2020 Film Selections…
Our Film Selection Committee is narrowing down the final selections from the 70 or so films submitted for our 5-day 2020 Festival. As our films are finalized they will be added to the day-by-day pages. Check back for updates.
Save Up to $33* Over Individual Tickets — Buy A Festival Pass!
$55.00!
SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 — 2:00 PM. @ ciné (90 MIN)
Selected by 2019 attendees as “Fan Favorite.” Ninety three percent of attendees rated the film as “Excellent.”
Nominated for 8 Ophir Awards (Israel’s Academy Awards) including Best Picture of the Year.
Winner, Audience Award
Boston Israeli Film Festival 2019
Winner, Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film — Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles 2018
Winner — Best Supporting Actor (Dov Glickman) – 2018 Ophir Awards (Israel’s Academy Awards)
“Shoelaces”
“Shoelaces” tells the story of a complicated relationship between an aging father and his special-needs son, whom he abandoned while he was still a young boy. Reuben’s (60) kidney’s are failing and his son Gadi (35), wants to donate one of his own kidney’s to help save his father’s life. However, the transplant committee objects to the procedure claiming that Rueben, acting as Gadi’s sole legal guardian, does not have the right to authorize such an invasive procedure. Gadi, who recently lost his mother, is afraid of losing his father as well. He’s furious with the committee’s decision and sets out to fight for his right to save his father’s life. Through the film’s portrayal of a relationship full of love, rejection and co-dependency, it manages to shed some light and question the importance of human life, human connection and if life is even possible without it either one of them.
Director: Jacob Goldwasser
Genre: Drama
Country: Israel
Language(s): Hebrew with English subtitles
Running Time: 90 minutes • 2018
SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 — 4:00 PM. @ CINÉ (131 MIN)
“Promise at Dawn”
From his difficult childhood in Poland to his adolescence under Nice’s sun, to his career in the air force in Africa during World War II, Romain Gary has lived an extraordinary life. He owes this relentless enterprise to live a thousand lives—to become a great man and a famous writer—to his mother Nina. It’s the wild love of his eccentric and endearing mother that drives him to become one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century, to lead a life full of twists, passion, and mystery. But this unconditional maternal love will also be a burden that he bears his whole life.
Director: Eric Barbier
Adapted from Romain Gary’s best-selling autobiographcal novel.
Country: France
Language(s): French with English subtitles
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 131 minutes • 2017
Guest Speaker Prof. Richard Neupert
Many of us know Richard Neupert, a longtime friend of Ciné and the Athens Jewish Film Festival. He teaches film history and theory at the University of Georgia where he is the Wheatley Professor of the Arts and a Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor. His animated style and special interest in French cinema make him the ideal person to introduce “Promise at Dawn.”
SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 — 7:00 PM. @ CINÉ (113 MIN)
“The Cakemaker”
Thomas, a young German baker, is having an affair with Oren, an Israeli married man who has frequent business visits in Berlin. When Oren dies in a car crash in Israel, Thomas travels to Jerusalem seeking for answers regarding his death. Under a secret identity, Thomas infiltrates into the life of Anat, his lover’s newly widowed wife. The encounter with the unfamiliar reality will make Thomas involved in Anat’s life in a way far beyond his anticipation, and to protect the truth he will stretch his lie to a point of no return.
Director: Ofir Raoul Graizer
Country: Israel, Germany
Language(s): Hebrew, German and English, with English subtitles
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 113 minutes • 2018
*Single tickets will be sold 15 minutes prior to showtime, subject to availability. Savings of up to $33 over regular Athens Ciné single ticket prices.