I was intrigued to discover two Italian films screening at this year’s UK Jewish Film Festival, one set in Rome, the other in north-eastern Italy near Trieste, and both covering not…
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…
“What is more radical than shmita? What does it mean to let our land rest?” This question is posed by Felix Wilk, a queer climate activist and the main focus of this documentary short from north London filmmakers Jessica Benhamou and Sarah Kendal. Felix lives at Sadeh…
From the get-go, Cordelia Lynn’s two protagonists are engaged in a sort of dangerous dance that is by turns wary, ardent, passionate and physical. But when passion turns violent, there are unexpected and shocking twists…
Ida Rubinstein – dancer, actor, commissioner, passionate lover and beloved of both sexes, including composer Maurice Ravel (Rubinstein commissioned his Bolero, so Torvill and Dean have much to thank her for) – led “a life crowded with incident” as Oscar Wilde would say. Now…
From the moment the actors and musicians rose to their feet in joyous dance to the band’s plangent klezmer sound, I felt at one with an audience leaning in to share "the true story of a little Jewish play" – these words projected in English and Hebrew-charactered Yiddish. Six actors…
A schematic pitiless sun glares down on levels of woodblocks, standing in for sand as designed by Max Johns, on an unfortunate man apparently buried up to his neck. The figure standing over him explains that he has been…
The life-affirming lyrics and poignant tune of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ made it the anthem of Liverpool FC. Its adoption by the club chimes with Timothy Sheader’s reimagining of Carousel in a tight-knit British fishing…
Rosy light bathes a beautiful young woman (Sera Maehara’s Liat) bending gracefully in a slow contemplative dance. A soundscape of birds enhances the tranquillity – until the roar of helicopters heralds the arrival of a battalion of armed, uniformed American marines literally invading…
One of my first forays back into live theatreland – having run the gauntlet of heat, crowds and delays on the tube – and it was a relief to find myself in the intimate air-conditioned Charing Cross Theatre. And what a joy to be whirled back in time, though not to the Middle Ages of…