a Edward S. Finkelstein Harrisburg Jewish Film Festival monthly event

Israel, 2024/Drama, 99 minutes/Hebrew, w/subtitles/Written by Shlomo Efrati and Erez Tadmor/Directed by Erez Tadmor

Eva (Rotem Sela, Beauty and the Baker), a beautiful seamstress, causes quite a stir when she and her daughter move into a working-class neighborhood in Israel, 1954.   Among her suitors is the married Shalom Gottlieb (Lior Raz, Fauda), a former partisan leader and current factory foreman, who sees in Eva an unexpected chance at happiness.  But rumors of Eva’s past as a Kapo during the Holocaust shake the community, and Shalom must weigh his desire against his duty to uncover her secret, for the sake not just of his family, but of his fellow partisans as well.

Generously sponsored by Brenner Family of Dealerships

The Edward S. Finkelstein Harrisburg Jewish Film Festival 

Season Finale Mini Fest

Israel, 2023/Drama, 111 minutes/Hebrew, French, Moroccan, w/subtitles/Screenplay by Eleanor Sela & Reymonde Amsellem/Directed by Ayelet Menahemi

Marie (Reymonde Amsellem, Matchmaking, Apples from the Desert) was just two years old when her mother, who was blessed with many children, “loaned” her to her barren sister to raise as a daughter, a common custom practiced by Moroccan Jews back in the day.  

Forty years later, in 1990s Israel, Marie returns from France after a long disconnect from her family to marry her fiancé, and is walked down the aisle by both of her “mothers.”  The following day marks the beginning of the Seven Blessings tradition, a week of festive meals prepared by members of Marie’s large family in honor of the bride.  But Marie still harbors feelings of anger and pain from her puzzling childhood.  She is desperate for an apology – while her family believes that she should be the one thanking them.

Winner of 10 Israeli Film Academy awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Screenplay; Best Narrative Feature, Toronto Jewish Film Festival

A pre-recorded interview with screenwriter/actor Reymonde Amsellem will follow the screening.

The Edward S. Finkelstein Harrisburg Jewish Film Festival 

Season Finale Mini Fest

USA, 2024/Comedy, 84 minutes/English/Written by Zack Weiner and Daniel Robbins/ Directed by Daniel Robbins

Winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Bad Shabbos is the story of a newly engaged couple, David and Meg, and the Shabbos dinner where her midwestern, Catholic parents are set to meet his New York, Jewish ones for the first time.  What can we say?  It all goes terribly wrong.  A snappy, hilarious ensemble treat, starring Kyra Sedgwick as the controlling matriarch, David Paymer as the (at all costs) family protector, Cliff “Method Man” Smith as the resourceful building doorman, and an Upper West Side apartment full of other familiar faces.

The Edward S. Finkelstein Harrisburg Jewish Film Festival 

Season Finale Mini Fest

Israel, 2023/Drama, 113 minutes/Hebrew, w/subtitles/Written and Directed by Lior Chefetz

Sinai Desert, 1973. When a desolate Israeli outpost comes under siege after a surprise Egyptian attack, the surviving soldiers must choose between following their idealistic commander into a final, hopeless battle, or going along with the unit’s newly arrived doctor (Michael Aloni – Shtisel, Plan A, And Then She Arrived), whose plan may save them, but will come at a cost unfathomable to the men and all that they hold true.  Based on true events during the Yom Kippur War.

Generously sponsored by Handler, Henning, and Rosenberg

The Edward S. Finkelstein Harrisburg Jewish Film Festival 

Season Finale Mini Fest

USA, 2024/Comedy-Documentary, 80 minutes/English/Story by Joe Gallagher and Zack Weiner/Directed by Daniel Robbins

Emerging from the COVID-19 quarantine, actors and filmmaking collaborators Zack Weiner and Joe Gallagher navigate the lull in the film industry by making a film about running for city council. 

But instead of simply playing a candidate, Weiner dives head first into the role by actually running for city council in his Upper West Side New York district. Assembling an eccentric team of his young, ambitious, and creative friends—and aided by the unsolicited suggestions from his opinionated Jewish mother whom he still lives with—Weiner documents his humble journey through election season. Fiction and reality blend as the motley team ventures through public rallies, debates, and inventive community events, and even faces a major scandal that threatens to derail the whole campaign.”

The Edward S. Finkelstein Harrisburg Jewish Film Festival 

Season Finale Mini Fest

France, 2023/Drama, 93 minutes/French, with subtitles/Written by Emmanuel Salinger, borrowed from the book Dénoncer les Juifs sous l’Occupation by Laurent Joly/Directed by Philippe LeGuay

Based on a true account found in the book Dénoncer les Juifs sous l’Occupation (“Denouncing the Jews under the Occupation”), The Story of Annette Zelman channels Romeo and Juliet into Nazi-occupied Paris, 1942.  Annette is Jewish; Jean, her passionate suitor, is Catholic.  Much to the chagrin of Jean’s wealthy, well-connected, and, frankly, anti-Jewish parents, the young couple are determined to marry, and in a singular effort to save his son from what he believes will be a terrible mistake, Jean’s father reports Annette to the Gestapo, with tragic, unintended consequences for all concerned.