Andrey (Vlad Dubinsky) is a young immigrant living with his little sister in the slums of the city of Ashdod and struggling to assimilate into Israeli society. He forms a hip-hop band with his three best friends with dreams of taking part in a local hip-hop competition, but the realities of life ...

Filmmaker Robert Mugge pays tribute to hundreds of American performers who assisted the military in World War II with rare period performances by beloved Jewish artists such as Jack Benny, Dinah Shore, Danny Kaye and Mel Blanc, plus Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Frances Langford, the And...

Set in Polanco (a Jewish quarter of Mexico City), family and friends sit shivah for their beloved patriarch Moishe, forcing them to confront each other - including a Catholic ex-lover, an Orthodox ex-convict grandson and a troupe of mariachi musicians. MY MEXICAN SHIVAH is a hilarious comedy abou...

Orthodox women Ruchama and Tikva embark on a journey to fulfill their dream of making movies within their closed society. Like other orthodox women who in recent years have started making films for strictly female audiences, they feel a strong need to express themselves despite strict rabbinical ...

Narrated by Susan Sarandon! | At 100 years old, Professor Irwin Corey finally reveals the magic behind his subversive and sophisticated double-talk. Irwin and his chain-smoking wife, confidante and #1 fan, Fran, afford filmmaker Jordan Stone intimate access to their lives and the inner workings o...

Two pre-teen girls meet through a digital educational project in Israel. Samar's father comes from the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Linor's family was evacuated from a Jewish settlement. Only 67 kilometers apart, yet an ideological gulf stands between them.

Directed by Nitzan Ofir
Israel, 2...

The pomegranate is the fruit of the land, a symbol of rejuvenation and rebirth. It is also a euphemism for a hand grenade. From the Academy Award-nominated director of 'The Restless Conscious' comes a suspenseful, multi-layered documentary centered on a group of young people born into a violent, ...

The eagerly anticipated follow-up to "Eyes Wide Open," celebrated Israeli director Haim Tabakman’s new film EWA is a moving drama about married life and the secrets couples keep from each other. When farmer Yoel finds out his wife Ewa owns a property he didn’t know existed, her hidden life comes ...

When best-selling author Joshua Foer began to build his first sukkah, a small hut that Jews build and dwell in every fall for the holiday of Sukkot, he wanted to move beyond the generic plywood boxes and canvas tents that have become the unimaginative status quo. And so was born the design compet...

Katherine Mitchell (Linda Thorson), a widowed yet vibrant senior, wasn't looking for love a second time - not at her age, and certainly not with grumpy Isaac Shapiro (Stuart Margolin). Despite the nosey bunch of seniors in the residence where Katherine convalesces after breaking her hip, she and ...

Keren Mor ("Checkout") stars in this beautifully rendered story filled with moments of heartbreak, humor and hope from filmmaker Sharon Bar-Ziv. A young IDF soldier critically injured during a Gaza military operation clings to life while his family prays and watches for any sign of improvement. D...

As she moves from Brazil to New York, filmmaker Fernanda Roth Faya looks back at her grandmother's migration as a way to find traces of her own identity in this nuanced short documentary.

Directed by Fernanda Roth Faya
United States/Brazil, 2019
Documentary, Jewish Culture, South America
Portugu...

An elderly Israeli Jew of Greek origins was sent to Greece to represent his town in a town twinning ceremony, however he went instead to search for his friend from the childhood, who saved him from the Holocaust. In meantime he formed a special relationship with young Greek woman, and dealt with ...

Jason and Olivia have been married for ten years, but now their relationship is going through a decline. They go to the Rabbi to ask for a divorce, but he sets them a rather unorthodox challenge.

Directed by Danny Scheinman and David Scheinman
United Kingdom, 2017
Comedy, Drama, Jewish Culture, ...

Anthrax is a found footage mystery that tells the story of reserve soldiers who volunteered to take part in an anthrax vaccine experiment during their military service. Seven years later they discover the vaccine has disastrous side effects. They set out to expose the truth and save their own liv...

