Israel sends its best to BJFF
Festival features country's top films
In the funny-serious "Aviva My Love," an Israeli feature that was a box office hit and opens the Boston Jewish Film Festival on Thursday, Aviva Cohen is a budding short story writer, living in the dialogue in her head while chopping vegetables in the kitchen of a Sheraton in Tiberias. She's got an unemployed husband, slouchy teenage kids, and a mom made a little nutty by mental illness that comes and goes.
There's a lot of lashing out - sibling against sibling, parent against child, husband against wife - and almost as much peacemaking, too. Played by Asi Levi, Aviva is the consummate driven writer: pulling out a notebook to jot down phrases she overhears, clipping the notes with clothespins to a rack perched on her writing desk, working in the stolen hours of early morning and late evening. When opportunity finally comes, it comes with a huge hitch. How far will she go to tell her stories?
The BJFF, now in its 19th year, is a bit like all that: ideas and stories, bits and pieces, all fitting together. It's real and not glossy, and the question always is: How far will the filmmakers go to tell their stories?
"Souvenirs" co-director Shahar Cohen takes it pretty far. He starts out his documentary focusing on the Jewish Brigade, a group of soldiers who fought against the Nazis with the British Army during World War II. At a gathering of Brigade veterans, they talk about the "souvenirs" they left with Dutch girlfriends. And oh, well, sure, says Cohen's father - a member of the Brigade - he might have left a souvenir or two of his own. Suddenly Cohen's interest perks up considerably: Could he have a half-brother or -sister? The two men end up on a road trip with the film's other co-director, Halil Efrat, who provides from-a-distance shots of the Cohens walking and talking, building up and tearing down their own myths.
"Souvenirs" and "Aviva" are just two of the films in this year's program that come from Israel. Israeli movies make up, in fact, about a third of the 26 features. Israeli films have been highlighted in previous fests, but not in the same volume or with the same overall pedigree of this crop.
The Jerusalem Post reported in January that 2006 was the second biggest year for Israeli film ticket sales. The Post said that figures from the Israel Film Fund and movie distributors showed that more tickets to see locally made movies were sold domestically in 2006 than in any year except 2004. "Aviva" was number one, and "Sweet Mud," which is also playing Boston, was number two.
"Sweet Mud" is set on a kibbutz in the 1970s. A young boy is preparing for his bar mitzvah and dealing with a mother who is mentally ill, embittered by the failure of kibbutz members to reach out and provide any help.
"I'm not judging or accusing anyone," director Dror Shaul told the Los Angeles Times in January. "I'm just trying to show how it looks to a 12-year-old kid who gets the message of total equality . . . but on the other hand sees it's impossible." Shaul drew from his own life experience in portraying the boy and his mother, he said.
"Beaufort" tackles politics explicitly, telling the story of Israel's war in Lebanon. Director Joseph Cedar spent nine months in Lebanon between 1987 and 1989 as a soldier and medic. "Most Israelis, although relieved that Israel left Lebanon, didn't fully understand how absurd our mission there had been in the year before the withdrawal," says Cedar in press materials. "The withdrawal from Lebanon, in my mind, was the most optimistic event in Israel's recent history."
Earlier this month, "Beaufort" was submitted by Israel for consideration in the best foreign language film category for the 80th Academy Awards.
A special panel discussion to talk about what distinguishes Israeli film will be held next Sunday. Panelists will include three directors with movies on the schedule: Eyal Halfon ("What a Wonderful Place," which weaves together the stories of an ex-cop, a farmer, and a Ukrainian woman trapped in a prostitution ring), Uri Rosenwaks ("The Film Class," about teaching filmmaking to a group of Afro-Bedouin women), and David Ofek ("A Hebrew Lesson," another immigrant documentary, this one set in a language class).
Also attending will be Avner Faingulernt, of the Film and Television School at Sapir College in Israel, and Kaj Wilson, artistic director of the festival. The conversation takes place at 11 a.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre and is free.
As for the Jewish experience stateside, Michal Goldman, who founded the festival in 1989, will present a special sneak preview of her nearly finished "At Home in Utopia," about co-op housing built in the Bronx in the 1920s by members of the Jewish left.
Martha's Vineyard-based director Kate Feiffer, who interviewed her parents, Jules Feiffer and Judy Feiffer, along with Mike Wallace, Alan Dershowitz, and others, will show her "Matzo and Mistletoe," about the complexities of being a secular Jew. Ann Carol Grossman and Arnie Reisman, working partners who live in Brookline and Natick, will present the world premiere of "The Powder & the Glory," a film about the rivalry between cosmetics titans Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein.
And "Making Trouble," the first movie produced by the Brookline-based Jewish Women's Archive, will get a special show. Rachel Talbot's documentary profiles six comediennes: saucy Sophie Tucker, vaudeville performers Molly Picon and Fanny Brice, recent TV and stage stars Joan Rivers and Gilda Radner, and playwright Wendy Wasserstein.
The Nov. 7 event will feature the film along with live comedy by Cory Kahaney, the star of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" and one of the women who kibitz in the movie about the comics who laid the groundwork for them.
"Being Jewish and a comedienne, you were supposed to be unattractive and you were supposed to make jokes at your own expense," says Marilyn Suzanne Miller, who wrote for and appeared on "Saturday Night Live" in the 1970s. Radner, she notes in the film, would have none of that. "Her point was, 'Excuse me, I'm a beautiful girl, and I'm also funny. Live with it.' "
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 