters – a hard working Muslim woman, an ever-smiling Jew and a young Christian Arab on a restless quest for meaning. But despite their historical and cultural differences they all have one thing in common… a passionate love of hummus! The director accompanies Olivier, a French Benedictine monk, on his search for the ultimate, tastiest hummus, and spotlights “The World’s Largest Serving of Hummus” competition. Hummus! The Movie tells the touching personal stories of the colorful men and women who simply live their lives and love their hummus.

Language: Hebrew, English. Subtitles: English, Polish.

In partnership: JCC
PARTNER POKAZU: JCC


POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 25, Friday , 17:30 PM
Polish premiere. Q&A with director.

Little Angels
Aniołki
dir. by Marco Niemeijer
Holland , 2015, 77` (competition)

In focusing on one single family, Little Angels slowly reveals, without sentiment, the painful and suffocating process of how the generations are affected by the traumas of war. On a more general level, Little Angels is about the impossibility of a mother and daughter to comfort one and other in a family tragedy.

Language: English, Dutch. Subtitles: English, Polish.

In partnership: Netherlands Embassy in Poland
Kingdom of Netherlands




POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 24, Thursday, 16:15
Polish premiere. Q&A with director

Nuremberg Trial
Proces Norymberski
dir. by Peter Hartl
Germany , 2016, 50` (competition)

The Nuremberg Trials were observed by many famous figures such as John Dos Passos, Ilja Ehrenburg, Erika Mann, Erich Kästner, Willy Brandt and others. Peter Hartl’s film presents the observers’ view of the tribunal, their reflections on the behavior of the defendants, the effect of pictures from the liberated concentration camps shown in public. It shows how they reacted to the realities of everyday life in a ruined and defeated country – from which the monstrous crimes had originated only shortly before.

Language: German. Subtitles: Polish.




POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 25, Friday, 15:00
Polish premiere

Surviving Skokie
Przetrwać Skokie
dir. by Eli Adler
USA, Poland, 2015, 66` (competition)

This riveting film centers on a series of dark days in small-town America that force a resilient group of Holocaust survivors to relive a devastating past. Eli Adler’s deeply personal film follows the path of his father, Jack Adler, a Polish survivor of the concentration camps who built a life in Skokie, Illinois following the war. But the quiet existence of thousands of survivors is rocked to its core in the late ‘70s when a neo-Nazi group announces plans to march through town. The community comes together to confront these hate mongers. The relationship between father and son deepens as they return to Poland, where Eli learns more about the extended family that perished during the Shoah. Together they retrace the painful and debilitating journey through two ghettos and two concentration camps.

Language: English. Subtitles: Polish. 		td>




Short fiction films and animations

POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 23, Wednesday, 19:15
JCC WARSZAWA, Warsaw: Nov. 23, Wednesday, 14:00

Ave Maria
Ave Marja
dir. by Basil Khalil
Palestine, France, Germany, 2015, 15` (competition)



Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English, Polish.
Ave Maria is a short film written by Basil Khalil, Daniel Yáńez Khalil and directed by Basil Khalil. A family of religious Israeli settlers has their car break down in a rural area of the West Bank and they must seek the help of five nuns to get back home. The Israelis can’t operate a phone to call for assitance due to the Sabbath Lasw, and the nuns have taken a vow of silence. Together they have to come up with an unortodox plan to help the family get home. movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short.
Academy Award for Best Live Action Short.


JCC WARSZAWA, Warsaw: Nov.23, Wednesday , 19:15

Curpigeon
Goł±b
dir. by Dmitry Milkin
USA , 2016, 10` (competition)

A community of old men and park pigeons come together to help one of their own get through a great loss.

Language: no dialogs.




JCC WARSZAWA, Warsaw: Nov. 24, Thursday, 14:00 PM

Hope
Nadzieja
dir. by Michael Scherrer
Switzerland , 2016, 6` (competition)

After an unsuccessful escape a mother and her son are deported to a prison camp. The mother sees her child’s hunger and secretly gives him some left-over seeds, the last food she has. Shortly after, they are separated. The boy has to work until exhaustion, day in day out. When hunger and loneliness strike, he tries to fight it by eating a seed. But his hunger cannot be satiated. The memory of his mother, though, warms him, gives him strength and hope.




Language: no dialogs.

POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 23, Wednesday, 19:15
JCC WARSZAWA, Warsaw: Nov. 24, Thursday, 14:00

Kapunka
Dziękuję
dir. by Tal Greenberg
Israel , 2015, 12` (competition)

For the coming year, when Shmulik must let his land lie fallow, he decides to disregard the Rabbinate law and sells his land to Changrong, his most senior Thai worker. Certain that he has made the greatest play of his life, Shmulik awakens the following day only to discover his once calm reality shattered. Shocked, he will do anything to return things to the way they were.

Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English, Polish.
Palm Springs ShortFest 2015


POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 23, Wednsday , 19:15 PM
Q&A with filmmakers

The Little Dictator
Mały dyktator
dir. by Nurith Cohn
Israel , 2015, 29` (competition)

Prof. Yossi Kleinmann is an uncharismatic history professor lecturing on political leaders in totalitarian regimes. Neither his students nor his domineering wife show him any respect. At a Sabbath weekend celebrating the 90th birthday of his wife’s grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, Yossi suddenly finds himself in an unexpected situation which forces him to confront history, his family and himself.

Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English, Polish.
Best Short: Jerusalem Jewish FF 2015, Los Angeles Jewish FF 2016.


POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 27, Sunday , 13:30
Polish premiere

Samira
Samira
dir. by Dalit Kimor
Israel , 2015, 40` (competition)

Samira – a law abiding housewife or a suicide bomber? Samira had a husband and a daughter. She tried to live a normal life. So why does she try to blow herself in a café full of people? In an intensive investigation her motives slowly unravel. Like a puzzle we start to figure out the motives behind her desperate act. A startling yet moving glance into the mind of a female terrorist.

Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: Polish, English




JCC WARSZAWA, Warsaw: Nov. 24, Thursday, 14:00 PM

Setting Son
Syn
dir. by Rachel Rosen
USA , 2016, 7` (competition)

Dina must reconsider everything she believed and put herself in a situation far outside of her comfort zone. A key aspect of her journey is Dina’s discomfort in foreign locations, which forces her to reevaluate her spiritual and personal convictions.

Language: English Subtitles: Polish.




JCC WARSZAWA, Warsaw: Nov. 23, Wednesday, 14:00

Wall, Crevice, Tear
¦ciana Płaczu
dir. by Crevice, Tear, Tehila Raanan
Israel , 2015, 10` (competition)

The enormous, pale gold, hewn stones of Jerusalem's Western Wall, a remnant of the outer courtyard of the Jewish Temple built by King Herod, have been a focus of prayer, meditation, and reverie for hundreds of years. Because it is a holy site, the Wall is divided into two sections, one for men and one for women.

Language: no dialogs.



Short documentaries

JCC WARSZAWA, Warsaw: Nov. 24, Thursday, 14:00

The Bus Trip
Podróż
dir. by Sarah Gampel
Sweden , 2016, 14` (competition)

Sarah is invited to show her film in Israel as part of a film festival bus trip. She is hoping for political discussions and friendship, but the conversation stops each time she brings up the occupation of Palestine. So instead, Sarah talks to her dead dad over a noisy phone line.

Language: English Subtitles: Polish.



POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 25, Friday, 19:30
Polish premiere

Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
Claude Lanzmann: widma Szoa
dir. by Adam Benzine
Canada , 2015, 40` (competition)

In Adam Benzine’s film, Claude Lanzmann discusses the process of directing, producing, editing and presenting his groundbreaking and influential documentary on the Holocaust of European Jews: Shoah. The film explores the long journey that led to the creation of one of the most important films of our time. It features previously unseen, digitally restored footage shot during the creation of Lanzmann’s documentary. It is also a fascinating, touching and very personal interview with an outstanding director and person. It features such subjects as Lanzmann’s youth and his involvement in the French resistance, his love affair with Simone de Beauvoir and his friendship with Jean-Paul Sartre. The film is a 2016 Academy Award nominee for best short documentary.

Language: English. Subtitles: Polish.



JCC WARSZAWA, Warsaw: Nov. 23, Wednesday, 19:15

Eva and Moe
Ewa i Moe
dir. by Lizzie Warren
USA , 2016, 8` (competition)

In 1936, Eva Feld and her husband Moe, Jewish-American newlyweds, traveled to Poland to meet their grandmothers and extended families for the first time. Moe, an amateur photographer, brought along a movie camera and filmed hours of footage, to show the family back in the US. Eva and Moe also had an agenda beyond just the visit: they hoped to convince their Polish relatives to leave an increasingly threatening political climate. Unfortunately, they declined to leave Poland with Eva and Moe and were killed a few short years later by the Nazis. Through Moe’s footage, we follow Eva as she interacts with her family members in the Polish countryside. We learn from Eva’s nephew, our narrator, that the happy and vivacious Eva he discovered in the films was unknown to him throughout the rest of her life.

Language: English Subtitles: Polish.



POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 25, Friday , 15:00
Polish premiere.

Munich '72 and Beyond
Monachium '72
dir. by Stephen Crisman
USA , 2016, 29` (competition)

Award-winning filmmaker Stephen Crisman revisits the tragic events that took place at the Munich Summer Olympics. On September 5, 1972, Palestinian extremists infiltrated the athletes’ dorms to take 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually murdered them all before being killed or captured by the German police. The documentary features interviews with Israelis and Palestinians, family members, eyewitnesses and government officials. Munich ‘72 is an emotional account of the first act of modern terrorism. The documentary also exposes shocking new information about the tragic events and their devastating aftermath.

Language: English. Subtitles: Polish.



POLIN Museum, Warsaw: Nov. 27, Sunday , 13:30
Polish premiere

The Radical Jew
Radyklany Żyd
dir. by Noam Osband
USA 2016 , 22` (competition)

The Radical Jew profiles Baruch Marzel, an American-born settler who lives in the heart of Hebron and is one of the leaders of the Jewish community in the most violent city in the Israel-Palestine conflict. He was the leader of Kach, a far-right political part, when Israel banned the organization as a terrorist group in 1995. While not widely known internationally, within Israel he is one of the most well-known Jewish extremists. The Radical Jew offers an Errol Morris-esque investigation of Marzel, as we learn about the history and the Manichean life philosophy that guides this notorious individual. Marzel stares directly into the lens to tell us about his childhood and controversial military service in Lebanon, and we follow him into the Israeli parliament. We learn about the ideas and Biblical characters that motivate his steadfast belief that only force can solve the Israel-Palestinian crisis.

Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English, Polish.