Jewish International Film Festival 2014
What can audiences expect from this year’s Jewish International Film Festival? Festival Director Eddie Tamir has ensured the answer is “the unexpected”.
The list of films which promise to lay bare the soul of a fascinating culture include a variety of award-winning features, documentaries and shorts such as The Good Son, which tells of a man seeking sexual re-assignment; The Outrageous Sophie Tucker proves you ain’t heard suggestive till you’ve heard Sophie, a pre-eminent star of ‘20s US vaudeville; and The Farewell Party which is set in a retirement home where the residents build a euthanasia machine to help a friend but soon have interest from others.
There are more recognisable themes: Zero Motivation portrays the tale of three female army clerical staff battling boredom in menial work; the ironically-named The Decent One uses new material to profile the architect of the final solution – Heinrich Himmler; and The Dove Flyer details the final years of the Jewish community in ‘50s Baghdad before the expulsion to Israel.
Alfred Hitchcock was one of the team that assembled German Concentration Camps Factual Survey which had massive amounts of footage documenting the horror of the concentration camps – a project which was shelved and not completed – till now. The result is Night Will Fall. (MMu)
Oct 29-Nov 16, Event Cinemas, 500 Oxford St, Bondi Junction, $20-95 (5 film pass), jiff.com.au
BY MICHAEL MUIR