Golden Globe and Tony Award winner Linda Lavin returns as infamous New York City talent agent, Yvette Slosch - determined to make a star out of her newest client, jazz violinist, Aaron Weinstein (himself). She refuses to let Aaron's lack of name recognition, jazz's dwindling fan base, or the 2020...

Tragedies play out for years. IN THE SHADOW OF MEMORY focuses on Jerri Zbiral, the daughter of a survivor of the Nazi destruction of the Catholic village of Lidice, Czechoslovakia. Even though Jerri was born after the war, her mother’s stories had a profound effect on her life. This compelling st...

Starring Max von Sydow, Theodore Bikel and Donald Pleasance! | In 1942, the Netherlands has become a place where Jews are being captured and murdered by the Nazis. Otto Frank (Max von Sydow) and his family go into hiding. During this uncomfortable time in hiding, Otto's teenage daughter, Anne Fra...

Starring Lee Strasberg (The Godfather Part II), Ruth Gordon (Harold & Maude) and Janet Leigh (Psycho)! | Married for 50 loving years, David (Lee Strasberg) and Becky (Ruth Gordon) have lived in the same Coney Island neighborhood for most of their life together. But the area is not what it used to...

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on for decades, with no end in sight. Fed up with one failed deal after another, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders agree to settle things once and for all... with a soccer match. One game. One winner. Losing side has to pick up and find a new home...

This documentary tells the life story and music of Niko Nissimov, and his Jewish friends from the Bulgarian Jazz band 'The Optimists'. The movie charts their rise to stardom as a band in late 1930's Bulgaria. The beginning of WWII changed everything for them, as Bulgaria joined the Axis powers. A...

With their three children, the Hermans set off on an adventurous trip from Thailand to Laos, Cambodia, China, and Kazakhstan, and from there along the Silk Road to Cyprus. Their journey is a fulfillment of a dream, and a chance to save their marriage. They fight and quarrel, laugh and cry. They m...

How did 50,000 Bulgarian Jews survive the Holocaust despite the efforts of the government to deport them? The Optimists tells the dramatic story of Christians and Muslims who, at the eleventh hour, secured the safety of their Jewish neighbors. Individuals made a difference. Labor unions, the Bulg...

Hananel, a young religious Jew, is hurrying home for Shabbat. An unexpected encounter with Mundir, an unwanted and stubborn Palestinian hitchhiker, leads Hananel on a series of mix-ups that eventually teaches him a lesson in communication, friendship and love.

Directed by Nadav Shlomo Giladi
Isr...

Past and present intertwine upon the discovery of an old, mysterious photograph that will end up tying together Christian and Jewish students in search of the truth. Trying to unravel the mystery behind the portrait, the boys embark on a journey through a night of horror that cannot be forgotten:...

In 1935, Max Shorenstein left his honorable position as chief Rabbi of Copenhagen, to fulfill a longtime dream: to build a zoo in Tel Aviv and teach the local children about the love of animals. Against all odds, the Tel Aviv Zoo became the city’s greatest attraction .Yet envy, greed and corrupti...

In a basement near Paris, unearth a recently discovered treasure-trove of Egyptian animated films from the Frenkel brothers: three exceptional young filmmakers and creators of Mish-Mish Effendi, the Mickey Mouse of the entire region, revealing an Arab-Jewish golden age erased from the pages of hi...

This unique documentary uses police archives, reenactments and animation to reveal the story of a Bedouin woman whose life is changed forever when her two-year old toddler is found at the bottom of a well in the Negev Desert. During 21 days of detention and interrogation, police officers exploit ...

Ethiopian-Israeli writer-director Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian makes a startlingly confident feature debut with this story of lives torn asunder by civil war. Set in Addis Ababa in 1989, Fig Tree follows a teenage girl's harrowing coming of age.

