The dates for the screenings are January 29 – March 4. (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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| Tel Aviv on Fire (January 29)
Screening and Q&A with Film Director
English subtitles
Directed by Sameh Zoabi (2019) Watch trailer |
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Salam, an inexperienced young Palestinian man, becomes a writer on a popular soap opera after a chance meeting with an Israeli soldier. His creative career is on the rise—until the soldier and the show’s financial backers disagree about how the show should end, and Salam is caught in the middle, concocting plot twists to please all sides.
Speaker: Dalit Katz, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies, Adj. Associate Prof. of Religion
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| Shtisel Mania (February 5)
Screening and Q&A with Director
English Subtitles
An Evening with Show Creator, Jonathan Indursky, and Screening of Two Episodes of the TV show Shtisel
Watch trailer |
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The highly popular Israeli TV series “Shtisel” takes place in the heart of Jerusalem’s ultra-religious neighborhood. Akiva, a young and dreamy Yeshiva student, lives with his widowed father Shulem. All the other children have left the nest, only the two of them remain quarreling, making up, and laughing about themselves and the rest of the world. All will change when Akiva meets Elisheva.
Speaker: Jonathan Indursky, Show Creator
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| God of the Piano (February 12)
CONNECTICUT PREMIERE
Screening and Q&A with Film Director
English subtitles
Directed by Itay Tal (2019) Watch trailer |
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Anat has never been able to reach her father’s musical standards, and now her family’s hope of producing a musical prodigy rests on her unborn son. When the baby is born deaf, she cannot accept it and resorts to extreme measures to ensure that her child will be the composer that her father always wanted. However, when the boy grows up indifferent to his destiny as a great pianist, Anat will have to confront her father—and her own actions.
Speaker: Itay Tal, Film Director of God of the Piano |
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| Born In Jerusalem and Still Alive (February 19)
NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE
English subtitles, Directed by Yossi Atia and David Ofek (2019) Watch trailer |
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While walking down Jaffa Road, Jerusalem native Ronen Matalon overhears a tour guide offering a sanitized version of his hometown’s recent history. This inspires him to begin his own “Terror Tour,” taking tourists to famous bombing sites and giving them a droll take on the absurdity of everyday life in the 1990’s and 2000’s. On one of his tours, he meets Asia, an ex-Jerusalemite living in Barcelona, and their relationship challenges him to begin healing from the trauma that envelops his emotional life.
Speaker: Laura Blum, Film Critic |
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| Flawless (February 26)
English Subtitles
Directed by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon (2018) Watch trailer |
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Eden, a 17-year-old high school student, discovers that her two best friends are planning to sell their kidneys to pay for cosmetic surgery and a prom dress. Eden, who is secretly a trans woman, realizes that this may be the answer to her prayers. She joins the others on their journey to Kiev to exchange their kidneys for the flawless bodies of their dreams. Their trip does not go as planned and when Eden’s secret is exposed, all three of them need to come to terms with the prejudices they have and redefine who they really want to be in this world.
Speaker: Amir Bogen, the Silverberg Scholar in Residence in Jewish Studies, Wesleyan University
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| Incitement (March 4)
Screening and Q&A with Film Director
English Subtitles
Directed by Yaron Zilberman (2019) Watch trailer
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In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel, was assassinated by an ultranationalist, right-wing Zionist who opposed the leader’s signing of the Oslo Accords. Rabin’s murder is a definitive historical event, which has never been depicted in a feature film, until now. Israeli-American filmmaker Yaron Zilberman sets out, with a rigorous, exacting gaze, to expose—through the eyes of Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir—the motivations that led to Rabin’s death. Set in the year leading up to the incident, Zilberman’s meticulously crafted period piece is embedded in Amir’s world, moving from his family home to his failed relationships, and finally to his radicalization due to radical interpretation of Rabbinic law.
Speaker: Tamar Sela, Film’s Producer
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