JEWISH WANDERERS

KAŅEPES CULTURE CENTRE BEAN SCREEN 02.10 / 16:00

What does it mean to be a Jew in the 21st century? What did it mean 70 years ago? Can a Jew be a Muslim and can a concentration camp be a playground? What is Eisenstein looking for in all of that? By looking through both historical and modern lens, an attempt is made to discover problems, interesting situations or conditions people encounter among us, as well as those “wanderers”, about whose fate we tend to forget in our daily life.

AN APPEAL TO THE JEWS OF THE WORLD, documentary, USSR, 1941, 6"

In 1941, a group of the Soviet Union’s most prominent Jewish writers and artists signed an appeal to Jews throughout the world, asking them to join the Soviet people “in the holy war against Fascism... to destroy the enemy of humanity and of the Jewish people.” The group included actor Solomon Mikhoels, poet Peretz Markish and film director Sergei Eisenstein. This newsreel footage captures their eloquent, impassioned appeals. Tragically, Mikhoels and Markish later fell victim to the Stalinist purges in the 1940s and ‘50s (Eisenstein died of natural causes in the 1940s.) This film stands as an important record of how the Soviet government relaxed its ethnic policies in order to appeal to anyone who could help fight fascism and the Nazis.

PEOPLE OF FALSHMURA, Lior Sperandeo, dokumentālā filma, Izraēla, 2016, 2'30

In 1950 Israel created the "Law of Return" Which gives all Jews and spouses of Jews the right to immigrate and settle in Israel.
66 years later there is one group of Jews in Ethiopia (around 5000 families) who are waiting desperately to immigrate to Israel.
Falash-Mura is the name given to the last Jews in Ethiopia and It means: "landless, wanderers, refugees".

SAMUEL - 613, Billy Lumby, fiction, United Kingdom, 2015, 15'44

The story of Shmilu, a Hasidic Jew in crisis, torn between his community and the romantic possibilities of trendy East London.

TOYLAND, Jochen Alexander Freydank, fiction, Germany, 2007, 14"

1942: what happens when a German kid believes that his Jewish neighbors are going to Toyland? A beautiful and moving story about lies and guilt.

I'M A MITZVAH, Benjamin Berman, drama, USA, 2014, 19"

A young American man spends one last night with his deceased friend in rural Mexico. An unexpected cancellation of his flight leaves David and his deceased friend stranded in Mexico overnight. With one evening to kill, under these unique circumstances, David sets out on a night of reflection and revelry. While combating both a language barrier, as well as the bureaucratic red tape of rural Mexico, David attempts to deal with the loss of his close friend.

THE CHOP, Lewis Rose, comedy, United Kingdom, 2015, 16'45

'The Chop' is a comedy about a charismatic Kosher butcher who loses his job, cannot find work at other Kosher butchers, and therefore decides to pretend to be Muslim in order to get work at a Halal butchers.

Films will be screened in the original language with Latvian subtitles.

Curator: Laima Gražadanoviča