Mina is 16 years old. The Ethiopian Civil War has been und...

For many Israelis, the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 marked a grim turning point for their country. In the words of the commission set up to investigate the murder, “Israeli society [would] never be the same again. As a democracy, political assassination was not part of ou...

Assi (Ran Danker), a Tel-Avivian screenwriter stuck in his life, is sentenced to community service. His task — teaching cinema to disadvantaged teenagers in the southern city of Beersheba. As he pushes the group to open up, a special bond develops between Assi and his students as both sides are f...

FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM portrays the story of Soviet "Refuseniks" through the prism of Natan Sharansky's biography. In 1977, Sharansky, a famous human rights activist, was arrested on charges of spying for the USA, treason and anti-Soviet agitation. The film takes you back to a Soviet era where t...

When Avi Cohen is told by the Central Bureau of Statistics that he is the most average man who ever lived, his life is turned upside down.

"Wry and funny!"- Washington City Paper

Directed by Yaniv Segalovich
Israel, 2016
Comedy, Shorts, Israeli Culture
Hebrew (with English subtitles)
18 minutes

Acclaimed Israeli artist Elie Shamir paints the view from his studio balcony – fields stretching to the horizon, ancient oak trees, and a generation of farmers that is disappearing from the vistas of the Jezreel Valley. His large oils are treasured by collectors worldwide. It was director Ben Sha...

Featuring a stunning performance from legendary French actress Jeanne Moreau ("Jules et Jim"), acclaimed Israeli director Amos Gitaï ("Promised Land") presents a meditation on memory, identity, and the reconciliation that follows a French businessman’s growing obsession with the secrets of his fa...

This powerful film was produced in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and presents a surprising and unfamiliar portrait of Israel’s sixth prime minister. Menachem Begin led Israel for six dramatic and tumultuous years, which produced waves that are ...

CRUMBS is based on the true story of the last Passover Seder in the Warsaw Ghetto on April 19, 1943. Told from a perspective of a member of the hated "Judenrat," (Jewish Police), the audience will witness the intimate and volatile confrontations between Jews of different religious backgrounds, sp...

The beautiful coastline of Tel Aviv draws devoted beachgoers eager to find peace and relaxation in the Mediterranean. Among these, are residents of Bnei Brak, a closed orthodox suburb who frequent a gender-segregated stretch of seaside closed off to the neighboring gay beaches by a modesty fence....

Meseganio Tadela immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia with his family 28 years ago and chose to zealously retain his Ethiopian culture. He belongs to a rapidly disappearing generation. Tadela sets out on a journey through his children's homes after losing his wife. Coming to know some of life's har...

Thirty-year old Max (Félix Moati, THE FRENCH DISPATCH, SIMON AND THEODORE) is a single ophthalmologist and a real mama’s boy. Until she suddenly dies. Max should be devastated, yet he seems to be coping well. Too well. He actually still sees his mother, talks to her. She is not gone, still here,...

Shortly before her passing, Golda Meir was interviewed for the Israeli television. After the shooting ended the cameras kept rolling, recording an intimate talk with the first and only woman to ever rule Israel. As she lit one cigarette off the other, Golda spoke freely, pleading her case for her...

BEN-GURION, EPILOGUE brings to life a lost interview with one of modern history's greatest leaders, David Ben-Gurion. It is 1968, he is 82 and lives in the desert. Ben-Gurion's introspective soul-searching provides a surprising vision for crucial decisions Israel needs to make today. At the time ...

THE CROSSING tells the story of the adventurous 10-year-old Gerda and her brother Otto whose parents are in the Norwegian resistance movement during the Second World War. One day, just before Christmas in 1942, Gerda and Otto’s parents are arrested, leaving the siblings on their own. Following th...

Interweaving multiple perspectives and three generations of family memories, Yael Reuveny's "Farewell Herr Schwarz" traces a Holocaust mystery with stumbling curiosity and endearing sincerity.

