10 films to see at the 2016 UK Jew­ish Film Festival

With a total of 80 movies show­ing at this year’s UK Inter­na­tion­al Jew­ish Film Fes­ti­val you might find it a hard task sim­ply choos­ing what to see. For­tu­nate­ly, we’ve put togeth­er a list of 10 gems screen­ing dur­ing the fes­ti­val, which runs 5 – 20 Novem­ber at venues across the UK, show­cas­ing a wide vari­ety of new fea­tures, doc­u­men­taries and shorts.

Already mak­ing a splash as the first Ethiopi­an film to be select­ed for the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, Lamb is a beau­ti­ful sto­ry about the emo­tion­al con­nec­tion between a boy and his pet lamb. When Ephraim’s (Redi­at Amare) moth­er dies and his father needs to find work he is sent to live with rel­a­tives on their farm­land. Here he forms a friend­ship with a lamb, only to be told by his uncle that it will need to be sac­ri­ficed for a reli­gious feast. Direc­tor Yared Zeleke’s insight­ful look into the cul­ture of his home­land is well worth catch­ing. Book tick­ets

Here’s the sto­ry of Hun­gar­i­an politi­cian Czanad Szege­di, an anti­semite and Holo­caust denier who became the Vice Pres­i­dent of Job­bik, Hungary’s far-right par­ty. After dis­cov­er­ing his grand­par­ents were in fact Jew­ish and his grand­moth­er a Holo­caust sur­vivor, he looks to bet­ter him­self and learn and under­stand his new­found reli­gion. Direc­tors Sam Blair and Joseph Mar­tin made this doc­u­men­tary over the three years Szege­di spent chang­ing his ways. But it rais­es the ques­tion: does he actu­al­ly hold any guilt or is it all an act? Book tick­ets

Can a joke be made about one of the worst events in his­to­ry? Direc­tor Ferne Pearl­stein asks the ques­tion in her new doc­u­men­tary, The Last Laugh. Fea­tur­ing the likes of Mel Brooks, Gilbert Got­tfried and Sacha Baron Cohen, the film exam­ines the dif­fer­ent ways come­di­ans have used con­tro­ver­sial jokes to dis­cuss the Holo­caust and anti­semitism. Also fea­tur­ing Holo­caust sur­vivors giv­ing their feel­ings on the sub­ject, Pearlstein’s thought-pro­vok­ing film rais­es ques­tions about the bound­aries of com­e­dy and how audi­ences can be offend­ed in dif­fer­ent ways. Book tick­ets

Well-received at this year’s Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, this is a heart wrench­ing film with a humor­ous edge from first-time direc­tor Asaph Polan­sky. Fol­low­ing the shi­va (a week of mourn­ing after the funer­al) of their only son, par­ents Eyal and Vicky strug­gle to return to their dai­ly lives. Vicky sticks to her rou­tine where as Eyal decides to get high with the neighbour’s son using his son’s med­ical cannabis. Per­fect if you like your ston­er movies to come with plen­ty of heart. Book tick­ets

This doc­u­men­tary focus­es on the writer and film­mak­er Nora Ephron (When Har­ry met Sal­ly…) who sad­ly passed away in 2012. Direct­ed by her son, Jacob Bern­stein, it chron­i­cles his mother’s life and the way in which she made her movies and writ­ings deeply per­son­al, while also shed­ding new light on Ephron her­self. A love­ly trib­ute and an excel­lent intro­duc­tion for any­one not so famil­iar with Ephron’s work. Book tick­ets

With three awards from the Ophir Awards (the Israeli equiv­a­lent of the Oscars) includ­ing Best Pic­ture, Baba Joon is a mov­ing sto­ry about chang­ing tra­di­tions with­in fam­i­lies. The son of a turkey farmer has a pas­sion for motor cars and build­ing them but his father wants him to work on the farm like his father made him. When the young boy’s uncle vis­its from Amer­i­ca and encour­ages him to pur­sue his dream, the father-son rela­tion­ship is shak­en. A semi-auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal com­ing-of-age sto­ry by first-time direc­tor Yuval Delshad, this one is sure to tug on the heart strings. Book tick­ets

Leonard Nimoy will be remem­bered for his por­tray­al as the half human/​half vul­can Spock from the Star Trek series. Direct­ed by Nimoy’s son, Adam, this film arrives at the per­fect time, with Star Trek cel­e­brat­ing its 50^th anniver­sary this year. It focus­es on the ear­ly part of Nimoy’s career and sub­se­quent suc­cess of the orig­i­nal Star Trek series. With trib­utes from for­mer cast mem­bers and the team behind the recent Star Trek movies, this inti­mate doc­u­men­tary shows how Nimoy helped cre­ate a time­less char­ac­ter that con­tin­ues to inspire. Book tick­ets

On the eve of the US Pres­i­den­tial Elec­tion, the UKJFF will present a col­lec­tion of films focus­ing on Amer­i­can pol­i­tics, and what bet­ter way to start then with Mike Nichols’ hilar­i­ous 1998 film. Set in 1992 and ​“not” based on the Clin­tons, it fol­lows the Stan­tons (John Tra­vol­ta and Emma Thomp­son) as they embark on a cam­paign trail around Amer­i­ca. If you’re look­ing to get in the mood for one of the cra­zi­est elec­tions in recent years, make sure to catch this sharp polit­i­cal satire. Book tick­ets

A pow­er­ful sports doc­u­men­tary show­ing how one of the biggest foot­ball teams in Israel, Beitar Yerusha­lay­im, became a mag­net for xeno­pho­bia and racism. A fan­base con­sist­ing of Jews orig­i­nat­ing from Arab coun­tries, the sign­ing of two Mus­lim play­ers from Chech­nya caused unrest and hatred to devel­op. From shout­ing racist slurs at the two play­ers to boo­ing the team as they emerged from the tun­nel, For­ev­er Pure is an insight look at the con­nec­tion between foot­ball, pol­i­tics and mon­ey. Book tick­ets

After serv­ing for 27 years, Lieu­tenant Colonel David Green­baum is dis­charged and heads home to his fam­i­ly. Feel­ing more like an out­sider than a fam­i­ly man, Green­baum tries work­ing as a sales­man but things don’t turn out quite how he want­ed them to. This third film by direc­tor Élan Koll­rin was nom­i­nat­ed in the Un Cer­tain Regard prize in Cannes. A com­pelling fam­i­ly dra­ma show­ing a fam­i­ly going through a cri­sis. Book tick­ets

The 20^th UK Inter­na­tion­al Jew­ish Film Fes­ti­val runs 5 – 20 Novem­ber. Check out the full pro­gramme at ukjew​ish​film​.org