2015 Films | HKJFF

The 2015 festival theme is Resilience.

Though there were several close contenders for a theme this year, in the end we picked Resilience. So many of our films have strong protagonists who take fate into their own hands, acting wisely in the face of adversity and making tough decisions that affect their world, and at times the course of history itself. The ability to overcome challenges while turning misfortune into success is something we can all aspire to…

Our film trailers & synopses are shown below in alphabetical order.
Click on our Hot Pink buttons to book your ticket. Clicking will take you to the Asia Society Hong Kong Center website to make your purchase – read more about the process here
Opening night – Film and Dessert: $380 per ticket and $350 for students/seniors
Fauda screen-a-thon: $200 per ticket and $180 for Students/seniors (per night – includes 6 episodes per night 1-6 & 7-12)
All other times: $90 per ticket, $80 for students/seniors
Download our form here only if ordering large quantities for multiple films

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Tuesday, 17 November: 8:10-9:55pm: Buy now

Eyad, a talented Palestinian Israeli boy, is given the chance to attend a prestigious Jewish boarding school in Jerusalem. As he struggles with the language and culture and desperately tries to fit in with his Jewish classmates, Eyad realizes that in order to be accepted as an equal and in order to allay people’s suspicions he has to make personal sacrifices.

Through the journey of one young man, this coming of age story sensitively examines the complex interrelated identities of Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, two peoples divided by a shared culture.

NOMINATIONS:
Israeli Film Academy: Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Sound

REVIEWS:
“As usual for a Riklis film, actors are all perfectly cast and the production values are high.” – The Hollywood Reporter

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Sunday, 15 November: 3:35-5:10pm: Buy now

The rebellious teenage daughter of ultra-Orthodox Jewish parents journeys into the secular world in Apples from the Desert, a successful adaptation of an award-winning Israeli play that poignantly explores themes of love and reconciliation.

AWARDS:
The 28th Israel film festival: Best Feature Film
Audience Choice Award: Haifa International Film Festival
San Diego JFF 2015 – Special Jury Award Winner
Atlanta JFF 2015 – Winner of Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature

PRESS:
‘Apples from the Desert’ a peach of a movie – Sheryl Rowling San Diego Jewish World

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Following the film there will be a Q & A with an ex‐IDF soldier Hadar Shabat

Sunday, 15 November: 2:00-3:20pm: Buy now

A coming-of-age story that follows the journey of five Israeli high school graduates who are drafted into the army to defend their country, Beneath the Helmet illustrates how these young men and women are defending not only their homes, but also the values of peace, equality, opportunity, democracy, religious tolerance and women’s rights.

At the age of 18, away from their homes, families and friends, these young individuals undergo a demanding, inspiring journey, revealing the core of who they are and who they want to be.

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MATINEE, Tuesday, 17 November: 11:30-12:40pm: Buy now

Israeli beauty queen Linor Abargil was abducted and raped in Milan two months before being crowned Miss World in 1998. Ten years later, she resolved to confront her past and returns to Italy to find the prosecutor who collaborated with Israeli authorities to arrest the serial rapist.

Now a globe-trotting victims advocate, Linor encourages others to stand against sexual violence by putting an end to their silence.

Abargil’s progression from rape victim to empowered activist/attorney, and her journey of becoming more religously observant, is moving and brave in this uplifting documentary. Linor is an unforgettable heroine.

AWARDS:
Chicago International Film Festival: Audience Choice Award 2013

NOMINATIONS:
Primetime Emmy Awards: Exceptional Merit in Documentary Film-making

PRESS:
“The essential documentary of 2014.” – Mark Warren, Executive Editor, Esquire
“Impassioned and inspiring.” – LA Times
“The coming together of two remarkable women, Linor and documentary filmmaker Cecilia Peck.” – Amy Goodman, Democracy Now.

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DOUBLE FEATURE, Sunday, 15 November: 5:25-6:50pm
Screened as a single purchase with Forgers of History

Israel is under assault on North American college campuses today, as never before. Anti-Israel activities to alienate, demonize, and delegitimize Israel are increasingly crossing the line into anti-Semitism, in the form of hate speech, harassment and intimidation.

Crossing the Line 2: The New Face of Anti-Semitism on Campus is a new documentary that reveals the rise of anti-Israel activity and anti-Semitic rhetoric on North American university campuses, and demonstrates when reasonable criticism of Israel ‘Crosses the Line’.

