Jewish Film Festival returns to in-person viewing, offers five films

Adrian Gomez, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·3 min read
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Aug. 4—Phyllis Wolf has high hopes for welcoming back patrons to an in-person festival.

Wolf, who is the chief program officer at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque, spent months screening films for what eventually makes up the 2023 edition of the Jewish Film Festival.

The festival kicks off with the first film, "Matchmaking" at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6, at the JCC of Greater Albuquerque.

"The last film festival we put on was online, and I'm looking forward to seeing people come back to the community center to view some of the best films we could find," Wolf says. "We have five films to screen as part of the festival. Our slogan is 'Celebrating the Jewish experience through cinema.' The five films were selected because of the diversity among them. There's comedy, drama, history and contemporary views in Israel and in France. There's something for everyone."

Wolf says the films selected were screened at film festivals across the world last year.

"Each one received very high marks from those festivals," she says. "What's great about them is we've picked five of the best and are bringing them to our community here in New Mexico."

Here's a rundown of the films:

2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6 — "Matchmaking" is a film from Israel and is in Hebrew with English subtitles. The film tells the story of two young, eligible ultra-Orthodox singles looking for a match. Moti spots Nechama, his sister's friend, and is instantly smitten, but isn't allowed to date the charming, beautiful young woman because she doesn't come from an Ashkenazi (European origin) family like his own, but rather comes from a Mizrahi/Sephardic (Middle Eastern origin) family.

4 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9 — "March 1968" is from Poland and is in Polish with English subtitles. It tells the story of two young students — Hania and Janek — who meet and fall in love in the midst of social turmoil and Jewish discrimination in 1960s Warsaw. While the young lovers are uninterested in politics, they find themselves unable to avoid it when Hania's father and mother lose their jobs due to the anti-Semitic purge and are forced to emigrate.

4 p.m. Aug. 16 — "Karaoke" is a film from Israel and screened in Hebrew with English subtitles. The comedy follows Tova and Meir, a standard aging couple with 46 years of marriage and two grown daughters. They live a comfortable life, with Meir currently on sabbatical from his academic professorship, and Tova running a boutique shop. Their lives get a jolt of excitement from their neighbor from above, Itzik, who invites them to his penthouse for karaoke nights.

2 p.m. Aug. 20 — "Farewell, Mr. Haffmann" is from France and Belgium and in French with English subtitles. It is set in Occupied Paris, 1941: When all Jews are instructed to come forward and identify themselves to authorities. Joseph Haffmann (Daniel Auteuil), a talented jeweler, arranges to flee the city with his family. François Mercier, Joseph's employee, is an ordinary man whose only goal is to start a family with Blanche, the woman he loves. Before leaving Paris, Joseph strikes a deal with François to take over his jewelry store and home until the conflict subsides, but when his attempt to escape is thwarted, the business agreement turns into a Faustian bargain that forever changes their fate.

2 p.m. Aug. 27 — "Rose" is from France and is in French with English subtitles. It tells the story of Rose, 78, who has just lost her most beloved husband. As the family matriarch, when her grief gives way to a powerful impulse of life that makes her realize that she can still redefine herself as a woman, the whole balance of the family is upset. She learns to pursue her desires, rejecting the societal pressure to "act her age" and fade into benign oblivion. Starring Françoise Fabian.