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The Pittsburgh Jewish Israeli Film Festival continues this weekend. A sampling of reviews:
This dark comedy is about a 63-year-old woman whose desire for control extends from beyond the grave - if her family can find a grave for her, that is.
After more than a dozen suicide attempts, a Mexican-Jewish woman named Nora succeeds in killing herself with an overdose of pills. But not before she plans everything, from the coffee and Passover dinner ingredients for her mourners to the expectation that her ex-husband, Jose (Fernando Lugan), will have to oversee her arrangements.
Jose, an atheist who has been divorced for 20 years, is angry at what he considers Nora's last calculating act and he has little time for her rabbi or his emissaries. "All religions are the same. It's all manipulation and money," he insists.
By accident and design, he learns some new truths about a chapter in Nora's life and where she will be allowed to rest in peace. It's a deft blend of tragedy and comedy about a battle of wills between a man and a woman united in love, life and death.
In Spanish and Hebrew with subtitles.
- Barbara Vancheri, PG movie editor
What's harder in a relationship - holding on or letting go? Faced with this dilemma, Zoe and Daryl decide to take days off from seeing each other rather than quitting their relationship cold turkey when they find themselves in a rut after four years of dating.
At first, the quasi breakup offers the young couple the best of both worlds. A few days a week, they reunite to bask in each other's affection. The rest of the time they are free to soak up single life in Brooklyn.
Days off from their relationship are soon tinged with jealousy and loneliness when Zoe and Daryl start seeing other people or find themselves missing the other's company. Despite longing for each other when apart, their time together remains mostly lackluster and routine. These mixed emotions lead the puzzled lovers to wonder whether they are afraid of being without one another or fearful of just simply being alone.
"Breaking Upwards," aimed at moviegoers 21 to 35 years old, is loosely based on the relationship of filmmakers Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein, who star as themselves in the movie.
With its raw look at intimacy, independence and monogamy, the film is not a typical boy-meets-girl-and-lives-happily-ever-after story. Instead, it is an 88-minute glimpse into the complexities of finding love, starting a career and navigating the relationship between parents and adult children.
- Sara Bauknecht, Post-Gazette staff writer
In the late 1930s, Hana, a beautiful and talented young Jewish actress, is making her way to the top in the world of Czechoslovakian cinema. But just as she finishes filming the movie that will make her a star, the Third Reich invades her country.
Hana is married to Emil, a non-Jewish radio journalist who tries to protect his wife against the German occupiers. We can only see it as a protective cover-up when Emil soon hosts his own radio show and becomes the voice of Nazi propaganda on the airwaves. As he grows more and more famous, however, Emil seems to lose sight of what was once his priority and, soon, his protection begins to border on imprisonment.
Jana Plodkova and Marek Daniel both shine as Hana and Emil, a couple that struggles to maintain normalcy in an increasingly dangerous situation. "Protektor" is told with stunning cinematography. To the film's classical noir style, director Marek Najbrt mixes in striking colors and fast-paced editing, to make for a visually exciting viewing experience.
In Czech with subtitles.
- Elham Khatami for the Post-Gazette
When Menne Spiegel was a young man, he fought for his homeland, Germany, in World War I and earned recognition for his bravery. Twenty-five years later, he and his wife, Marga, and daughter, Karin, found that their homeland was fighting against them.
"Saviors in the Night" is the true story of a Jewish family, the Spiegels, that found shelter and protection with German Westphalian farmers during World War II. Menne is taken in by Pentrop, a humble, hard-working farmer who also struggles to care for his dying wife. Marga and Karin live with the Aschoffs, Catholics who recently saw their eldest son off to join the Nazi army in the war.
Directed by Ludi Boeken and shot with a refreshingly raw documentary style, "Saviors" is a heart-wrenching film about the courage of non-Jewish Germans who, without hesitation, protected Jews against Hitler's army.
The film tells of conflicting loyalties in the time of war and of the possibility of friendship and understanding across vast divides. Based on Marga Spiegel's memoirs, "Saviors" is a tribute to the bravery of her saviors.
In German, French and English with subtitles.
- Elham Khatami
Yolanda Moskowitz is a retired French teacher whose solitary life is turned upside down when she tumbles down the stairs of her apartment building after dousing noisy cats outside with water. She fractures a femur and lands in a geriatric ward.
All of her control is gone as a roommate insists on opening the window above her head and a nurse ignores a plea to keep her hair dry during a shower. And yet she's smitten with a one-time soccer player who's a patient and develops a bond with others.
It's no Hallmark movie of the week. As in the real world, injuries and death intrude but Mrs. Moskowitz learns to see the world and those pesky cats in a new light.
In Hebrew with subtitles.
- Barbara Vancheri
Danielle Catanzariti just turned 18 and was three years younger when cast in this Aussie coming-of-age comedy. A look-alike for Kellie Martin back in her "Life Goes On" TV days, Ms. Catanzariti plays 13-year-old Esther, about to celebrate her bat mitzvah.
She's the twin of a brainiac boy and an outcast at her rigid all-girls school who is fascinated by a cool teen named Sunni (Keisha Castle-Hughes from "Whale Rider") she spots at a public school nearby.
They become unlikely friends and Esther masquerades as a transfer student at Sunni's school. Instead of being a weirdo and target of bullies, she's suddenly a hip insider who can and does pick on others.
Esther learns to grow up and Sunni is dealt a grave lesson about adulthood involving her mother (Toni Collette). First-timer Cathy Randall writes and directs like a veteran and brings a quirky visual style that pops and an empathy for her characters in this movie that rises above run-of-the-mill teen fare.
- Barbara Vancheri
This documentary, which spins the clock back to the FDR White House and U.S. Jewish leaders, essentially asks: "What did they know about the Holocaust and when did they know it?" Time didn't mean money, it meant millions of precious lives, including those of Anne Frank and her family.
"Against the Tide" shows the tragic price of delays, missed opportunities, anti-Semitism within the government, squabbling among Jews in the States, and, of course, the Nazi extermination plot. A 1977 interview with Zionist firebrand Peter Bergson (born Hillel Kook) provides a firsthand account but fails to allow the other side to speak in the same way - even if its stance was indefensible.
Dustin Hoffman narrates this documentary, which covers a lot of ground, almost too much, with talking heads and archival footage, stills and newspaper ads. It detours, briefly, into modern-day atrocities in Darfur but provides no background for the uninformed on that issue.
It's illuminating, although it may make you feel as if you're sitting in a darkened classroom.
- Barbara Vancheri
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