The season schedule is as follows: July 7: Cupcakes (Israel): July 14: Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Israel); July 21: Above and Beyond (USA); July 28: Run Boy Run (Poland); August 4 A Borrowed Identity (Israel).
All screenings are open to the public and take place in the congregation’s Blanche & Joel D. Seifer Community Center at 7 Hatchville Road, East Falmouth. Doors open 30 minutes prior to screenings. Refreshments are included in the ticket price of $9 for members and $12 for non-members. A discounted Season "REEL Pass" is $40 for congregation members and $55 for non-members. Passes may be purchased in advance by bringing or sending a check to the congregation’s office or at the door at screenings. Individual tickets are sold at the door only.
The season begins on July 7 with the Israeli feature film Cupcakes, Winner of the Audience Award for Best Comedy, Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival 2014. This feel-good musical comedy about love, life and friendship revolves around a diverse group of Israeli friends who unexpectedly represent Israel in a Eurovision-type song contest. Colorful (in more ways than one), and highly stylized fun that manages to be both old- fashioned and thoroughly modern, this nostalgic Israeli hit is described by the Jerusalem Post as “like taking an extravagant 90- minute vacation from reality, and who couldn’t use a vacation these days.” Cupcakes features a cast of accomplished Israeli actors and is directed by prominent Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox, whose previous films include Yossi & Jagger, Walk on Water, The Bubble. Ronnie Scheib of Variety describes Cupcakes’ place Fox’s filmography this way: “With its bright pastels and chirpy campiness, Cupcakes seems closer to Pedro Almodovar’s kinky comedies than to Fox’s somber, war-torn Yossi & Jagger or the Israeli- Palestinian tensions that threatened to burst The Bubble. Momentarily abandoning the strain of imagining liberation within a realistically perceived Israel, Fox here settles for the ephemeral glow of an exuberant block party.” This film is in Hebrew with English subtitles.
The next film, on July 14, is Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, Winner, Best Picture Award, Israeli Film Academy Ophir Awards and Israel’s Official Entry for the 2014 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. In this provocative and powerhouse courtroom drama, an Israeli woman seeking to finalize a divorce (gett) from her estranged husband finds herself effectively put on trial by her country’s religious marriage laws. Gett is an uncompromising, heart- rending portrait of a woman’s struggle to overcome an unmoving patriarchy and life a life of her own design. Directed and written by siblings Ronit & Shlomi Elkabetz and starring Ronit, on of Israel’s most acclaimed actresses (Late Marriage, The Band’s Visit). In Hebrew, French, and Arabic. New York Times critic Manohla Dargis’ assessment of Gett as “Gripping cinema from start to finish…assured, streamlined and bold” captures the film’s essence – its provocative subject matter combined with outstanding acting and directing. Above and Beyond, on July 21, is a multiple Audience Award Winner at Jewish Film Festivals across the country, in Seattle, Washington, D.C., Charlotte, Miami and many others. Directed by Roberta Grossman (Blessed is the Match) and produced by Nancy Spielberg, this documentary tells, for the first time, the true and fascinating wartime story of a group of WWII pilots who volunteered to fight for Israel in the War of Independence of 1948, risking their lives for the under-equipped and isolated Israelis. It is the combination of the individual men’s stories and the larger historical significance of their life- changing acts that make this a winning film. Kyle Smith of the New York Post describes it as “amazing. Dramatic, surprising and above all inspiring.” This film is in English.
Screening on July 28 is the Polish Holocaust drama Run Boy Run, winner of multiple Audience Choice Awards at Jewish Film Festivals, including Boston, Dallas, Rochester, Los Angeles. This gripping, true-to-life drama tells of a Polish boy who flees the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 and survives first in the woods and then, posing as a Christian war orphan, amongst villagers. Just when it seems his childhood memories and identity could be lost forever, his harrowing journey culminates in a powerhouse ending. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Pepe Danquart (Black Rider) and based on the bestselling Holocaust novel by Israeli author Uri Orlev. In Polish with English subtitles. The season closes with the recently released Israeli drama A Borrowed Identity, directed by Eran Riklis, one of Israel’s most acclaimed filmmakers (The Human Resources Manager, Lemon Tree, The Syrian Bride) and written by Sayed Kashua, a leading voice of the Arab- Israeli experience in novels and journalism, and based on his two autobiographical novels. This provocative coming- of-age drama follows a gifted Palestinian Israeli boy who leaves home to attend an elite Israeli boarding school on scholarship. Told through the eyes of a boy, but from a very adult perspective, it probes important questions about what it means to be an Arab in Israel. A Borrowed Identity was an Israeli Ophir nominee for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor and was an official selection at the Telluride Film Festival and Locarno Film Festival. In Hebrew and Arabic.
The Falmouth Jewish Congregation Community Center is located at 7 Hatchville Road, East Falmouth. Facilities are handicap accessible and all are welcome at this Reform Jewish congregation serving the Upper Cape and beyond. For further information please call 508-540-0602 or visit www.falmouthjewish.org.
