UK Jewish Film Festival to screen RABIES, Israel’s first ever horror film – Check out the trailer here

2011 UK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL: November 1-20

OPENING NIGHT GALA FILM:

‘THIS MUST BE THE PLACE’

starring Sean Penn, Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch.  Directed by Paolo Sorrentino

Tuesday November 1^st, 7pm, Odeon West End

Tickets: £65 (VIP); £20 www.ukjewishfilm.org/tickets 020 3176 0048

Sean Penn in ‘This Must Be The Place’

‘THIS MUST BE THE PLACE’ premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and stars Sean Penn as an ageing rock star who decides to find his father’s tormentor, an ex-Nazi war criminal who’s living somewhere in the US.  Paolo Sorrentino (‘Il Divo’) directs, stars include Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch, and newcomer Eve Hewson.

“Sean Penn is undoubtedly funny as Cheyenne, still in the Robert Smith Cure get-up after all these years, the only concession to middle age being the reading glasses on a chain around his neck. His quavery campy voice is Truman Capote meets Boy George meets Quentin Crisp. He is living on his royalties in a mansion, watching Jamie Oliver on the TV and wondering whether to sell his Tesco shares. For all Brits, the sound of “Tesco” on Sean Penn’s lips is a surreal joy. He has a rather Stella Street-ish existence, walking through the town with his trolley for the weekly shop, and blandly accepting the double-takes and stares. His American wife (Frances McDormand) is contentedly employed as a firefighter in Dublin…” (Guardian)

15^th Festival…70 feature films, shorts, documentaries…13 venues…award winning titles from the UK, Israel, USA, Poland,
Russia, Canada, Czech Republic, France and more…

THE 2011 UK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL is set to burst onto London screens from November 1^st to 20^th with a dynamic programme of 70 international features, documentaries, TV specials and short films, made by filmmakers worldwide.   The UKJFF provides an unrivalled showcase for works on Jewish themes by filmmakers of all backgrounds and nationalities and has grown exponentially since Executive Director Judy Ironside founded the festival in 1997 as the Brighton Jewish Film Festival.  Since then, the UKJFF has consistently punched above its weight in its selection of films, its support of filmmakers and its extra-curricular activities such as national film tours, interfaith screenings, emerging filmmaker workshops, talks and discussions.

www.ukjewishfilmfestival.org.uk

UKJFF Executive Director, Judy Ironside
(photo Cary Hammond)

“I’m very excited about this year’s Festival,” says Judy Ironside.  “It’s our aim to provide great entertainment for a wide audience in tandem with showing work that promotes respect, understanding and communication between communities of all backgrounds,
ages and cultures.  There’s a huge range of excellent work on offer and we’ll be staging some very interesting Q&A events.”

UK JFF – HOT PICKS:

Tuesday 1 November Odeon West End 7pm – ‘THIS MUST BE THE PLACE’
Premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival starring Sean Penn, Frances McDormand and Judd Hirsch; Directed by Paolo Sorrentino (‘Il Divo’).

Saturday 5 November Tricycle 7.30pm – ‘FOOTNOTE’ 
Best Screenplay Award/Cannes 2011.  Tragicomic drama about a power struggle between a father and his son within the Talmud department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Sunday 6 November Tricycle 8.30pm – ‘LIPSTIKKA’
Two Palestinian teenage girls sneak into the Jewish part of Jerusalem to see a film but what begins as a youthful prank develops into a twisted set of events.  Official Competition Berlin International Film Festival.

Sunday 6 November Everyman Hampstead 8pm – ‘MAHLER ON THE COUCH’
Written and directed by German father and son team, Percy (‘Bagdad Cafe’) and Felix Adlon, this is a witty examination of Gustav Mahler’s relationship with his tempestuous wife, Alma, and his search for advice from Sigmund Freud.  Naturally features a top notch Mahler score.

