Although the Toronto Jewish Film Festival is about to celebrate its 25th year of showing first-rate Canadian and international movies, finding a suitable balance between showing comedies and tragedies is still a test for the team of programmers.
“Comedy is one of the hardest things to find,” admits Stuart Hands, the festival’s program director.
Many of the submitted films focus on the Holocaust or the contentious political situation in Israel-Palestine.
However, for this year’s festival – opening May 4 – there are many offbeat comedies and refreshing, feel-good stories to maintain a proper balance.
Among the 105 titles selected this year is Let Yourself Go, an Italian film about a conservative man hoping to get into shape to help attract his estranged wife, and The Pickle Recipe, an American comedy about a cash-strapped Jewish man trying to make some money by stealing his grandmother’s popular recipe.
There are even some comedies set in the Middle East. The 90 Minute War looks at an unlikely way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: a soccer game. Meanwhile, The Last Band in Lebanon focuses on Israeli reserve soldiers trying to survive the 2000 war with Lebanon after they are left behind enemy lines.
“It’s not the type of film we’ve gotten in a while,” Hands says of The Last Band in Lebanon, noting that the film was a huge hit in Israel.
Another crowd-pleasing comedy screening is the 1973 French classic The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob. A beloved satire of Arab and Jewish relationships in France, the film caused quite a stir when it was released in theatres shortly after the Yom Kippur War.
The comedy will play alongside Once Upon a Time, a 52-minute documentary about Rabbi Jacob’s production, on May 5 and 7.
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For those interested in more serious fare, the festival will open with 1945. The drama takes place in Hungary shortly after liberation from the Nazis, and focuses on two Orthodox Jews – a father and son – returning to their village and causing suspicion among the locals.
“It’s like getting the opportunity to open with something like Ida,” Hands says, referring to the Oscar-winning Polish drama. “It’s on that level of filmmaking and storytelling… and it speaks to the world today.”
The closing night film is Mandala Beats, from Canadian director Rebekah Reiko Segal. The 44-minute doc profiles Israeli musician Yossi Fine, considered the Jimi Hendrix of bass guitar, who travels to India to discover more about his ancestry.
After the film has its world premiere, Fine will perform at the festival wrap party at Lee’s Palace, a short walk from the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
Mandala Beats is also one of 12 films playing in a new series, NextGen, with stories meant to cater to adults between 18 and 35. Those within that age bracket can purchase a $50 pass and see all the films screening in the series.
Some of those options include The Last Band in Lebanon and Heather Booth: Changing the World, a documentary focusing on a famed American social activist.
The latter film, directed by Lilly Rivlin, should resonate with fiery, progressive Canadians in an age of Trump, Hands says.
“It’s a film that really speaks to America today,” he says. “[Rivlin] shows the importance of social organizers… who are out there making these protests or making these social movements, the ones behind the work who are getting down to the nuts and bolts.”
Other must-see films include The Patriarch’s Room, the new documentary from Danae Elon (P.S. Jerusalem). It examines the impact of the Greek Orthodox Church in Israel-Palestine, after the church patriarch is accused of selling church property to Israeli settlers.
“This looks at the conflict from an aspect that I don’t think anyone knew of before,” Hands says of the film, which also received the festival’s David A. Stein award.
“It’s also a fascinating film because [Elon’s] this female filmmaker entering this world completely dominated by men.
It’s an incredible investigation.”
The 25th edition will also feature a comprehensive tribute to Mordecai Richler as well as the late Gene Wilder. The Young Frankenstein star will have a double-bill in his honour on May 13, with a free screening of The Frisco Kid and the little-seen TV episode The Eternal Light: Home for Passover.
Those interested in seeing other classics should make time for My Michael and Hide and Seek, directed by famed Israeli director Dan Wolman – who will be in Toronto to present his new film, An Israeli Love Story.
Hands says the three films, set either in pre-state Palestine or Israel during the state’s nascent years, form an unofficial trilogy.
Other high-profile premieres include Beyond the Mountains and Hills, the new drama from The Band’s Visit director Eran Korilin; the Sundance hit Menashe, a Yiddish-language film about a single chassidic man in Brooklyn; and Keep Quiet, a critically-acclaimed doc about a far-right extremist in Hungary who seeks to quell his anti-Semitic views after he finds out about his Jewish heritage.
Meanwhile, the festival’s programing team has been busy putting together an online streaming service of past festival favourites. Although only five films are currently on TJFF Online, more will be added this summer.
“We’ve collected this huge archive of films,” Hands says. “We’re trying to [show] films from the past that don’t get the kind of distribution that they should.
This year’s Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from May 4 to 14 at various Toronto cinemas. Tickets are now available online at www.tjff.com, and at the in-person advance box offices at 19 Madison Ave. and at Yorkville Village.