However, Matchmaker is not a Holocaust movie, per say, but a coming of age film. The protagonist, Arik, witnesses the beauty and ugliness of life to him via Yankele Bride, a matchmaker. Both Arik’s father and Yankele grew up in Romania and thought the other had died in the Nazi death camps. Due to the connection, Yankele employs Arik, a detective novel enthusiast, as an amateur private detective.

Matchmaker is an engrossing movie with multiple storylines that create an epic film with provocative themes that could emerge in any coming of age movie, with a narrative that could only be set in Israel. With outstanding performances by Adir Miller, Maya Dagan and Tuval Shafir, director and writer Avi Nesher creates what could have been an unwieldy story into a
beautifully told and wise drama.

– Sharna Marcus

• Mabul, 7:00 p.m. Buy Tickets

Film Row Cinema of Columbia College on Thursday 10/27/2011

• Maya, 3:00 p.m. Buy Tickets
• Strangers No More (Double feature), 5:00 p.m. Buy Tickets
• 77 Steps (Director invited, Double feature), 7:00 p.m. Buy Tickets
• This is Sodom, 9:00 p.m. Buy Tickets

AMC Loews 600 for 10/29/2011

• Restoration, 7:30pm, SOLD OUT
• The Human Resources Manager, 10:00pm, Buy Tickets
• Intimate Grammar, 5:00pm, Buy Tickets

AMC Northbrook Court for 10/30/2011

• An Article of Hope SOLD OUT 6:00pm
• The Human Resources Manager BUY TICKETS 8:30pm
• The Matchmaker (Once I Was) SOLD OUT 1:00pm
• Strangers No More BUY TICKETS 3:30pm

AMC Northbrook Court for 10/31/2011

• 77 Steps BUY TICKETS 5:30pm
• Maya BUY TICKETS 3:00pm
• Naomi (Hitpartzut X) BUY TICKETS 8:00pm

AMC Northbrook Court for 11/1/2011

• An Article of Hope BUY TICKETS 5:30pm
• Intimate Grammar (Hadikduk HaPnimi) BUY TICKETS 8:00pm
• Strangers No More BUY TICKETS 3:00pm

AMC Northbrook Court for 11/2/2011

• The Flood (Mabul) BUY TICKETS 8:00pm
• Lenin in October BUY TICKETS 3:00pm
• The Matchmaker (Once I Was) BUY TICKETS 5:30pm

AMC Northbrook Court for 11/3/2011

• Gei Oni BUY TICKETS 5:30pm
• The Matchmaker (Once I Was) BUY TICKETS 8:00pm
• Zubin and I BUY TICKETS 3:00pm

AMC Northbrook Court for 11/5/2011

• Intimate Grammar (Hadikduk HaPnimi) BUY TICKETS 7:30pm
• Naomi (Hitpartzut X) BUY TICKETS 5:00pm
• This is Sodom (Zohi Sdom) BUY TICKETS 10:00pm

AMC Northbrook Court for 11/6/2011

• The Flood (Mabul) BUY TICKETS 8:30pm
• Gei Oni BUY TICKETS 3:30pm
• Lenin in October BUY TICKETS 1:00pm
• Restoration (Boker Tov Adon Fidelman) SOLD OUT 6:00pm

Post by Committee Member Erica Fleischer

A complaint I often hear is why are Israeli films so sad?  I generally love how how deep, complicated and moving the vast majority of recent Israeli movies are.  Movies such as Walk on Water and The Secrets have stayed with me and I still think about their moral dilemmas years later.  But sometimes I just want a laugh and that’s where This is Sodom comes in.

A comedy of this sort was long overdue for Israel, as shown by it being the biggest box office hit in 25 years.  This modern, satirical telling of the famous biblical story of Lot and Sodom is reminiscent of Monty Python.  The movie starts with God as a smartly dressed tent to tent salesman trying to sell Abraham and his hapless son on a god consolidation plan to monotheism.  The jokes and puns keep going from there.  So yes, Israeli films can be funny.  If you are looking for the lighter side of Israel, this is the film for you.

For more to read see:

• Jerusalem Post: Guilty Pleasure
• Ioncinema: This is Sodom: Unexpected Israel Popcorn Hit
• Jewish Humor Central: This Is Sodom – New “Israeli Monty Python” Film Coming To New York
• Montreal Gazette: Israel Film Festival: This Is Sodom – Biblical history, with laughs

The Jerusalem Post writes

“[Director] Bat-Adam is back in that 1950s mentality that confuses psychosis with poetry (anyone who has spent time around real psychotics is not likely to make this mistake). Maya is charmed by these tortured souls and brings some of their quirks into her performance. The doctor advising the production approves of this very much because he thinks it will break stereotypes about mental illness, but Hagai is furious.”

Maya is a beautifully acted film that explores, through the character of Maya, how actors bring their personal demons into their roles as much as they change themselves to play the role, and how the border between their real and acted identities can become blurred. Is Maya’s acting out psychosis really acting? Is she really in love? Is she really even a good actress? Watch the film, and see for yourself!