Tuesday 8 November Odeon Swiss Cottage 7.30pm – ‘THE DREAMERS’
Two orthodox women break away from their closed society, rabbinical censorship and a cloistered existence…to make movies

Tuesday 8 November Tricycle 7pm – ‘MORDECHAI RICHLER – LAST OF THE WILD JEWS’
Unmissable documentary about Canadian Jewish author Mordechai Richler (1931-2001) whose angry, intellectual works formed part of a Jewish cultural explosion in the 20^th century.  The UKJFF will screen ‘The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz’, (1974), an adaptation of Richler’s 1959 novel November 8^th/Tricycle and ‘Barney’s Version’ (2010) November 9^th/Swiss Cottage Odeon.

Wednesday 9 November Tricycle 7pm – ‘CRIME AFTER CRIME’ A gripping documentary about the battle to free Deborah Peagler who spent 26 years in prison for her connection to the murder of the man who brutally abused her.  Debbie’s story takes an unexpected turn when a pair of novice attorneys, (one of whom is an Orthodox Jew), decide to take up her case…and, in the process, cause a legal meltdown…

T
hursday 10 November Tricycle 8.45pm – ‘SALSA TEL AVIV’  Vicky is a talented Mexican salsa dancer and single mother who decides to journey to Israel, disguised as a nun, to join her ex-husband.  En route the disguised nun meets handsome, brainy, engaged Yoni…

Thursday 10 November Tricycle 7pm/Sunday 13 November Odeon Woodford 4.30pm – ‘DAVID’
Daud, a young religious Muslim boy befriends a group of Jewish boys who assume he’s one of them and a genuine bond of friendship is formed…until Daud’s true identity is discovered…

Saturday 12 November Tricycle 9.30pm – ‘HOW TO RE-ESTABLISH A VODKA EMPIRE’  British director Dan Edelstyn discovers – through reading the diaries of his Jewish grandmother – that his great grandfather’s Ukrainian vodka factory still exists.  He decides to import its high quality vodka to the UK, and, in doing so, discovers much about his roots.

Saturday 12 November Coronet 10pm/Thursday 17 November PeckhamPlex 8.30pm – ‘RABIES’
Israel’s first ever horror flick!  ‘Rabies’ was a big hit at this year’s Film 4 FrightFest:  “Keshales and Papushado have mixed such disparate ideas of political satire, slasher-horror and sexual politics together to create something incredibly entertaining…”

Sunday 13 November Tricycle 6.30pm – ‘CHARIOTS OF FIRE’
A special gala screening of the multi-Oscar winning 1981 film with director Hugh Hudson in attendance.

Sunday 13 November BFI Southbank 2pm – ‘MARY LOU’
Meir, a young gay man, travels to Tel Aviv to find his long-lost mother and becomes a popular drag queen in the process. This highly entertaining musical won the equivalent of the Israeli Emmy in 2010.

Monday 14 November Everyman Hampstead 6.30pm – ‘DIARY’
The late Brazilian-born Israeli filmmaker, David Perlov, became internationally famous for his Cinematic Essays and, above all, for his film ‘Diary’, the visual account of his own life which he shot on 16mm 1973-83. 

Tuesday 15 November Tricycle 7pm – ‘THE HANGMAN’
Nazi and Holocaust organiser, Adolf Eichmann, was hanged in Israel’s only execution in 1962.  Hangman Shalom Nagar kept his own identity secret for more than 30 years…

Thursday 17 November Tricycle – ‘THE RESTORATION’
This beautifully shot Israeli drama centres around a failing antique furniture restoration shop, complicated family relationships…and a Steinway piano….There will be a Q&A with actor Sasson Gabbai.

Saturday 19 November Tricycle 9pm – ‘THE OFFICE
Israel’s hilarious take on the classic British TV series.

Sunday 20 November Tricycle closing night Gala 8pm – ‘INTIMATE GRAMMAR’
With his bar mitzvah on the horizon, Aharon, a sensitive, lonely 13-year old boy, whose romantic ideals are at odds with everyone around him, dreads being initiated into an adult world.  Nir Bergman’s film adaptation of David Grossman’s novel, won the Best Feature Film Award at Jerusalem 2010 and the Sakura Grand Prix at Tokyo 2010.