Reviews

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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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The Crucible ★★★★

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The Crucible ★★★★

The dark oppressiveness of 17th century Salem is conveyed the moment you step into the auditorium for the National Theatre’s revival of Arthur Miller’s classic play The Crucible. On all three sides of the Olivier’s stage, a curtain of water pours in a continuous, heavy stream. On and on it flows…

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Jews. In Their Own Words. ★★★★

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Jews. In Their Own Words. ★★★★

Jonathan Freedland’s first venture into writing for the stage is billed in the programme not as a play but a ‘theatrical enquiry’: carefully chosen phrasing, to describe a brave undertaking by this seasoned journalist. It was actor Tracy-Ann Oberman (played here by Louisa Clein), billed as…

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Two Ukrainian Plays ★★★★

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Two Ukrainian Plays ★★★★

A dark, surreal tragicomedy and a stark, heartbreaking monologue in a double bill by two women playwrights digs deep into the human situation of individuals caught up in the conflict in Ukraine. What is immediately striking as you watch this hard-hitting pairing of dramas, actually…

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Kafka and Son ★★★★★

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Kafka and Son ★★★★★

Based on Franz Kafka’s famous Letter to His Father, award-winning Canadian director and producer Alon Nashman turns in a deeply moving and credible interpretation of the Czech writer's turbulent relationship with his father Hermann. The sparse set, featuring hundreds of black…

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Ivor Dembina: Old Jewish Jokes ★★★★

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Ivor Dembina: Old Jewish Jokes ★★★★

Thirty years ago I saw Ivor Dembina walk onto a stage in north London and announce to an unsuspecting crowd: “Right, let’s have the Hatikvah” (a 19th-century Jewish poem and Israel's national anthem). It was an early sign of the path he was looking to tread. One of my favourite…