Jewish film festival brings art and community together

Winnipeg Free Press

23-05-2025

Don't ask Karen Burshtein her favourite Jewish movie.
'I can't pick,' says the producer of the Winnipeg International Jewish Film Festival.
'It's like asking me a favourite song, a favourite country, a favourite food — there's a lot to love.'
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Shattered Games is set in Warsaw 1929, the golden age of chess in Poland.
But picking is a highlight of Burshtein's gig: to program this year's WIJFF (which runs to June 7), the freelance journalist and lifelong film buff had to sift through nearly 150 submissions, eventually paring down the list to a concise 24.
'The principle behind this festival is to celebrate Jewish culture through movies from all over the world. There are all kinds of stories to tell — funny stories, hard stories about struggle, stories about success, stories about tragedy,' she says.
Hosted at the Berney Theatre, tonight the 24th annual festival features the German-language drama The Glory of Life (5:30 p.m.)., in which Franz Kafka (Sabin Tambrea) finds love with Jewish political activist Dora Diamant (Henriette Confurius).
On Saturday, in a sold-out screening, kiddush turns to kaddish in Bad Shabbos, a murder-comedy starring Kyra Sedgwick, character actor David Paymer and Jon Bass.
Other highlights include Quebec director Ken Scott's Once Upon My Mother, which screens at 7 p.m., Monday at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain. An intercommunity screening, the French-language film, set in 1960s Paris, tells the story of a young Jewish boy born with a clubfoot and the mother determined to ensure it doesn't hold him back.
Ever-relevant films about antisemitism and the Holocaust are also being shown.
While Oskar Schindler's heroic exploits were immortalized in the Academy Award-winning Schindler's List, Finnish director Klaus Härö's Never Alone focuses on Abraham Stiller, a Jewish businessman in Helsinki who protects Jewish refugees in his country after the outbreak of war. (Tuesday at 2 p.m.).
Similar to Bianca Stigter and Steve McQueen's epic documentary Occupied City is Dutch director Sandra Beerends' Neshoma, 'a fictional documentary based on archival footage.' Using historic testimony of Jewish life in Amsterdam prior to the Holocaust, Beerends 'invents' the story of a 17-year-old girl living in the city's Jewish Quarter who preserves her community in letters. (June 4, 2 p.m.)
For chess lovers, and fans of The Queen's Gambit, director Marek Bukowski's Shattered Games might be the best move. Set in 1929 Warsaw, with the European continent teetering toward yet another war, the drama is imminent for Poland's national team, including Jewish players Dawid Przepiórka and Akiva Rubinstein. (Wednesday, 2 p.m.)
A late, underrated comedy star gets the documentary treatment in Charles Grodin: Rebel With a Cause ( May 30, 5:30 p.m.). Director James L. Freeman's earlier docs include critically acclaimed portraits of sports broadcaster Marty Glickman, who at 19 years old was replaced in the 1936 Berlin Olympics 100-metre dash by Jesse Owens, and Carl Laemmle, the German-Jewish co-founder of Universal Pictures.
'There's a scene in the movie that shows (Grodin's) bar mitzvah and it details how his Judaism contributed to his outlook on things and possibly his sardonic wit,' says Burshtein.
Director Yael Melamede trains her lens on her mother, Ada Karmi-Melamede, in ADA: My Mother the Architect, a documentary screening on Tuesday at 7 p.m. One of the most accomplished female architects in the world, Karmi-Melamede engages in an expansive dialogue with her daughter about career, motherhood and legacy.
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Quebec filmmaker Ken Scott's drama/biopic Once Upon My Mother features Leila Behkti as Esther.
Following the screening, the filmmaker will join Free Press critic, art historian and architect's daughter Alison Gillmor in a pre-recorded conversation.
Individual screening tickets are $13 in advance. A full festival pass is $195. More information for the festival is available at radyjcc.com.
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Ben WaldmanReporter
Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.
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