Take a Jew and twelve Germans, mix them with a bit of memory culture and stereotypes, add two teaspoons of patriotism and a dash of anti-Semitism. The whole thing is rolled up into a falafel, cooked with five stumbling blocks and served with klezmer music. This is roughly how the director and author of “Masel Tov Cocktail” announces his own film; Arkadij Khaet’s half-hour work to kick off the 12th Jewish Film Days can be seen. These are organized by the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, this year online for the first time.
In his film, Khaet wants to dispel Jewish clichés and tells of the needs of a Jewish teenage rebel. Dima (Alexander Wertmann) also knows exactly how Jews are portrayed in German films: They would always wear kippahs and only rarely hit back, and it would be best to make black and white films about them with dramatic music or the howling of sirens in the background. “That’s a lot more Jewish, isn’t it?” When Dima says that, he grins into the camera: “But this is not such a film.”
As in previous years, the organizers want to show as different films as possible and allow diverse perspectives on Jewish life: The provocative “Masel Tov Cocktail”, which has won several festivals, fits into the program. The short documentary “Wir. Hier” was selected as the second film for the opening on Sunday, February 21st. In it, several people of Jewish faith report the hostility they experienced in the middle of Munich. The opening event will be rounded off by a conversation with the makers and participants of both films.
The film days will not continue until April, on the occasion of the memorial day of Yom Haschoa the animated film “The Long Night” about the Holocaust survivor Ernst Israel Bornstein will be shown. A documentary about the Israeli swimwear designer Lea Gottlieb (“Mrs. G.”) is planned for May, and the recently restored US feature “Fishke der Krumer – The Light Ahead”, made in 1939, is planned for June. If the Corona regulations allow, the films will also be shown as a hybrid event in the spring in the Jewish Community Center on St.-Jakobs-Platz. Films are also to be shown live in front of an audience in autumn, including the Marcel Marceau biopic “Resistance”.
Jewish Film Days, Kick-off event on Sunday, February 21, 5 p.m., www.ikg-m.de
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