The dates for the screenings are January 30 – March 6. (Every Wednesday). All movies will be screened at the Wesleyan University Center for Film Studies, at the Goldsmith Family Cinema, 301 Washington Terrace, Middletown, CT at 8pm.
Free Admission. On site parking.
The Festival is organized by Dalit Katz, Adjunct Associate Professor of Religion and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Wesleyan University. It is sponsored by the Ring Family, the Center for Jewish Studies, and co-sponsored by the College of Film and the Moving Image and the Wesleyan Film Series.
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| Working Woman (January 30)
Connecticut Premiere
English subtitles
Directed by Michal Aviad (2018) Watch trailer |
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Life at work becomes complicated for Orna. Her boss appreciates and promotes her while making inappropriate advances. Her husband struggles to keep his new restaurant afloat, leaving Orna the main breadwinner for their three children. When her world is shattered, she must pull herself together to fight, in her own way, for her job and a sense of self-worth.
Speaker: Laura Blum, Film Critic
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| Shelter (February 6)
English Subtitles
Directed by Eran Riklis (2018) Watch trailer |
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Naomi, an Israeli Mossad agent (Neta Riskin) is sent to Germany to protect Mona (Golshifteh Farahani), a Lebanese informant recovering from plastic surgery to assume her new identity. Enclosed together in a sheltered apartment, the women develop a relationship of dependence and intimacy while their safety is threated by various forces in the outside world. In this game of deception, beliefs are questioned, choices are made, and their fate takes a surprising turn in this suspense-laden, elegant neo-noir.
Speaker: Dalit Katz, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies
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| Shoelaces (February 13)
Connecticut Premiere
English subtitles
Directed by Jacob Goldwasser (2018) Watch trailer |
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“Shoelaces” tells the story of a complicated relationship between an aging father, Reuben, and his special-needs son, Gadi, whom he abandoned while he was still a young boy. Reuben’s kidneys are failing and his son Gadi wants to donate one of his kidney’s to help save his father’s life. However, the transplant committee objects. Through the film’s portrayal of a relationship full of love, rejection and co-dependency, it manages to shed some light and question the importance of human life and human connection.
Speaker: Eran Polishuk, Director of Film & Media, Consulate General of Israel, Office of Cultural Affairs in North America |
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| Redemption (February 20)
Connecticut Premiere
English subtitles, Directed by Joseph Madmony and Boaz Yehonatan Yaacov (2018) Watch trailer |
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Menachem, a former front man for a rock band, is now religious, and a father to a six-year-old daughter. When his daughter is diagnosed with cancer, he must find a creative solution to fund the expensive treatments. He reunites his band for one last tour. The journey to save his daughter exposes old wounds and allows him to reconnect with his secular past. Menachem understands that only a new connection to his past and to his music can pave the road to his own redemption.
Speaker: Laura Blum, Film Critic
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| The Kindergarten Teacher (February 27)
English Subtitles
Directed by Nadav Lapid (2014) Watch trailer |
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“The Kindergarten Teacher” is the story of a teacher who becomes at first enchanted, and then ultimately consumed by the poetic genius of her five-year-old student. As the titular protagonist, Nira, discovers that her young student, Yoav, has an otherworldly talent for language and poetry, she slowly and progressively becomes interested in cultivating the boy’s gift. However, when fascination morphs into obsession, Nira pushes the boundaries of her relationship with the boy and his family in an attempt to protect his talent.
Speaker: Lisa Dombrowski, Associate Professor of Film Studies, College of Film and the Moving Image, Wesleyan University
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| The Unorthodox (March 6)
Connecticut Premiere
English Subtitles
Directed by Eliran Malka (2018) Watch trailer
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When Yakov Cohen’s daughter is expelled from school for ethnic reasons, he decides to fight back although he has no knowledge, no money, no connections and no political experience. What he does have is the will and the passion to take action, and a belief that he and other Sephardic Jews should be able to form their own religious party. Along with two friends, they start the first ethnic political group in Jerusalem, with an operation characteristic of the people they represent: not the suit-wearing types, but rather the people working their way up from the bottom. Their operation is informal, full of love for their fellow man, animated by a great sense of humor and a whole lot of rage.
Speaker: Amir Bogen, Gittel and Marvin Silverberg Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Center for Jewish Studies, Wesleyan University
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