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January 31, 2003/Shevat 28 5763, Vol. 55, No. 23
Film festival shares universal tales
ALISA SLOAN
Special Sections Editor
Even acclaimed international films from Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Israel and the United States will be featured in the seventh annual Phoenix Jewish Film Festival Feb. 15-20.
More than 2,600 people attended last year's festival, which has grown from only two participating synagogues in 1996 (Beth El Congregation and Temple Chai) to a communitywide event.
Co-sponsors include several Valley synagogues, The Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, The Jewish Studies Program at Arizona State University and The Sylvia Plotkin Judaica Museum of Temple Beth Israel.
A special dessert buffet and screening of the film "Komediant" will be held 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, at Temple Beth Israel to celebrate the opening of the festival. Yiddish entertainer Lillian Lux Burstein, star of "Komediant," will discuss Yiddish theater.
Tickets are $25 and limited to 300.
Call 480-451-1788.
Exclusive engagement:
"Komediant"
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15
Temple Beth Israel, 10460 N. 56th St., Scottsdale
A portrait of the famous Burstein Family, a Yiddish vaudeville troupe, "Komediant" depicts the history of Yiddish theatre from Europe, Israel and South America to New York City's Second Avenue. Interviews with the family, Fyvush Finkel and other Yiddish stage stars are featured, as are rare clips from dramatic films, musicals and family home movies.
Daily film schedule:
"All My Loved Ones"
2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16
Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale
Matej Minac's "All My Loved Ones" is the true story of one of 669 Czech Jewish children saved from the Nazis by English stockbroker Nicholas Winton.
Winton's heroic deeds were secret for nearly 50 years, until a chance discovery by his wife Greta.
Now 93 and known as "Britain's Schindler," Winton was recently knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
A taped talk by Minac will follow the film and Fred Linch, film expert and member of the Phoenix Jewish Film Festival committee, will lead the discussion.
"I'm Alive and I Love You"
7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16
Harkins Camelview 5, 7001 E. Highland Ave., Scottsdale
In Nazi-occupied France, Julien, a railroad worker, finds a scrap of paper under the carriage of a boxcar that deports Jews to death camps. Written on the scrap are the words "I'm alive and I love you."
Compelled by the inscription, Julien follows the address to find the elderly parents of Sarah, the note's author, and her 4-year-old son.
Francie Noyes, former press secretary for Gov. Jane Hull and current media direc- tor for the Translational Genomics Research Institute, will lead the discussion.
"Divided We Fall"
7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 17
Harkins Camelview 5
In "Divided We Fall," a childless Czech couple, Joseph and Marie, find their former Jewish neighbor, David, hiding in his old villa, having escaped from Theresiendstadt concentration camp. They create a hideout for him in their basement, but soon after, their best friend Horst, a Nazi collaborator, develops a lascivious interest in Marie.
The solution for all their troubles is at once comedic, poignant and life-affirming.
Rabbi Barton Lee, director of the Hillel Jewish Student Center at Arizona State University, will lead the discussion.
"Yellow Asphalt: Three Desert Stories"
7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18
Harkins Camelview 5
In this film, three dramatic encounters depict Western culture pushing its way into the Bedouin-inhabited Judean desert. The stories remind how close relationships can be between two divergent cultures that share the same land.
Professors Ruthy Stiftel and Shai Goldberg, of the Jewish Studies Department at Arizona State University, will lead the discussion.
"Gloomy Sunday"
7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19
Harkins Camelview 5
Hans, an elegant old German celebrating his 80th birthday, collapses and dies while listening to an old song - "Gloomy Sunday" - played in his honor. Sixty years earlier we meet Hans again. A piano player, he is a regular at a restaurant owned by Laszlo Szabo, a Jew, and his lover Ilona, who falls in love with Hans.
The historical background and the haunting melody of the song play an integral part in the fate of the love triangle. Discussion leader to be announced.
"The Believer"
7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20
Harkins Camelview 5
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival in 2001, "The Believer" is a provocative and true story that shatters the foundation of a young man's cultural and religious upbringing.
The story follows a young man as he makes a dramatic transition from fervent Jewish religious student to rising star in a neofascist political movement.
Professor Norbert Samuelson, chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at ASU and an internationally known scholar of Jewish philosophy, will lead the discussion.
Contact the writer at alisa_sloan@jewishaz.com.
Tickets are $8 per film; $5 students.
Tickets for the Sunday matinee of "All My Loved Ones" are $5.
For VISA or Mastercard orders call 602-971-4832 ($16 minimum order). For all telephone, mail order and credit card orders, there is a $1 service charge.
For more information, visit www.phxjewishfilm.org.
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