The 7th Geneva International Jewish Film Festival
by Sarah Scaddan
The 7th Geneva International Jewish Film Festival is soon to open its doors, giving the Geneva public the opportunity to view an excellent selection of films focusing on Jewish themes and culture.
The festival runs from Wednesday 29th March until Sunday 2nd April 2017 and all films will be screened at either Ciné 17 or Cinerama Empire in central Geneva. For a full programme of films and to buy tickets visit the website.
Here are some HIGHLIGHTS of this year’s festival:
The Opening Film – Wednesday 29th March
The opening film of the Geneva International Jewish Film Festival is the Swiss premiere of DENIAL. Starring Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall, Denial is a gripping drama, nominated as best British film at the BAFTA awards this year. Deborah Lipstadt (Weisz) is an American professor of Holocaust studies whose speaking engagement is disrupted by David Irving (Spall), a Nazi Germany scholar. He files a libel lawsuit against her and her publisher for declaring him a Holocaust denier in her books. Deborah E. Lipstadt is required to prove not only her innocence but also that the Holocaust in fact happened. The film screens at 8.30pm at Cinerama Empire in English with French subtitles.
Saturday 1st April – The Kind Words
When Yona, the family matriarch, dies suddenly, her three grown-up children stumble upon a dark family secret that changes everything they ever knew about their parents, and themselves. The Kind Words tells a sweeping story of familial love and betrayal, with just the right amount of vintage Eurovision fun. By celebrated Israeli filmmaker Shemi Zarhin. Directly after the film is a Q&A session with the lead actress, Rotem Zissman Cohen. The Kind Words is in French and Hebrew with English and French subtitles and will be screened at 9pm at Cinerama Empire.
Sunday 2nd April – Full Day of Screenings
On Sunday 2nd April there is a entire day of screenings at Ciné 17, kicking off with comedy The Pickle Recipe at 11am. The story: a DJ on the Jewish Scene in Detroit is desperate for money so steals his grandmother’s secret pickle recipe, with hilarious consequences. At 1pm you can view Keep Quiet, the remarkable biographical documentary film about Hungarian politician Csanád Szegedi, a vocal anti-Semitic and holocaust denier who discovers he is in fact Jewish. The fifth film of the day, and closing the festival is the powerful and profound tale Indignation. Set in the 1950’s, a son of a kosher butcher from Newark wins a scholarship at a prestigious university in mid-West America. He is a very ambitious, focused student until he is completely unexpectedly swept off his feet by a fellow student from a very different background. Their love affair changes the course of their lives. The Pickle Recipe and Indignation are in English with French subtitles, Keep Quiet is in English and Hungarian with English and French subtitles.
The Geneva International Film Festival is organized by UK Jewish Film and annual festivals take place in the UK, Geneva and Zurich. For its seventh year the Geneva Jewish International Film Festival will be presenting a special screening for schools, free of charge, followed by discussion, which provides an opportunity to learn about the Holocaust and other genocides, and to relate this knowledge to the students’ own lives and to contemporary events.
Tickets are selling out fast, book your tickets.