“Film. It’s what the Jews do best,” reads the homepage of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. It’s playful and quite possibly true, considering the breath of the 11-day movie event. There are documentaries and dramas, naturally, but also horror, comedy and even a screening of a reality program. Playing across Toronto starting today, the festival features entries from around the world.
Here are just some of the many noteworthy films in the expansive lineup.
CowJews and Indians: How Hitler Scared My Relatives and I Woke Up in an Iroquois Longhouse — Owing the Mohawks Rent
While the verbose title may seem a bit esoteric, this opening night documentary, grandiose in scope and incredibly idealistic, is simple and pure in heart and purpose. Marc Halberstadt tells the story of a longstanding global issue: displacement. His descendents in Germany — workers in the cattle trade, where the titular “CowJew” originates — were removed from their home, and he wants it back. Halberstadt shares his bold ideas with the audience as well as a group of Native Americans, who he describes as the rightful landlords of North America. Quixotic, smart and compelling, Halberstadt’s film is undeniably passionate and evocative.
April 11, 8:30 p.m., Bloor Cinema
Poisoned
No film festival is complete without zombies — well, that seems to be the mantra of this decade, at least. This Israeli export is a horror comedy, finding the inept-yet-charming son of a legendary military hero amid a zombie apocalypse. An army base becomes infected over Passover, and only Danny and Maya are left to fight and survive the night. Short, sweet and super bloody.
April 13, 10 p.m. Innis College
A Universal Language
Yuk Yuk’s founder Mark Breslin takes a colourful collective of Canadian comics (some Jewish, some not) over to Israel in the name of humour, understanding and compassion. This comedic pilgrimage explores the boundaries of humour and its common, uniting thread throughout the world. The film is at times funny and awkward, endearing and uncomfortable.
April 14, 8:30 p.m., Bloor Cinema
Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean
This wondrously titled 40-minute documentary follows a global collective initiative from Uganda. A country with an impoverished people, surrounded by other poor nations, Uganda relies on the export of coffee beans, the world’s second largest commodity. Full of hope and history (and narrated by the dulcet tones of Ed O’Neill), the film introduces viewers to a small village made up of Christians, Jews and Muslims, who join together to develop a sustainable and fruitful economic collective. They name it Mirembe Kawomera — delicious peace. Simple and illuminating, the enthusiasm and optimism is palpable as the co-op gains global recognition and support.
April 15, 1 p.m., ROM
Second Movement for Piano and Needlework
A beautiful, lyrical romance, this colourful entry is one of the festival’s more surprising pieces. A peculiar but curious uncertainty underscores this 50-minute film that follows a pair of strangers, one a Korean music teacher and the other a Jewish clothing designer, through their intertwining lives in São Paulo, Brazil. Music and art, culture and heritage and men and women of varying age, size, colour and sexual orientation make up this lovely, warming Brazilian film.
April 18, 3 p.m., ROM