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Wednesday, 18 November: 8:50-10:25pm: Buy now

Thirteen-year-old Aharon Ninio, an only child, is determined to win the honour of carrying the Torah scrolls on the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah. The belief that he who carries the Torah may ask God for anything on behalf of others can elevate Aharon’s status in his neighbourhood and win his distant father’s love and approval. But his selection causes age-old tensions between his parents to surface, and on the night of the ceremony the symbolic happy ritual becomes a life-threatening struggle.

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DOUBLE FEATURE with Jewish Identity in France, Monday, 16 November: 7:00-8:45pm
Screened as a single purchase with Jewish Identity in France:

Who are the Jews? And what do they look like? This documentary, set in contemporary Spain, unravels the history and mutations of Judeophobia, from the Christian denunciation until the emergence of the modern State of Israel. The ignorance and rejection of Judaism are still present in many sectors of our society. The Estigma proposes to challenge key ideas inherited from centuries of misunderstanding and intolerance that deserve to be rethought. A timely film about a very relevant topic.

AWARDS:
Audience Award – Punta del Este Jewish Film Festival, 2015

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Monday, 16 November, 9:00-11:00pm: Buy now

Residents of a retirement home build a machine for self-euthanasia in order to help their terminally ill friend, though they are faced with a series of dilemmas when rumors of the machine begin to spread. The Farewell Party is a compassionate and dark comedy about friendship and knowing when to say goodbye.

AWARDS:
Israeli Film Academy Awards: Best Picture, with wins for Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, Best Sound

NOMINATIONS:
Israeli Film Academy Nominations: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Casting, Best Art Direction, Best Music

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$200 per ticket and $180 for Students/seniors per night
Saturday, 21 November, episodes 1-6: 7:30-11:00pm: Buy now
Sunday, 22 November, episodes 7-12: 7:00-10:40pm: Buy now

“Fauda” (Arabic for ‘Chaos’) is a stunning Israeli drama that depicts a special undercover IDF unit Mista’arvim chasing down terrorists in the West Bank, while also showing the world of those terrorists themselves, complete with the wives, children, and mundane family matters. Fauda tells the story of Doron, commander of the unit operating in deep cover inside Palestinian territories, and his team’s hunt for a fictional Hamas terrorist Abu-Ahmed. On the other side of the fence, the show portrays the tragic life of Abu-Ahmed and his family.

Deemed “The Wire” of Israel, Fauda is exciting like “Homeland” and mind-blowing like “The Hurt Locker”, this show will knock you down and sweep you away…

REVIEWS:
“Thrilling” – Public Radio International (PRI)

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DOUBLE FEATURE, Sunday, 15 November: 5:25-6:50pm
Screened as a single purchase with Crossing the Line 2: Buy both

Almost 70 years after the liberation of the Nazi extermination camps, some anti-semites continue to deny the planned execution of the Jews by the Nazis. According to French historian Annette Wieviorka, the issue lies in the fact that following the war, many survivors did not wish to speak of their experience, or were simply silenced. This opened the doors to past perpetrators, collaborators, or anticommunist extreme rightists, to fill the silence with denials and their versions of history.

It took twenty years, at the Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem, to finally hear the testimony of 111 survivors. Nevertheless, despite the facts, deniers are still prevalent, focusing on technicalities of the Final Solution; and today, accusing Israel of having “invented” the Shoah to serve its own interests.

Riveting and disturbing, this important documentary focuses on the evolution of different anti-Semitic tendencies.

Michaël Prazan is best known for his book and documentary Einsatzgruppen: les commandos de la mort

Supported by HKHTC, this film will also be shown in Hong Kong and Macau schools and universities.

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There will be a Q & A session with Osnat Sharon, head of Yad L’isha, the leading organisation in Israel for Agunot (wives refused a divorce by their husbands).

DOUBLE FEATURE, Thursday, 19 November: 7:00-9:05pm
Screened as a single purchase with My Mayim:

The trial story of Viviane’s five year fight to obtain her divorce in front of the only legal authority competent for divorce cases in Israel, the Rabbinical Court. Viviane faces the uncompromising attitude of her husband, who refuses the divorce (gett) even though they’ve been separated for years.

AWARDS:
Best Film & Best Supporting Actor: Israeli Academy Awards
Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes 2014

SUBMISSION:
Israel’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar

REVIEW:
“an emotionally charged powder keg”

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Tuesday, 17 November: 7:00-7:50pm: Buy Now

Nadav Eyal, an acclaimed Israeli journalist, presents this mesmerizing documentary film concerning the resurfacing of the ancient hatred of anti-Semitism. Eyal tries to understand how the virus of anti-Semitism survives and continues to infect.

Moving from victims of anti-Semitism to experts and finally to the bigots themselves, the film generates a credible and frightening document. The film explains some areas of anti-Semitism’s resilience, and supplies a variety of dramatic encounters and confrontations with the perpetrators of racism.

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Sunday, 15 November: 7:00-8:30pm: Buy now

Israeli comedic genius Shlomo Bar-Aba stars in this comic drama about the Geva family from Jerusalem. Following a tragic car accident, Ora falls into a coma and her broken family members are willing to do anything to try to help her regain consciousness. They enlist the help of a host of colourful characters including a plastic surgeon, a wheelchair-bound marathon coach, a tough private investigator, a yoga instructor, a sensitive belly dancer and a big star in the Arab cinema. All the while tensions flare, passions run high, and a wedding looms…

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DOUBLE FEATURE with Estigma? Monday, 16 November: 7:00-8:45pm
Screened as a single purchase with The Estigma?: Buy both

As the reality for Jews in Europe is shifting, this documentary attempts to paint a picture of Jewish life in Paris today. Through conversations and interviews with leading thinkers, leaders and artists, as well as a number of different French Jews, we are presented with an in-depth look at the complexity of Jewish life in France and the challenges the community must face with regards to rising anti-Semitism.

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FREE FILM, Sunday, 15 November: 1.00 – 1.50pm: Select now
There will be No Charge for this film, compliments of the HKJFF and Asia Society Hong Kong Center
Suitable for Teenagers

In preparing for a play, a class of fourth graders from a small town in France discovers a tragic episode of the Second World War – the story of 44 children detained and deported in 1944. The nine year olds travel to Izieu, the house where the Jewish children had lived, to perform in the garden of the house. This is a beautiful lesson in the transmission of memory, as seen through the playful and authentic eyes of the children.

To be shown in schools throughout Hong Kong.

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MATINEE DOUBLE FEATURE, Thursday, 19 November: 12:00-1:30pm
Screened as a single purchase with Regina

The Lady In Number 6 is one of the most inspirational and uplifting stories of the year. 109 year old, Alice Herz Sommer, the world’s oldest pianist and Holocaust survivor shares her story on how to achieve a long and happy life. She discusses the importance of music and how it saved her life: both during her time at Theresienstadt concentration camp and in the years afterwards. She died aged 110, a week before the film won an Oscar.

AWARDS:
Academy Awards, USA 2014, Oscar : Best Documentary – Short Subject
Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival: Best Documentary
New Media Film Festival Award 2013: Best Trailer

NOMINATIONS:
Camerimage 2014: Golden Frog, Short Documentary

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Wednesday, 18 November: 7:00-8:30pm: Buy now

Would you risk your life to save a stranger? This is the story of sports idol Gino Bartali and other courageous Italians who carried out ingenious schemes to rescue Jews, partisans and refugees from Nazi-occupied Italy. Bartali, a Tour de France champion, smuggled fake identify documents in the frame of his bicycle. Dr. Giovanni Borromeo invented a fictitious disease to scare the SS away from the hospital where he was hiding Jews. Oscar-nominated director Oren Jacoby reveals the dramatic stories of a secret underground that has remained largely unknown until now.

AWARDS:
Rome International Film Festival: Official Selection
Hamptons International Film Festival: Official Selection

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DOUBLE FEATURE, Thursday, 19 November: 7:00-9:05pm
Screened as a single purchase with The Gett: Buy both

The latest short film written, directed and produced by Galia Albin, tells a silent story about love, family and parenthood. A divorce drama, it plays out in the courtroom and in the imagination of a child.

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MATINEE DOUBLE FEATURE, Thursday, 19 November: 12:00-1:30pm
Screened as a single purchase with Lady in Number 6: Buy both

Diana Groós’s poetic documentary tells the story of Regina Jonas who made history by becoming the first properly ordained woman rabbi in the world. The daughter of an Orthodox Jewish peddler, Jonas grew up in Berlin and was ordained in 1935. During the Nazi era and the war, her sermons and her unparalleled dedication brought encouragement to the persecuted German Jews. Regina Jonas was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.

AWARDS:
New York Jewish Film Festival – Critics Choice
Winner of the Lia Award – Jerusalem Film Festival 2013
Winner – Grand Prix – Szolnok International Film Festival of Cultural Arts, History and Sciences 2013
Hungarian Film Critics Award 2014

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Sunday, 22 November: 5:00 – 6:35pm: Buy now
Suitable for Teenagers

Rock in the Red Zone is an intimate portrayal of life on the edge in the war-torn city of Sderot. Once known for its prolific rock scene that revolutionized Israeli music, for thirteen years the town has been the target of ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza strip. Through the personal lives and music of Sderot’s diverse musicians, and the personal narrative of the filmmaker, who ends up calling the town home, the film chronicles the town’s trauma and reveals its enduring spirit.

