Gold for Fools(NaN)

An American Pickle(en)

An immigrant worker at a pickle factory is accidentally preserved for 100 years and wakes up in modern day Brooklyn. He learns his only surviving relative is his great grandson, a computer coder who he can’t connect with.

The Man Without a World(en)

The Man Without a World is credited to the legendary (and imaginary) 1920s Soviet director, Yevgeny Antinov. But the film is anything but old. In fact, Antinov himself is the creation of contemporary filmmaker Eleanor Antin. Her film is a moving, comic melodrama set in a typical shtetl (village) in Poland. The Jews’ struggle against poverty and racial hatred is complicated by their own division into hostile political factions of the religious orthodoxy, assimilationists, socialists, Zionists, anarchists and survivors. While the Jews of the shtetl pursue their loves, politics, religion, business and dreams for the future, the Angel of Death is ever near...

Motel the Operator(yi)

Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.

40 Nickels(en)

Based her grandfather’s boyhood in St. Louis, Yasmin Gorenberg tells a story of the pain passed from refugee parents to their children and the hope that can overcome it. “40 Nickels” captures the image of a generation of immigrants to the United States in the 1920’s and 1930’s and through that spotlights the effects of the 1919 pogroms in Eastern Europe. This is a film about parents and children: how trauma never leaves a family, and how hope and resilience is also passed down. It asks the question: Can a new generation look at the world with wonder rather than fear?

The Great Yiddish Love(en)

Set in Berlin and New York's Lower East Side, The Great Yiddish Love stars the self-exiled Marlene Dietrich and her Nazi-endorsed replacement, Zarah Leander. It is a melodrama of love, emigration, and betrayal reassembled from Hollywood, German Ufa and Yiddish films from the 1930s and 40s.

Welcome to Yiddishland(en)

An upbeat, witty, and timely exploration of a global community of artists creating innovative work in their quest to rediscover and revitalise the endangered Yiddish language. From behind-the-scenes with an acclaimed Yiddish-language version of Yentl in Melbourne, to enjoyably transgressive punk-Klezmer musicians, and Barrie Kosky’s latest trailblazing production in Berlin – the endangered Yiddish language is alive and well in this rousing documentary. The language originated amongst the Jewish community in Eastern Europe, but almost disappeared when more than half of the world’s Yiddish speakers were murdered during the Holocaust. Most of the artists and performers (aka Yiddishists) in the film didn’t grow up speaking Yiddish, but all have found solace, identity, and inspiration in its rich traditions and culture. Ros Horin has mapped a fascinating cultural history.

A bissele Glik(de)

A Yiddish World Remembered(en)

Elliott Gould narrates this affectionate look at life in the shtetls of Eastern Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries. "It's unreal that all this could have just disappeared," says Polish native Mariem Adler Stok, one of the seniors whose memories of this "Yiddish world" give this documentary its life. The hour traces Jewish history in Europe and explores Jews' focus on education, their religious customs, clothing, food, music and theater.

The Paper Brigade(fr)

Lithuania, 1941, during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of texts on Jewish culture, stolen by the Germans, are gathered in Vilnius to be classified, either to be stored or to be destroyed. A group of Jewish scholars and writers, commissioned by the invaders to carry out the sorting operations, but reluctant to collaborate and determined to save their legacy, hide many books in the ghetto where they are confined. This is the epic story of the Paper Brigade.

A Little Family Conversation(fr)

The questioning of Jewish heritage and identity via the portrait of a diversed family, across Belgium and the United States.

Micki(en)

Sixteen-year-old Micki never met her parents. Raised by her ex-gangster grandfather Pops and crazy Uncle Sal, she develops a scheme to set her family up for life. A simple robbery, a violent loan shark, and a ticking clock. What could go wrong?

Masked Conspiracy(en)

A gallows comedy in which an eccentric man and his ingenuous friend set out to capture an alien.

The Little Death(en)

Found beaten and heartsick outside of a Virginian motel, Kurt, 19, is taken in by a colorful group of sex workers and becomes captivated by a young prostitute named Rose.

Brise glace (Broken Waters)(fr)

Ottawa, 1983. When an ambitious anti-pharma psychiatrist sets out to cure a serial baby-snatching patient, her unconventional methods and unexpected pregnancy combine to unravel every part of her life.

Agreste(pt)

In the heart of the Brazilian backlands, Agreste tells the story of Etevaldo, a nomadic and reserved rural worker who carries a dark secret. When he meets Maria, a free-spirited young woman promised in marriage to an influential man from the neighborhood, the two fall deeply in love. Forced to flee due to the imminent wedding and the threats they face, they are taken in by Valda, a religious woman who sees Maria as her own daughter. While they try to find refuge, the arrival of Ribamar, the local sheriff's nephew, intensifies the tension. He is investigating an alleged theft, and his investigations begin to reveal Etevaldo's past, which fuels the hatred of the local community. Amid chaos, love and the struggle for survival challenge Etevaldo and Maria, testing secrets, betrayals, and a growing pressure from a society that does not accept their union.

The Day "Nu" Disappears...(ja)

In the meeting room, members of the Special Investigation Unit and Ministry of Education desperately trying to find a replacement for the hiragana "Nu", a character being used as a symbol by the extremist terrorist organisation.

The Lame Ranger(en)

When the self-conscious villain known only as the Red Scarf begins terrorizing local saloons, town drunk and local hero the Lame Ranger and his trusty sidekick Best Buy must use all their wits to stop him and defend the Wild West.