Movies about Jews evading the Holocaust are, frankly, irresistible. We never tire of these celluloid beacons of hope, not least because we can never forget that the victims greatly outnumbered the escapees. The challenge that filmmakers face in this area is keeping the rays of light in proportion to the vast darkness of reality. The…
Over the course of nearly two hours, “The Settlers” provokes anger, pride, dismay, frustration and sadness. The only emotion it doesn’t engender is hope. A historical overview of the settlement movement, Shimon Dotan’s thoughtful and mostly evenhanded documentary focuses on the status of the West Bank and Gaza in the half-century since the Six-Day War….
Under the influence of consumerism, militarism and the pace of the modern world, the People of the Book have little use for poetry. That’s one reading – and the most obvious and simplistic – of “The Kindergarten Teacher,” Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid’s unsettling saga of an adult’s missteps when presented with a preternaturally talented child….
In the immortal “Casablanca,” cagey club owner Humphrey Bogart remarks that he came to the titular Moroccan city “for the waters.” When police captain Claude Rains points out that they’re in a desert, Bogart’s Rick replies enigmatically, “I was misinformed.” Michael Botbol, the Moroccan-Jewish protagonist of the picaresque comedy-mystery “The Midnight Orchestra” can identify with…
