(DEAL, NJ) --The annual Axelrod Israel Film Festival opens on Sunday, July 31, 2016 at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal. In its six year, the festival features eight exceptional award-winning films from Israel and the United States, covering topics as diverse as family, the Israeli state, rock and roll, dementia, the Holocaust, hummus and marijuana. In keeping with the mission of the festival to spotlight outstanding new films created by Israeli and/or Jewish filmmakers, every film selected for this year’s festival celebrates the personal, political, and/or cultural experience of being Jewish.
Opening the festival is Natalie Portman’s much talked about “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” based on Israeli author Amos Oz’s international autobiographical best-seller about growing up in Jerusalem before the establishment of the Israeli State. Portman wrote, directed and starred in this film that Esquire called “the most revolutionary Jewish movie since ‘Schindler’s List.’” Portman, who is Israeli born, has been recognized for making “a new kind of Jewish film” available to American audience.”
The Roger Sherman documentary “In Search of Israeli Cuisine” features James Beard Award-winning chef Michael Solomonov of the famed Philadelphia restaurant Zahav as its guide and is a loving portrait of the Israeli people told through food. The film serves up a rich complex human story through its profiles of chefs, home cooks, farmers and vintners, drawn from the more than 100 cultures that make up Israeli today—Jewish, Arab, Christian, Muslim and Druze. Solomonov will be the festival’s special guest as he signs his new book “Zahav: A World of Israeili Cooking” and hosts a special Israeli food tasting on Monday August 1. The chew has been called “the genius of Jewish cooking,” and in addition to Zahav also owns Federal Donuts, Dizengoff, Abe Fisher and Percy Street Barbeque.
“Rabin: The Last Day” is director Amos Gitai’s provocative film about the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, an event that Gitai believes was a grim turning point in Israeli’s history, ending all hopes of peace in the region. The film’s point of view is that the assassination of the Prime Minister was not the act of a one fanatic but rather the culmination of a right-wing hate campaign.
“Phoenix,” directed by Christian Petzold, is a spellbinding mystery of identity of illusion about a German Jewish nightclub singer who was disfigured by a bullet in a Nazi death camp and who proceeds to undergo reconstructive surgery to emerge with a new face. Nelly walks into a dangerous game of duplicity as she tried to determine whether the man she loves is actually the one who betrayed her to the Nazis.
With all the talk of marijuana in the news these days, “Dough” has become one of the most popular Jewish-themed movies released this year. Starring Jonathan Price as the curmudgeonly widower running an understaffed, mostly unsuccessful kosher bakery in London, “Dough” tells the story of how business suddenly booms when a Muslim teenage working as a baker’s apprentice accidentally drops his stash of hash in the challah dough. Everything rises—friendships, sales and laughs. The film is a warm-hearted story about how prejudices can be overcome in unexpected places.
Starring Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau as fellow Auschwitz survivors, now in their nineties, “Remember” tells the tale of how the two embark on a cross-country odyssey to find the former Nazi responsible for ruining their lives and destroying their families. The New York Times said, “Christopher Plummer puts on a master class in acting, and his director, Atom Egoyan, delivers one in audience manipulation in “Remember,” a psychological thriller featuring that most blood-boiling of plot devices: a Nazi who escaped justice.”
The winner of a Sundance and a Jewish Film Festival awards and nominated for 11 Israeli Ophir Awards, “Restoration” is the story of a triangle of love and fatherhood ties, directed by Yossi Madmoni. Driven by character and personal motives, “Restoration” has been a critical and audience favorite. Variety called “this handsome production…superb [and] first rate.”
Directed and produced by Laura Bialis, “Rock in the Red Zone” is a powerful exploration into the lives of musicians struggling to create art on the edge of the war-torn city of Sderot, once known for its revolutionary rock scene. For thirteen years, Sderot has been the target of ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. As told by Bialis’s personal narrative, “Rock in the Red Zone” chronicles the town’s trauma and reveals the enduring spirit of the diverse musicians who live there.
The Axelrod Israel Film Festival at APAC (100 Grant Avenue, Deal Park, NJ) runs from Sunday, July 31 through Sunday, August 7 (excluding Friday and Saturday), with each of the eight films screened multiple times during the festival. Individual movie tickets for films are $10. The series pass (for all eight films plus reception) is $54 per person. The gold series pass (which includes the Israeli food tasting reception with chef Michael Solomon as well as a signed copy of this cookbook “Zahav) is $72. For the complete schedule and to purchase individual tickets or series passes, visit www.axelrodartscenter.com.
Films are also being shown at the Jewish Heritage Museum (310 Mounts Corner Drive, Freehold, NJ) and the Monroe Senior Center (12 Halsey Reed Road, Monroe). Details on the APAC website. Series pass allows entrance to films in all three locations.
