H EADLINES
Fest Continued from Page 1
had to actually accommodate
everybody in the theater, we
probably would not have been
able to,” she said.

Th ough it’s not the version
of the festival that Chriqui her
team would like to be putting
on, this year’s slate of fi lms
refl ects an enduring commit-
ment to the core mission.

“We cannot do the festival, but
we are committed to bringing to
our audience and our supporters
the latest and the newest Israeli
releases,” said Hava Grunwald,
the festival coordinator.

Th e 2020 edition of the
festival was cut short, just one
weekend into its March run.

Chriqui and the IFF agonized
over the movies that their
audiences would never get to
see; fi nally, last fall, they were
able to send out links for online
viewing. It was good practice for this
spring. Th e organizers have
opted for a “theater” model,
whereby viewers watch movies
at the same time as others, rather
than at their convenience.

“We wanted them to feel
part of this whole festival,”
Chriqui said.

Th e festival began on Feb. 25
and continues for eight weeks.

Th e IFF sends emails each
Th ursday at noon with links
to contemporary Israeli fi lms.

Interested viewers should visit
iff phila.com and sign up for
emails under “Join” to receive
links to each movie.

Several movies will feature
options to sign up for Zoom
discussions with the creators
and subjects (six out of the
eight movies are documenta-
ries). However, that schedule
hasn’t been fi nalized.

Here is just a taste of the
festival’s programming.

‘A Lullaby for the Valley,’
directed by Ben Shani, April 1
At the beginning of the
documentary “A Lullaby for the
Valley,” the painter Eli Shamir
seems perfectly suited to his
primary subject, the Jezreel
Valley: He’s unceasingly warm,
slyly magnetic and generally
amused at the prospect of his
own existence. It’s as if he’s
saying, with an air of disbe-
lief, “I, Eli Shamir, son of a
farmer, have my paintings sold
at unthinkable rates to dealers
the world over? What can you
do but laugh at such fortune?”
It’s a good thing he starts
out that way, because Shamir,
in his late 50s when fi lming
began in 2011, was diagnosed
with Parkinson’s disease in
2014. Over the next several
years, as director Ben Shani
chronicles, Shamir confronts
his declining physical abili-
ties each day. For someone
who describes his work as an
attempt to “capture the world”
with the movement of his wrist,
it begs the question: What if
he can’t move his wrist the
right way?
Shani followed Shamir the
artist and Shamir the man,
bridging any distance between
the two. Shani has an eye for
Shamir’s tiny dignities, from
the respect he gives to his
models to his desire to paint
approachable, idyllic scenes.

When Shamir’s physical
decline worsens, Shani is with
him in hospital scenes that are
darkly funny.

Shani declares his admira-
tion for Shamir’s work in one
of the movie’s fi rst scenes, but
it would be apparent even if
he didn’t say it. Th e shots of
life on Shamir’s farm seem
to be cinematic companions
Eli Shamir, the subject of Ben Shani’s “A Lullaby for the Valley”
Courtesy of Go2Films
to Shamir’s art; the painter is
lucky to have someone convey
the way he sees the world with
such fi delity.

Th e offi cial premiere of this
fi lm is in April; this screening
represents a sneak preview.

‘Marry Me However,’ directed
by Mordechai Vardi, March 18
Rabbi Mordechai Vardi’s fi lm
about the lives of LGBT Israelis
who entered heterosexual
marriages for religious reasons
is a tale of both confusion and
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in our
Directories Call
215-832-0749 clarity. Th e problem for many
of the documentary’s subjects
is that there are legions of
people around them who seek
to muddle what is clear and
simplify what cannot be.

For those who stay with a
partner they’re not attracted to
or who decide on divorce, there
are few they can approach for
advice. Conversely, when it
comes to sexual attraction —
the one subject they’re certain
about — there are more than
enough conversion “therapists”
hawking dubious medical and
moral claims.

Some of the fi lm’s subjects
are supported by their families,
but many are not. Th e opening
scene of a gay man’s wedding to
his wife — in which the melan-
choly of the groom contrasts
with the merriment of the
revelers — plays like a man
being led to his execution.

What the subjects of “Marry
Me However” are oft en left
with, then, is each other, and
the growing ranks of psychol-
ogists and rabbis who try to
facilitate their acceptance in
Israeli society. Vardi’s movie
doesn’t have to work hard to
make the case that it will be a
long road. But the instances of
reconciliation we see make it
clear that it will be worth it. ●
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM