UK Jewish Film Festival

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UKJFF 2023: Vishniac ★★★★★

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UKJFF 2023: Vishniac ★★★★★

In Berlin in 1933, seven-year-old Mara stands outside a shop once owned by a Jew. Now it sells instruments to gauge the shape of a skull, issuing certificates of 'Aryanism' if deemed appropriate. The photographer recording this moment was also a Jew; if apprehended by Nazi forces…

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UKJFF 2023: Less Than Kosher ★★★

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UKJFF 2023: Less Than Kosher ★★★

Daniel AM Rosenberg’s musical comedy Less Than Kosher follows self-proclaimed “bad Jew” Viv, a washed-up singer at 30. She finds herself deliriously hungover after Yom Kippur, but after a trip to her family’s synagogue manages to fall “ass-first” into a job as a substitute cantor. What…

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UKJFF 2023: Queen of the Deuce ★★★★

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UKJFF 2023: Queen of the Deuce ★★★★

When someone speaks of the American Dream, the image is usually of a well-to-do white-collared individual returning to their picket-fenced home where a doting spouse tends to two pristine children. Not, heaven forbid, a chain-smoking elderly Greek Jewish immigrant holding court with…

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UKJFF 2022: Cinema Sabaya ★★★★

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UKJFF 2022: Cinema Sabaya ★★★★

Watching Orit Fouks Rotem’s uplifting Cinema Sabaya in the week in which Israel elected Benjamin Netanyahu back into power – with the help of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s extreme far-right party – was a bittersweet experience. The film takes place in the working-class city of Hadera in northern…

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UKJFF 2022: Reckonings ★★★★

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UKJFF 2022: Reckonings ★★★★

This year is the 70th anniversary of the signing in 1952 of the hugely significant but little-remembered Luxembourg Agreements between Israel and Germany. To mark the anniversary, this hard-hitting yet even-handed – and deeply compelling – documentary provides vivid insights into…

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UKJFF 2021: Sin La Habana ★★★★

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UKJFF 2021: Sin La Habana ★★★★

This moving romantic drama about a struggling Cuban ballet dancer, who crosses paths with an Iranian-Canadian Jewish woman looking for love, brings the 25th UK Jewish Film Festival to a vibrant close this week. Sin La Habana screens online and in person at London's Picturehouse…

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UKJFF 2021: Apples and Oranges ★★★

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UKJFF 2021: Apples and Oranges ★★★

This absorbing new documentary explores those volunteers who flocked to Israel’s kibbutzim and their vast impact, but it also reveals the darker underside. In the swinging 60s, the countercultural generation wanted to travel, try new experiences, taste life abroad and, most importantly…

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UKJFF 2021: The Policeman ★★★★

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UKJFF 2021: The Policeman ★★★★

This classic 1971 Israeli feature celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and it's aged beautifully. Written and directed by Ephraim Kishon, HaShoter Azoulay, aka The Policeman, took home numerous awards in 1972, including Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes…