{"id":36339,"date":"2021-02-26T03:59:16","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T11:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=36339"},"modified":"2021-02-24T21:08:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T05:08:31","slug":"wide-range-of-films-offered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/wide-range-of-films-offered\/","title":{"rendered":"Wide range of films offered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yehuda Barkan and Nitza Shaul co-star in the charming Love in Suspenders<\/em>. (photo from homemcr.org\/film\/love-in-suspenders<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Vancouver Jewish Film Festival is set to go online March 4, and all the many offerings will be available until March 14. There are plenty of gems for viewers of varying tastes and ages, including a few Israeli films that seem to be nostalgic paeans to American comedies or kids\u2019 movies of the 1960s and 1970s. But we start with romance.<\/p>\n

The film Love in Suspenders<\/em><\/strong> opens with a wild car ride through Tel Aviv, as we are introduced to main character Tammy (Nitza Shaul) who drives like \u2026 well, an Israeli. When she backs into pedestrian Benno (Yehuda Barkan), this adorable slice-of-life gets rolling.<\/p>\n

Her son Michael, a lawyer, warns that one more infraction will lead to the loss of her driver\u2019s licence. Making nice with her victim (while continuing to argue it was his own carelessness that led to the mishap), Tammy begins what evolves into an innocent and unintentional courtship with Benno.<\/p>\n

The luxurious seniors facility where Tammy lives is a hotbed of sexual tension \u2013 with lectures on the wonders of Viagra, a supporting character in the film that really should have received its own credit.<\/p>\n

Tammy venerates her late husband Yoni in ways that probably exceed what would be considered normal grieving. Hanging on to her glorious past \u2013 Tammy and Yoni were a musical duo that toured Israel and abroad \u2013 versus facing an exciting but unnerving new romance is the conflict that drives her character.<\/p>\n

Benno\u2019s character is driven by all sorts of unnerving situations. Benno\u2019s got his own problems with the next generation, but both he and Tammy handle their affairs like adults, despite being treated like children by their kids.<\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s horror at both his mother\u2019s rekindled sex life and the uncertain provenance of the unkempt and possibly homeless Benno threatens to undermine the trajectory of their affection.<\/p>\n

Kids aren\u2019t the only interfering forces. The extravagant dining hall and luxurious hallways of the seniors home are brimming with prying eyes and wagging tongues. The roosters in the facility are put out that Tammy has scored a love interest from the outside, despite all their strutting and preening. The women in the building always seem to be nearby when Tammy\u2019s male caller is coming or going from her apartment.<\/p>\n

The title Love in Suspenders<\/em> is a play on the phrase \u201cTuesdays in suspenders,\u201d a program in which Israeli seniors get weekly discounts at venues like the cinema. The movie is an absolutely charming vignette of finding love at a later age and dealing with the impacts of a fresh future on a cherished past. It is a respectful treatment of older characters and their romantic explorations, which are topics too often treated shabbily by Hollywood and other depictions.<\/p>\n

\u2013 PJ<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Not one of us will be able to avoid death. Yet, despite its inevitability, few of us prepare for dying and most of us put the thought of it to the back of our minds, even as we mourn those who have died.<\/p>\n

The hour-long documentary Dying Doesn\u2019t Feel Like What I\u2019m Doing<\/em><\/strong> is almost a must-see for anyone struggling with the reality of mortality. It is a caring portrait of Rachel Cowan\u2019s 18-month journey from a cancer diagnosis (a brain tumour) to her passing. Along the way, we learn about how remarkable this human\u2019s life was and how her impacts continue. However, while Cowan was successful by almost any measure, it is not only her accomplishments that are noteworthy, but her struggles and her finding of strength in love and gratitude at her most vulnerable, when she had every right to be bitter and selfish.<\/p>\n

Cowan was a civil and women\u2019s rights activist of some acclaim. She was married to Paul Cowan, a journalist for the The Village Voice<\/em>, and theirs was a partnership that extended into work at times; she took incredible photographs for his stories, capturing on film the best and worst of humanity in a tumultuous era. The couple lived and fought for their beliefs and really did make the world a better place.<\/p>\n

