Passover Virtual Film Festival, Open to FJC Members and the Public

April 14-24: All films can be viewed during this period

FJC passcode for a discount: fjc2022

Falmouth, MA (March 31, 2022) – Falmouth Jewish Congregation will participate in the first annual virtual Passover Film Festival, presented by the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan (MMJCCM) that will stream on demand April 14–24, 2022. The festival, a partnership with organizations across the country, will offer eight Jewish and Israeli movies engaging with the themes of Passover, which begins on April 15. Films in the festival are available nationally on demand from April 14–24, 2022. Falmouth Jewish Congregation invites the community at large to participate. You can purchase tickets for individual films ($5) or for all films ($18) and get a discount with the coupon code: fjc2022. A portion of proceeds goes to the congregation. For more details and to purchase tickets or streaming passes, please visit passoverfilmfestival.com.

The films in this year’s lineup include both feature films and documentaries: The Other Story (Dir. Avi Nesher, 2019); Redemption (Dir. Joseph Madmoni and Boaz Yehonatan Yacov, 2018); Leaving Paradise (Dir. Ofer Freiman, 2021); There Are No Lions in Tel Aviv (Dir. Duki Dror, 2019); Shadow in Baghdad (Dir. Duki Dror, 2013); Rabenu (Our Rabbi) - I’m a Wonder Man (Dir. Ori Gruder, 2021); My Hero Brother (Dir. Yonatan Nir, 2019); and Yerusalem: The Incredible Story of Ethiopian Jewry (Dir. Levi Zini, 2021). “For years, we have been recommending films to incorporate into family seders to provide modern experiences for Passover,” says Isaac Zablocki, Director of the Carole Zabar Center for Film at the MMJCCM. “The messages of Passover are a rich resource, and we’re excited to present these films as a way to connect to the themes, and deepen the experience of the holiday.”

To enhance the festival experience and create space for audiences to further explore the themes of the holiday, ranging from connecting with the past, tradition, strangers in a foreign land, redemption, and miracles, the Passover Film Festival will present video conversations with the filmmakers and additional resources created by My Jewish Learning, a popular Jewish online learning resource at www.myjewishlearning.com.

The Passover Film Festival is presented with support from the Maimonides Fund. Partners of include 70 Faces Media, The Jewish Week, JCC Association of North America, the Consulate General of Israel-New York, Hadassah, and Go2Films.

Falmouth Jewish Congregation is a vibrant Reform Jewish congregation serving the Upper Cape and other communities with opportunities to connect for worship, learning, social justice and socializing. Many of its cultural and educational programs are open to the public, including this festival and its annual Summer Jewish Film Festival. Learn more at www.falmouthjewish.org and contact Pamela Rothstein, Director of Lifelong Learning, at pbrothstein@comcast.net if you want to receive event announcements.

FILMS:

 

The Other Story

Dir. Avi Nesher

(Israel, 2019, 112 min)

Renowned filmmaker Avi Nesher’s THE OTHER STORY tells a suspenseful, poignant, and humorous story through the eyes of two rebellious young women from two troubled families that tangle in the most unexpected ways in Jerusalem. As the characters’ warring personal convictions and intimate anxieties clash, the secular and religious world views they hold dear also come to embody the struggle for identity reflecting present-day Israel.

Redemption
Dir. Joseph Madmoni and Boaz Yehonatan Yacov
(Israel, 2018, 104 min)
Menachem, a former frontman for a rock band, is now religious, and a father to a six-year-old. When his daughter is diagnosed with cancer, he must find a creative solution to fund the expensive treatments. He reunites his band for one last tour. The journey to save his daughter exposes old wounds and allows him to reconnect with his secular past. Menachem understands that only a new connection to his past and to his music can pave the road to his own redemption.

Leaving Paradise
Dir. Ofer Freiman
(Israel, 2021, 86 min)
Cleo fulfilled his dream of leaving the big city with his wife and fifteen children to establish a family commune on a farm in Brazil. Exploring their family roots leads the children to discover their surprising heritage, which undermines the existence of the communal paradise.

There Are No Lions in Tel Aviv
Dir. Duki Dror
(Israel, 2019, 63 min)
In 1935, Max Shorenstein left his honorable position as chief Rabbi of Copenhagen to fulfill a longtime dream: to build a zoo in Tel Aviv and teach the local children about the love of animals. Against all odds, the Tel Aviv Zoo became the city’s greatest attraction. Yet envy, greed, and corruption had Shorenstein banished from the paradise he himself built. It is a tale of a city raised from sand to become an international, cultural, and financial hub a century later, and the price that was paid for this exponential growth.

Shadow in Baghdad
Dir. Duki Dror
(Israel, 2013, 70 min)
A young Iraqi journalist researches a story on Linda Abdul Aziz, a young woman who escaped to Israel in the early 1970s after her father was kidnapped in Baghdad. This film has a strong audience beyond Israeli borders and into the Arab world, sparking a rare debate in Iraq, and in the Jewish and non-Jewish Iraqi diaspora.

Rabenu (Our Rabbi) – I’m a Wonder Man
Dir. Ori Gruder
(Israel, 2021, 90 min)
How did a controversial rabbi who passed away more than 200 years ago become the most influential figure on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews? How did a small cult of persecuted devotees who were nicknamed “The Dead Hasidim” become the biggest spiritual movement in Judaism today? “Rabenu (Our Rabbi)” delves into the most fascinating phenomenon in the Jewish world in the past decades: From the jumpers in the streets, the celebrities, Mizrahi & Ashkenazi Jews, intellectuals and hipsters, ultra-Orthodox Jews, to the dangerous criminals, all brought together by one Jewish man simply referred to as Rabenu—that man is Rebbe Nachman of Breslow. In a special and surprising contemporary cinematic language, "Rabenu" brings to the screen the magic of one of Judaism's most mysterious Hasidic rabbis.

My Hero Brother
Dir. Yonatan Nir
(Israel, 2019, 78 min)
A group of remarkable young people with Down syndrome embark on a demanding trek through the Indian Himalayas, accompanied by their siblings. Unresolved conflicts and the complexities of growing up with a Down syndrome sibling come to surface, as they deal with formidable physical and emotional challenges.

Yerusalem: The Incredible Story of Ethiopian Jewry
Dir. Levi Zini
(Israel, 2021, 90 min)
This new feature documentary brings to life the story of a long, dramatic, and tumultuous journey as the Jewish Ethiopian community, also known as “Beta-Israel,” finally find their way back after centuries. Yerusalem is the story of an isolated Jewish tribe who kept its faith for thousands of years even though they lived in a hostile Christian environment. This is the story of ancient Jewish traditions, of heroic actions, and daring covert operations. But mainly, this is the story of a powerful religious yearning that has been passed down from father to son for countless generations. International news headlines cried out "Rescue of the Lost Tribe" in January 1985 when the airlift known as "Operation Moses" was revealed.Israeli Mossad, the US administration, and world Jewry collaborated to rescue thousands of Ethiopian Jews from the hellhole refugee camps in Sudan. This film tells the complex story of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel who were required to prove their Jewishness and fight for their legitimate place in Israeli society.