The 37th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival plays San Francisco's Castro Theatre (July 20-30), Albany's Twin, Oakland's New Parkway, San Rafael's Smith Rafael Film Center, Palo Alto's Cinearts, and SF's ODC/Theater. This year's festival puts special emphasis on Holocaust observances. More info: sfjff.org.
"The Guys Next Door" The festival's queer accent comes by way of Amy Geller and Allie Humenuk's highly personal account of a 40-something Jewish gal providing surrogate services for her gay buddy and his Italian-born boyfriend. Things go so well that the deed is repeated. It's a provocative, diary like-account that follows this new-style family for their first three years. (New Parkway, 8/6)
"In Between" This unusual peek at the party-down side of the Palestinian culture begins with an older woman sharing what she regards as basic survival lessons in a male-dominated, insanely sexist culture to a young woman just entering the dating pool. "Don't raise your voice. Men don't like women who raise their voices. Remember to always say a kind word and cook him good food. Don't forget to put on perfume, and to keep your body smooth, so that when he desires you, he'll know where to find you. In bed, do what he tells you. Don't let on that you know what you're doing." Director Maysaioum Hamoud methodically takes us through a volatile social scene in a place where we've been led to believe that piety rules. Warning: for a great deal of smoking, both tobacco and pot, for a brutal rape scene, a great deal of male violence against women, and for a free-spirited female couple where one asks, "Did your mother know you are a lesbian?" In Hebrew and Arabic, with English subtitles. (Castro, 7/23; Albany Twin, 7/31)
"Paradise" It's hard to reinvent the Holocaust docudrama, but Russian Andrei Konchalovsky takes a valiant stab in this B&W mix of reenacted concentration camp drama (reminiscent of "Schindler's List") and personal apologias staged in direct address to the camera verite-style. At its best, a demonstration of French anti-Semitism. The core of the German-Russian co-production concerns Countess Olga's bid to hide Jewish boys in WWII, Nazi-held France. A tad long at 130 minutes, but with both brutal and tender moments. In Russian, German, French, and Yiddish, with English subtitles. Winner of Silver Lion at Venice, Russian entry for 2017 foreign-language Oscar. (Castro, 7/29; Albany Twin, 8/2; Smith Rafael, 8/4)
"Fanny's Journey" In a Holocaust-era thriller with beats right out of the 1963 John Sturges-directed "The Great Escape," French director Lola Doillon embeds us with a group of Jewish schoolkids desperate to reach the Swiss border before being captured by the Gestapo and sent to the death camps. The heroine is Fanny (Leonie Souchaud), who manages to keep morale up for the kids in moments when it seems that all is lost. Will remind some of the Louis Malle WWII classic "Au Revoir Les Enfants." (Cinearts, 7/22; Castro, 7/25; Smith Rafael, 8/5; Albany Twin, 8/6)
"1945" Ferenc Torok opens his adaptation of a Hungarian Holocaust short story with the sight of a huge steam locomotive belching its way into the station of a tiny village. It's the wedding day of a charming young man, the son of the magistrate. But all is not well in this rural haven. WWII has just ended, but ominously two men climb down from the train, bearing with them a mysterious package. Word spreads quickly, and soon everyone comes to dread these visitors. Russian troops circle the town, sent to crush hopes of a Hungarian postwar democracy. Strangers recruit men with shovels to dig in the graveyard. From first sight to surprise ending, "1945" keeps us riveted. (Castro, 6/26; Cinearts, 7/27; Albany Twin, 7/29; Smith Rafael, 6/6)
"Moos" The title character is a 20something Dutch Jewish woman saddled with caring for her widowed dad. With increasing pressure on her to marry and serve the community, Moos is suddenly faced with the reappearance of a childhood male friend, the handsome Sam, just back from serving in the Israeli Defense Force. She really wants to pursue a singing career, but the elders fear losing her skills. Attractive young men and women, topical references to alleged misdeeds by Woody Allen, co-ed exercise classes: this romantic comedy from Job Gosschalk, in Dutch with English subtitles, hits all the right notes. (Castro, 7/21; Cinearts, 7/27; Albany Twin, 7/31)
"Intent to Destroy" This year's Freedom of Expression Award winner Joe Beringer explores the disturbing issues still remaining about the 1915 Turkish-led genocide of a million-and-half Armenians, an atrocity still denied by the present-day Turkish government and its increasingly authoritarian leader. Beringer is the acclaimed creator of hard-hitting nonfiction films such as "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills," which, with two sequels, aided in freeing three wrongly accused men. (Castro, 7/27)
"Fritz Lang" This celebrated Austrian-born filmmaker was so skilled he was wooed by both Hollywood and Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. His career began with genius-level silent works "Metropolis" and "M." Then Lang adapted to the commercial demands of Tinseltown, creating a body of work still celebrated: "While the City Sleeps," "The Big Heat," "Cloak and Dagger," "Ministry of Fear," "Hangmen Also Die!" German director Gordian Maugg's bio-pic details the career of a great director, and links his work with humanity's darkest impulses. (Castro, 7/27; Albany Twin, 8/3)
"Gilbert" Director Neil Berkeley probes the profanity-prone comic Gilbert Gottfried, with glimpses of his home life, along with revealing insights from colleagues such as Whoopi Goldberg. (Castro, 7/29)
"Keep the Change" Rachel Israel creates a sensitive but realistic portrait of young people living along the autism spectrum in Manhattan, with opportunities for fully realized lives and romantic relationships. (Castro, 7/20; Cinearts, 7/23; Albany Twin, 7/30; Smith Rafael, 8/5)
"An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" This follow-up to former Vice Pres. Al Gore's pioneering doc manifesto on global climate change examines what's happened in the past decade-and-a-half, with 14 of 15 hottest years recorded, and with our current climate change denier-in-chief in the White House. (Castro, 7/24)
"The Boy Downstairs" In Sophie Brooks' romance, a young woman returns to New York from London. Diana (Zosia Mamet) is confronted with a living arrangement where the downstairs flat is occupied by her ex-boyfriend (Matthew Shear). (Castro, 7/29; Albany Twin, 8/5)
"Body and Soul: An American Bridge" Robert Philipson spends 58 minutes riffing on the connections between African American and Jewish culture as expressed in modern jazz and blues. (Castro, 7/23; Cinearts, 7/24; Albany Twin, 7/28)
"The Young Karl Marx" In director Raoul Peck's 1844-set drama, a young, politically charged duo, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, create the Communist Manifesto, a much embraced, feared and despised document that still rocks distant political worlds. (Cinearts, 7/25; Albany Twin, 7/27; Castro, 7/28; Smith Rafael, 8/5)