Vancouver Jewish Film Festival opens online event with searing anti-war epic Image of Victory; runs to March 13
Documentaries on Fiddler on the Roof and Jewish wagon trains are also on a roster that includes Q&As
The Vancouver Jewish Film Festival runs online from March 3 to 13
THE ALL-ONLINE VANCOUVER Jewish Film Festival opens tonight with the Canadian premiere of a film that tells a war story from two unique vantage points.
Avi Nesher’s Image of Victory centres on the Battle of Nitzanim during Israel’s War of Independence—when a small kibbutz in the South was pressured to hold the line against the Egyptian forces that vastly outnumbered it.
The film looks at the event not only from the perspective of the Jewish residents and soldiers at the kibbutz, but from that of a journalist from Cairo who’s embedded with Egyptian troops. The result is a sweeping, beautifully shot anti-war epic that paints a complex picture of the cost of “victory”. (Nesher and producer Ehud Bleiberg join a virtual Q&A March 6 at 11 am.)
Other standouts at the fest include the documentary Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen, an intimate and often funny film about director Norman Jewison’s quest to make Fiddler on the Roof, with Jeff Goldblum on hand as narrator. (Watch for a virtual Q&A with director Daniel Raim March 7 at 7 pm.) And Jews of the Wild West makes its international premiere, with the true story of more than two million Jews fleeing oppression, violence, and forced poverty in Europe who took to wagon trains in search of a better life in America. (Director Amanda Kinsey and author Ben Freeman attend a Q&A on March 13 at 5 pm.)
There's much more on the 33rd annual fest's roster; see the lineup and find tickets at www.vjff.org/.
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