 In the meantime, please join us as we present:

Brothers (5:30 PM) A story of two Argentinian Jewish brothers that go separate ways, only to reunite under contentious circumstances in Israel. One brother makes aliyah and lives a peaceful, but secular life on a kibbutz, while the other brother follows Orthodox observance and becomes the head of a yeshiva (as well as an attorney) in New York. After 25 years, they meet again, as the attorney comes to Israel to defend the right of yeshiva students to be exempt from military service.

Rather than a happy reunion, the discourse between the siblings reflects the sometimes stark divide between secular and religious Israelis, with deeper resonance on what it means to live in the Diaspora vs. to live everyday in Israel. In Israeli society, military service is often seen as a gateway to lifelong social and economic opportunities through the close ties that can develop between those that serve. What does it mean to live outside of the boundaries of what’s been referred by some as a “Startup Nation”?

Director Igaal Niddam will appear to discuss his film at this showing. Our screening of Brothers in Northbrook on the following day (10/24 at 5:30 PM) has sold out, but the final screening on 10/26 @ 8:30 PM is still available. Don’t miss the chance to experience a film that has won Audience Choice awards in European film festivals.

Five Hours from Paris (8:30 PM) In contrast to the serious issues presented in Brothers, this film is a light-hearted, but also thought-provoking, look at how a divorced veteran Israeli taxi driver can learn to enjoy relationships again, through his emerging friendship with his son’s music teacher (a recent Russian olah). And he also has to deal with his fear of flying to that son’s Bar Mitzvah in Paris.

Just when it seems that their relationship is moving in a romantic direction – characterized by a poignant moment where they sing a ballad together at a karaoke bar in Russian and Hebrew – her husband returns from abroad. That moment proves a game changer that may take her far more than five hours from Israel, and bring home what it means to have a dream, and how to live it, for all three. Can fulfilling one’s dream mean shutting the door on those of another?

 This showing, which will feature Tel Aviv University’s film scholar Pablo Utin for discussion, is sold out. However, encore presentations are taking place in Northbrook on 10/27 at 8:30 PM, and 10/31 at 6 PM. We hope you can join us there.

Eyes Wide Open (10:30 PM) Our final film of the night is the tale of a married Orthodox butcher in Jerusalem. Secure in his standing in his community, he finds that when he hires a homeless youth as an assistant in his shop, his notion of sexuality and personal happiness transforms radically. He must choose between the life he knows and an identity which may be mainstream in a secular Israel (Tel Aviv, a place often seen as a “Bubble”, was just noted as a top world destination for gays in Chicago’s Red Eye), but is the polar opposite of the expectations of those around him.

This film features Zohar Strauss, an Israeli actor with the versatility to go from playing a secular professor in season 1 of Srugim (the first three episodes of season 2 of Srugim will be shown in Northbrook at 10/30 at 8:30 PM) and also, a minor cult figure among the Srugim-obsessed on the Net), to a commander of an Israeli unit in the recently released – and critically acclaimed – film Lebanon.

Allison Cuddy of WBEZ Radio (host of that station’s newsmagazine Eight-Forty-Eight) will discuss this film after the screening. Eyes Wide Open will also appear in Northbrook on 10/30 at 10:30 PM.

Tickets for Brothers and Eyes Wide Open are still available, either at the AMC Loews 600 box office or through Fandango at http://www.fandango.com/amcloews600northmichigan9_aabzu/theaterpage?date=10/23/2010

If you weren’t able to join us last night, make sure to get your tickets to see “A Matter of Size” at AMC Northbrook Court on Monday, October 26 at 6 p.m. or on Sunday, October 31 at 8:30 p.m.

You can buy advance tickets (highly recommended, as films are beginning to sell out!) at the AMC Northbrook Court box office or at movietickets.com (see links). See you there!

“Like us” on our Facebook page or tweet us @israelifilmchi with the hash tag #cfic and write which movie you are looking forward to seeing.

One entrant will be picked at random to win 2 tickets for a show of their choice (except opening night).

Contest ends until 5 PM Tuesday October 12 (extended).

10/23 Sat AMC Chicago Tickets

10/24 Sun AMC Northbrook Tickets

10/25 Mon AMC Northbrook Tickets

10/26 Tues AMC Northbrook Tickets

10/27 Weds AMC Northbrook Tickets

10/28 Thurs AMC Northborook Tickets

10/30 Sat AMC Northbrook Tickets

10/31 Sun AMC Northbrook Tickets

Advance sales are only available online on this site.  To purchase, first signup and add a membership to your basket (click). You will then be able to purchase advance tickets.

Though the opportunity to buy advance tickets is ending soon, you can still purchase memberships and gift memberships (click).  Each member gets to feel good for supporting the festival and benefits by having first choice of seats at the films.

Opening Night tickets (click) to see the wonderful film “A Matter of Size” can be purchased until our inventory is exhausted.

Come, see the REAL REEL ISRAEL!