Diane Kruger in a scene from ‘In the Fade.’ (Screenshot from YouTube)
LOS ANGELES — With the Academy Awards on the horizon, there is no shortage of high-quality films to see in theaters and on the small screen.
Here are five of the best Jewish-themed ones to watch this awards season, from Oscar contenders to short gems.
‘Foxtrot’
Directed by Samuel Maoz and starring Lior Ashkenazi and Sarah Adler, “Foxtrot” is a wrenching film about an array of dark topics: parental grief after the death of a soldier son, the joys and stresses of marriage, and the boredom of army life.
But it is also about Israeli control of the West Bank and how, in the filmmaker’s view, Israel’s occupation humiliates the occupied and hardens the occupier.
It was named the second-best film at the Venice International Film Festival, won best film at Israel’s Ophir Awards and shortlisted for the Academy Award for best foreign language film (it wasn’t nominated).
The film has come under fire from Miri Regev, Israel’s minister of culture and sports.
“It is inconceivable,” she declared publicly, “that movies which shame the reputation of the Israel Defense Forces . . . and that are supported [financially] by the state . . . are selected to showcase Israel cinema abroad.”
Maoz did not directly address Regev’s criticism, but said, “When my brothers are dying, I have the right to make such a movie.”
“Foxtrot” will open in US theaters and is screening on Feb. 3 at Alamao Drafthouse West Colfax, hosted by Denver Jewish Film Festival.
‘In the Fade’
Germany’s “In the Fade” dramatizes the rise of neo-Nazism in the country over the past few years through the murder of a Kurdish man and his small son by a neo-Nazi couple.
The neo-Nazi theme is timely in light of the rise of the far right in Europe and, as demonstrated by the white supremacist rally last summer in Charlottesville, Va., in the US.
Director Fatih Akin, a German of Turkish descent, attributes Germany’s growing neo-Nazi sentiment largely to hostility to the large number of refugees, mainly from Muslim countries, who have been admitted into Germany.
“The new neo-Nazis are different from those of the 1980s and ‘90s,” he told JTA.
“Then they were outcasts and easily recognizable as skinheads. Today’s neo-Nazis are still criminals, but they look like everybody else.”
“In the Fade” won a Golden Globe for best foreign film and was shortlisted for the Oscar for best foreign language film (it wasn’t nominated). It’s out now in US theaters in a limited release.
‘In the Land of Pomegranates’
In Hebrew, the word for pomegranate has a double meaning: It can mean either the fruit that symbolizes rebirth or a hand grenade.
The documentary “In the Land of Pomegranates,” directed by Israeli Hava Kohav Beller, wrestles with these conflicting meanings as it explores the chasm between the ways that young Israelis and Palestinians think about each other.
The film follows young men and women who have been brought together in a scenic German town for a program called “Vacation from War.”
They live under the same roof, go on joint excursions in the lovely countryside, take a riverboat cruise and argue earnestly for hours on end.
The program started in 2002 and, as one of the organizers put it, “Our goal is not to make participants love each other. If only five people change their attitudes . . . that’s progress.”
Even this modest goal seems unreachable in the film, although it inadvertently clarifies why decades of peacemaking efforts have proven largely fruitless. Most of the arguments are on the level of “Hamas is a terrorist organization,” as an Israeli participant charges, to which the Palestinian response is, “We are just trying to get back the land you took from us.”
However, the largely pessimistic view is brightened by a couple of episodes that bridge the conflicts. One scene shows Palestinians dancing the dabke and Israelis dancing the hora — and both performances are almost identical.
“In the Land of Pomegranates” will open in US theaters in February and March.
‘The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm’
How does one teach very young children about the Holocaust? An upcoming HBO short documentary, slated to premiere on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, attempts to provide a model for that daunting task.
In “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm,” Holocaust survivor Jack Feldman and his American-born great-grandson Elliott bond as the 10-year-old (he’s now 12) prompts his ancestor to speak about his Holocaust experiences.
Feldman emigrated after the war and settled in Rochester, NY where he opened a fish market. He ran the business successfully, though with one quirk. As an African-American customer notes, “Jack has known what hunger is, so he gives free fish to a customer too poor to pay.”
Veteran documentary filmmaker Amy Schatz was attracted to the project because, she said, there is hardly any material on the Holocaust suitable for children. Her goal was to transmit the survivor’s experience “gently and with clarity.”
Catch the short on HBO on Jan. 27.
‘116 Cameras’
“116 Cameras,” shortlisted for the Oscar for best short documentary, gives a behind-the-scenes look into the filming of a Holocaust survivor’s testimony.
It shows how filmmakers preserve the memories of Eva Schloss, Anne Frank’s surviving stepsister, in the form of an interactive, 3-D, holographic image (see story, page 1). The project was a product of Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation at USC. The film is available on The New York Times website.
