Currently Browsing: April 2017
On Account of a Hat. In one of Sholem Aleichem’s best–loved stories, a wheeler dealer is forever “negotiating transactions” until “one day God takes pity on him, and for the first time in his career—are you listening?—he actually works out a deal.” But on account of a hat, exhilaration turns into farce and when he […]
I am not just in love with Joseph Cedar’s new film Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, I am ensnared and somewhat obsessed. I have now seen Norman three times, first at a critic’s screening in mid-March, then at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema on opening weekend in NYC (the night […]
Spring brings two new documentary films from Israel to Chicago. One I loved. The other? No so much. So let’s start with the spinach. Mr. Gaga, which opens tonight at the Music Box Theatre on Southport, is Tomer Heymann’s new film about Ohad Naharin, the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company. Chicago has long […]
Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife recounts the efforts of Antonina Żabiński and her husband, Jan, who risked their lives during World War II to harbor Jewish refugees in the basement of their zoo during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. (EML: 3.5/5) Review by FF2 Associate Eliana M. Levenson Warsaw, Poland, pre-invasion. Happy. Simple. Unafraid. “Antonina […]
Sneak Peeks from the 2017 NY Sephardi Film Festival: Letters from Bagdad, Dimona Twist and The Women’s Balcony.