Currently Browsing: June 2015

A BORROWED IDENTITY

Palestinian prodigy receives a scholarship to attend a prestigious high school in Jerusalem. Consequences are highly specific but also universal. A Borrowed Identity appears in American theatres in the midst of an acrimonious, contentious, and long overdue conversation about “privilege.” Hopefully, many Americans now understand that part of “privilege” is the ability to close your eyes to […]

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TUVIA VE’SHEVA BENOTAV

There is a good reason why Tuvia Vesheva Benotav (the Israeli version of Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye stories) is rarely seen. It doesn’t deserve to be. Although of great historical interest to Fiddler Fanatics like me, it is objectively awful and best kept apocryphal. All too often, I sit in a movie theatre and ask myself: “What […]

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CHAGALL-MALEVICH

A live-action children’s storybook from Russia, and a storybook for very young children at that. Directed by Aleksandr Mitta. Screenplay by Mitta in collaboration with Kristina Schneidermann who also co-stars as “Bella Rosenberg Chagall.” (JLH: 2/5) ************************* Aleksandr Mitta’s new film Chagall-Malevich is like a live-action children’s storybook, and a storybook for very young children at that. So […]

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