PRESS:
“Rock in the Red Zone is the best and most important Israeli documentary I’ve seen in years. Nothing comes close to getting inside the Israeli psyche and soul.” – -Yossi Klein Halevi

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OPENING NIGHT, Saturday, 14 November: 7:30pm.
$380 per ticket and $350 for students/seniors
Followed by our famous kosher dessert party: Buy now

On May 8 1972, hijackers from the Palestinian terror organization Black September took control of Belgian Sabena Flight 571 from Brussels to Tel Aviv, an event that marked the beginning of 30 nerve-wracking hours that riveted Israel. This captivating docudrama recalls the tense series of events surrounding the hijacking, through exclusive interviews with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as former prime minister Ehud Barak, former president Shimon Peres and the sole surviving hijacker, Therese Halsa. The film juxtaposes different versions of the hijacking, alongside archive material and cinematic re-enactment of the dramatic events. Recently premiered in Jerusalem in the presence of the prime ministers, who are depicted as young men in the film, Sabena poses tough political and historical questions that are not only still important, but have shaped Israel today.

NOMINATION:
Finalist for the 2015 Ophir Awards (Israeli Academy Awards)

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Following this film there will be a Q & A session with Director Ori Gruder.

Sunday, 15 November: 8:45-10:00pm: Buy now

This eye-opening documentary explores the hidden concept of ‘sacred sperm’ within the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, through the personal journey of the director Ori Gruder. We follow Gruder’s attempts to fully understand one of Judaism’s most difficult and important prohibitions – for men to avoid spilling their sperm – and his struggles to explain to his teenage son why he should keep this commandment, perceived by many as unreasonable and impossible to fulfil. Sacred Sperm highlights how we are all vulnerable in some way, as we watch Gruder, who became Orthodox as an adult, ask himself, “Am I worthy of teaching my son?”

AWARDS:Winner Award of Excellence, The Accolade Global Film Competition, December 2014

REVIEWS:
“It is a delicate subject which has been taboo since biblical times, but now an Israeli documentary has broken new ground …” – The Guardian

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Sunday, 22 November: 3:10-4:35pm: Buy now

Israel is known to the world as the start-up nation. There are actually more startups in Tel-Aviv than in the whole of Europe, and more Venture Capital is invested per person than anywhere else in the world. This film follows four startup teams over the course of two years, as they progress from a simple idea on a napkin, until they hit the jackpot or go bust. Throughout their journey, we catch an intimate and exciting glance on how the ‘High-Tech Nation‘ really works.

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Sunday, 22 November: 1:30-2:55pm: Buy now
Suitable for Teenagers

In the epicenter of the Middle East conflict, Israel’s weekend warriors team up, suit up, don helmets over their kippahs, and charge the field in a season of full-contact American Tackle Football, revealing pieces of themselves and their world along the way. Secular or religious, Israeli-born or not, these Jews, Muslims and Christians are transformed from ordinary citizens into fierce gridiron competitors on a quest for Israel Bowl glory. Providing a unique insight into the incredible religious and cultural diversity that is Israel, the film profiles players, teams, coaches, officials and fans from three teams throughout one playing season as they learn the rules, execute the strategies and bond together. The film’s coverage includes pre-season, regular season and playoffs, culminating in Israel Bowl V.

AWARDS:
Boston Jewish Film Festival: Official Selection
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival: 2014 Official Selection
San Diego Jewish Film Festival: 2015 Official Selection

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Sunday, 22 November: 12:30-1:20pm: Buy now

Former fighter pilot turned political activist, Abie Nathan dreamed of a more peaceful world and not least a more peaceful Middle East. In 1973 He established the Voice of Peace, Israel’s first pirate radio station anchored off the Tel Aviv coast. During the 70’s the radio station had more than 20 million enthusiastic listeners all over the Middle East and Nathan’s concept of peace, love and good music elicited support from artists such as John Lennon and Bob Dylan. He also worked tirelessly behind the scenes to bring Israeli and Arab politicians to the negotiating table. A fascinating portrait of a visionary dreamer.

AWARDS:
2014 Official selection FIGRA
2015 Australia Jewish International Film Festival
2015 Toronto Jewish Film Festival