Overview
A whopping 60 films will make their New Zealand debut at the 2015 Jewish International Film Festival. Returning to Academy Cinemas, this three-week celebration of Jewish films and filmmakers will screen both fiction and non-fiction films from all around the world, in order to showcase what festival director Eddie Tamir calls "the agony and the ecstasy of the Jewish experience".
Standout narratives in the JIFF 2015 program include German post-WWII legal thriller Labyrinth of Lies, French-Canadian romantic drama Felix and Meira, Cannes Grand Prix winner Son of Saul and Natalie Portman's directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness, about Israeli novelist and journalist Amos Oz.
The documentary lineup is similarly strong. Out of Israel, Censored Voices uncovers harrowing recordings made by disillusioned Israeli soldiers shortly after the Six Day War in 1967, while controversial Latvian doco Beyond the Fear tells the story of Yigal Amir, the assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.