JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL OF BUDAPEST,  NOVEMBER 20-23, 201

There are now more Jewish film festivals around than you can shake a silver mezuzah at, located primarily in cities around the globe with significant Jewish populations. Most of these festivals tend to program films selected strictly for Jewish content with little concern for their overall cinematic quality as long as the content fits the bill.  The BUDAPESTI ZSIDÓ FILMFESZTIVÁL, now only in its third year, is a notable exception to the rule of mediocrity: to sit,  anything accepted as long as the theme is sufficiently Judaic.

Every single film programmed at Budapest was a winner of one kind or another regardless of Jewishness, and the opening film, the highly touted new English WW II Decoding Drama "The Imitation Game", was already an indication that the savvy Budapest programmers really Mean Business.

 IMITATION Game is the the story of the brilliant British mathematician Alan Turing who cracked the theoretically undecipherable German military code in WW II which turned out to be a major factor in the defeat of the Nazi juggernaut.  This is one of the big pictures of the year and will be a major contender at the 2015 Oscars -- Not bad for openers!

A sampling of other films presented in this compact four day late November festival follows:

From Agentina by one if the leading (Jewish) Argentine directors, Daniel Burman,  "La Suerte en tus Manos" is the intriguing story of a Jewish poker virtuoso in the gambling Casino world of Buenos Aires; The title translates as "Luck is in your hands" and the milieu is mainly high rolling B.A. Hebrews one of whom wears a cap with the Hebrew Word for luck, MAZEL, printed on it in large Hebrew letters.

"In The Shadow" (Ve Stínu) is a Czech political Noir thriller set in Communist Prague of the early fifties where Jews are framed for a Holdup murder and put on trial in a typical communist Mock Trial at a time when the Cold War Communist party line was strongly anti both the United Stares and Israel. With meticulously accurate recreation of the period decor and realistic performances, this is a  cousin of the Vienna set cold warm drama of 1949, "The Third Man" with Orson Welles. Czech actor Ivan Trojan is a forerunner of Dirty Harry and Sebastain Koch is a mysterious visitor from Germany who will be a key witness at the phony trial. Classy film in a very dark key

BLUMENTHAL, is a minimalist New York family dromedy about a very successful comedian named Blumenthal who dies laughing at his own jokes and his resentful  writer of a brother who feels his deceased sibling's success was based on blatant plagarism of his own writing. To get posthumously even he picks up on dead brother's attractive former mistress. The key figure, however, is the comedian's son slickly played by Seth Fisher, who also wrote and directed the pic. Doesn't sound like much on paper but this deft urbane comedy was a true discovery of a major new talent. Seth Miller is a name to remember.

"Kaddish for a Friend", a 2012 entry from Germany, has traveled the festival circuit but deserves to be seen more widely. This is the gripping tale of a true friendship that develops but only after much hostile agitation, between a solitary elderly Jewish immigrant from Russia  and a young Jew hating Palestinian immigrant in Berlin. In the final graveside scene there is noone to say the required mourners Kaddish prayer as the deceased Jew had no family, so the young Palestinian comes forward to do the Honors. Obviously a call for reconciliation between Palestinians and Jews, but in many ways it goes beyond that simple equation. A very good personal drama aside from the political message angle.

"Mahler on the Couch" is another German film that has been at many festivals but has not been seen enough. The famous Jewish composer Gustav Mahler and the founder of Psychiatry Sigmund Freud,  (Also Jewish, but nor very happy about it)  both lived in Vienna at the same time but whether they actually met is an open question. This picture not only assumes they did, but also hypothesizes that Mahler underwent psychotherapy on Freud's famous couch. Highly speculative but highly interesting and dramatic as well with some pretty heady roles. Intriguing to say the least.

"Du Vent dans mes Mollets" (AKA, "Dandelions" for reason which emerge from the story) is a film that centers on two elementary school girls, one from a Jewish family with a very Jewish mother (the superb actress Agnes Jaoui) and the wider effect of their schoolmate friendship on the parents of both. Beautifully shot in the lush French countryside with subtleties that are better witnessed than explained. A very complex yet simple touching tale in French, but, unfortunately the print I saw was dubbed into Hungarian. However, an IMDb reviewer quote sums it up nicely: 

Funny AND poignant, inventive AND serious, entertaining AND thought- provoking, "Du vent dans mes mollets" has not been a box office success in France for nothing.  

It was beautiful to watch and Jaoui has such ripe visual charisma she is worth watching even when you don't know what she's saying -- but I will need to see it again WITH subtitles, and will make a point of doing so.

A second French entry was "Le Métis de Dieu" or "The Jewish Cardinal" based on the actual biography of Jean-Marie Lustiger, the Archbishop of Orléans from 1981 to 2005. The Jewish catch -- and what a catch it is -- is that Lustiger was actually a Polish born Jew who was made to convert to Catholicism early in life and then rose through the ranks of the French Catholic hierarchy in an irrepresible arc.

Always aware of his Jewish background he suffers all kinds of conflicts, internal and external, but eventually becomes buddies with Polish Pope John Paul II -- so friendly in fact  that he calls the Pope by his secular first name, Karol, (originally Karol Wojtyla) at the Vatican dinner table.

The portrayal of Pope Jean-Paul II by actor Aurélien Recoing is so off-the-wall that this aspect of the film alone would be well worth the price of admission to any self-respecting Polak.

It is known that Jean Paul was athletic, but here we see him plunging into his private swimming pool, driving a car, and  generally cavorting around like a rather ribald ordinary citizen.  Obviously a point director Ilan Duran Cohen (obviously Jewish from the name) wanted to make in passing. 

The climax is reached when at The Pope's behest Lustiger is called upon to act as an intermediary negotiator at the gates of Auschwitz  between Christian proponents of a Carmelite Convent put up next to the former Concentration Camp, and vehemently protesting Jews who consider it an outrage to erect a Christian monument on the very ground where so many Jews were murdered --  (by Christians! -- even if not in the name of religion.).  This is a gripping drama straight through with complex psychological repercussions at every turn. Originally made for French TV but reads far more like an in situ cinema film. Laurent Lucas is Lustiger in a role to remember. Great picture, and not only for the obviously Jewish content. BRAVO, Ilan D. Cohen.