Paul died from leukemia in 1988, at 48 years old. Rachel had converted to Judaism earlier in their relationship, after his parents died in a horrific apartment fire. The tragedy spurred Paul to explore his Jewish roots and her to search for God and meaning, which led her to Judaism. She was studying to become a rabbi during the period that Paul was ill and she was ordained soon after his death. At that point, still deep in grief, she thought, \u201cNow, what?\u201d How possibly could she counsel others when she herself was so ungrounded. She decided, \u201cChoose life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She not only chose life for herself, but for others. While working at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, she established the Jewish Healing Centre, after seeing how little Jewish community support Paul had had in palliative care. She also established other initiatives and wrote a book on wise aging. As the documentary begins, we see Rachel leading a meditation group, continuing her life\u2019s work. The film\u2019s title comes from a comment Rachel makes about nine months after her diagnosis: \u201cI\u2019m living my life. Dying doesn\u2019t feel like what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 CR<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

With a harrowing opening scene, A Starry Sky Above the Roman Ghetto<\/em><\/strong> begins an historical back and forth between the terrible past and the present. The intertwined timeframes and eventual plot twists remind the viewer that the past is not really past.<\/p>\n

Roman high schooler Sofia (Bianca Panconi) finds a Second World War-era letter and photograph hidden in the lining of a flea market suitcase. Her curiosity piqued, she begins a quest to uncover the story behind the mystery, which forms the narrative of the film.<\/p>\n

Bringing the artifacts to her schoolmates, who enthusiastically join in the sleuthing, Sofia and pals then recruit students from the neighbouring Jewish high school to join in the mystery-solving.<\/p>\n

There is charm in the cross-cultural friendships and some minimal tension when the teens meet obstruction from their parents and teachers. But the film is generally simplistic, too often cutesy and frequently hammy.<\/p>\n

Before they have even tracked down the basics of the historical mystery, the students decide to turn their quest into a play. The movie itself has the feel of a high school production, and the fresh-faced, upbeat teen spirit seems incongruous with the Holocaust narrative at the heart of both the theatre production and the film. Impediments are too easily overcome. Archival research eurekas far too effortlessly and speedily fall into place. (The way the characters manhandle historical documents would make an archivist recoil.) An ostensible Montague\/Capulet hurdle to a pair of star-crossed lovers is resolved in the most facile manner imaginable. The ending is unbelievably tidy \u2013 unbelievable being the operative term.<\/p>\n

Continuity and fidelity to peoplehood and identity are core themes, but even these are handled poorly. For example, a Jewish boy gives Sofia a convincing explanation for why he must date and marry only a Jewish girl, but the next day he apologizes, apparently deciding that maybe continuity isn\u2019t as sacred as a little amorousness after all.<\/p>\n

The resolution to the larger mystery falls very close to home for Sofia, whose own life is altered by her discovery. This outcome provides some justification for the girl\u2019s otherwise inexplicably dogged devotion to unraveling the mystery. But the whole thing has more of a Scooby-Doo vibe than the solemn drama the film probably set out to create.<\/p>\n

There is some eye candy in the form of Roman architecture, including parts of the city\u2019s Jewish quarter, but it is perhaps a thwarted COVID-era wanderlust to blame for finding fault that the film is not more of a visual celebration of the eternal city.<\/p>\n

There is some decent acting and there are enjoyable components to A Starry Sky Above the Roman Ghetto<\/em>, but it is hard to sustain the premise of an historical mystery when every twist and turn is foreseeable long before the ostensibly bright students clue in.<\/p>\n

\u2013 PJ<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Fans of Airplane<\/em>, Naked Gun<\/em> and Austin Powers<\/em> will settle right in with the ridiculous Israeli comedy Mossad<\/em><\/strong>. Upending the perception of the Israeli intelligence agency as one of the world\u2019s greatest, the film centres on what must be Mossad\u2019s most moronic agent.<\/p>\n

The action begins with the kidnapping of the world\u2019s foremost tech magnate, Jack Saterberg, while he visits Israel. (One doesn\u2019t have to stretch the imagination much to conjure a mashup of Twitter\u2019s Jack Dorsey and Facebook\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg). It falls to Mossad operative Guy Moran (Tsahi Halevi) to team up with CIA agent Linda Harris (Efrat Dor) to confront the bad guys.<\/p>\n

When Mossad<\/em> hit Israeli theatres in 2019, it saw a box office-smashing open. It is an all-ages bit of entertainment, with slapstick buffoonery and sight gags \u2013 and not really a lot more. There is certainly plenty of violence, but it is exclusively of the cartoonish variety.<\/p>\n

In addition to sight gags, smartass dialogue drives what there is of a direction to the story. \u201cI\u2019m a Mossad agent. Here\u2019s my card,\u201d Moran says. \u201cIt\u2019s blank,\u201d replies the recipient. \u201cI\u2019m a secret agent,\u201d he says. Nyuk nyuk nyuk.<\/p>\n

The kidnappers threaten to stop all cellphone service worldwide. When they offer a two-minute taste of the threat, global mayhem and violence ensue, underscoring the urgency of preventing the calamity. Suffice to say the only real tension in the 90 or so minutes comes from bracing for the next corny gag.<\/p>\n

All the predictable scenarios are packed in \u2013 like a countdown clock to doomsday and other tenets of the genre \u2013 but in the most outlandish forms. Romance also figures, with Israeli-Israeli, Israeli-American and human-machine flirting adding spice and disorientation befitting a script that seems to view no joke as too absurd if there\u2019s a chance of a laugh.<\/p>\n

For a harmless multigenerational movie night, Mossad<\/em> will deliver a few side-splitters and a lot of snickers.<\/p>\n

\u2013 PJ<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Hila Natanzon and Amir Tessler rebuild a derelict airplane in Sky Raiders.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sky Raiders<\/em><\/strong> is pure family fun. In Hebrew with English subtitles, the audience needs to be old enough to read, but not even that well, as the action is pretty easy to follow. For the parents who may have watched The Love Bug<\/em> when they were a kid, there will be a comforting sense of familiarity with Sky Raiders<\/em>, though the historic plane that gets rebuilt in this movie isn\u2019t anthropomorphized and the love story in this case is between the teens.<\/p>\n

Yotam (Amir Tessler) is the new kid at school and has trouble fitting in. When he spots Noa (Hila Natanzon) playing soccer with a group of boys, and holding her own, he is smitten. He joins the game but soon requires medical attention for an asthma attack, having left his inhaler at home, despite his over-protective mother\u2019s multiple reminders for him to take it with him; his father, a pilot, died a few years earlier in a plane crash. Noa has her own parental problems \u2013 her father, also a pilot, has dismissed her as, basically, \u201cjust a girl\u201d \u2013 and her older brother bullies her.<\/p>\n

The two teens share both the love of all things planes and flying, as well as parents who actively try to dissuade them from these loves. They find their father figure in the grumpy old man dubbed \u201cMad Morris\u201d by the local kids, who, surprise, is a really nice guy, just sad and lonely.<\/p>\n

When Yotam and Noa discover a Messerschmitt that had been left to rot in a plane cemetery, the two \u2013 with Morris\u2019s help \u2013 set to restore it. And, not only to restore it so that it can sit in a museum, but so that it can actually be flown in the upcoming annual Yom Ha\u2019atzmaut airshow.<\/p>\n

With some cheesy CGI, young love conquering all, bullies put in their place, the ostracized taking front-stage, and happy parent-child reconciliations, Sky Raiders<\/em> is Disney-esque and charming. Cue the music to swell, as the credits begin.<\/p>\n

\u2013 CR<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For tickets to the film festival, visit vjff.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Yehuda Barkan and Nitza Shaul co-star in the charming Love in Suspenders. (photo from homemcr.org\/film\/love-in-suspenders) The Vancouver Jewish Film Festival is set to go online March 4, and all the many offerings will be available until March 14. There are plenty of gems for viewers of varying tastes and ages, including a few Israeli films […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[3429,3430,3714,2280,2281],"class_list":["post-36339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-family","tag-kids","tag-seniors","tag-vancouver-jewish-film-festival","tag-vjff"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}