"An absorbing documentary that eloquently explores questions about forgiveness." - Lou Lumenick, New Yo...

A deeply emotional story told through Klezmer music about identity, emigration, faith and disbelief. Once upon a time, there lived a musician and storyteller named Prince Nazaroff. Many people don’t believe he even existed, but these five modern-day musicians from across the world do. They call t...

In 1943, while the Allies are bombing Berlin and the Gestapo is purging the capital of Jews, a dangerous love affair blossoms between two women. One of them, Lilly Wust (NOWHERE IN AFRICA’s Juliane Köhler), married and the mother of four sons, enjoys the privileges of her stature as an exemplar o...

Meet Racheli and Menachem Hartman - a couple of religious Jews from Israel who are sent on a life-changing mission: to establish a Jewish home for the Chabad movement in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In this unique "fish out of water" story, even the simplest daily routines such as eating, shopping,...

Golden Globe nominee Shira Haas ("Unorthodox", "Shtisel") stars in this powerful story about a mother-daughter relationship which celebrates the preciousness that comes out of adversity. Asia (Alena Yiv) is a single mother to 17-year-old Vika (Shira Haas). Vika's deteriorating health urges Asia t...

A Jewish child deported to Kazakhstan is saved and adopted by Kasym, an old Kazakh railway-man. Kasym gives him a Kazakh name, Sabyr, that in Kazakh language means humble. The child grows up in the small Kazakh village along with other deportees Vera, a traitor's wife, and Ezhik a Polish doctor. ...

Narrated by Peter Coyote - Featuring Music by the legendary John Cale! | Between 1933 and 1941, hundreds of thousands of Jewish children left Europe for the U.S. and Great Britain. Between 1941 and 1945, tens of thousands went back….all grown up, heavily armed, and ready to strike back. This comp...

Preeminent Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher ("Past Life", "The Matchmaker") presents THE SECRETS, a beautifully evocative exploration of the passage into womanhood. While studying at a women's religious seminary in Safed, Naomi (Ania Bukstein, "Game of Thrones", "A Quiet Heart") and her new friend Mi...

Working Woman is a beautifully performed drama about the everyday struggles of being female in the workplace. Orna (Liron Ben Shlush) is the mother of three young children whose husband is struggling to start his own restaurant. To help support her family Orna lands a job with a former army super...

Exclusively on ChaiFlicks! | YidLife Crisis presents CHEWDAISM: A Taste of Jewish Montreal; a funny, heimish and enlightening historical and cultural tour of Jewish Montreal centered around its legendary foods. YidLife Crisis' Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion gorge themselves in choice eateries as th...

Academy Award nominees Toni Collette ("Little Miss Sunshine", 'The Sixth Sense") and Keisha Castle-Hughes ("Whale Rider") star in this hilarious coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old misfit (Danielle Catanzariti) at a fancy private school who secretly enrolls at a public school as a foreign exc...

Attractive, intelligent and witty, Gitel is a successful violinist who lives in a Kuybyshev apartment. To the outsider, she has everything. But Gitel hides a secret. A survivor of the Holocaust, she is haunted by painful memories of the past. One night she meets Lev, a quiet man who struggles wit...

Eric Stoltz gives one of his most powerful performances as Frank Stirn, who moves with his family to become a barber for the American Army and POW camp at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, in the summer of 1944. Embittered that he cannot fight, Frank must take a stand when a Nazi SS Officer threatens his wi...

'The Starfish' is the true story of a German-Jew, who at the age of 10, was taken in by a non-Jewish family in Sweden to escape Nazi persecution, and the events of his life that led him to return to Sweden 60 years later to try and reunite with that family.

Directed by Tyler Gildin
United States...

In honour of the Centennial year of Montreal's Federation CJA, Jamie and Eli of YidLife Crisis present a retrospective of '100 Years of Jewish Business in Montreal'.

By Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman
Canada, 2017
Yiddish (with English subtitles)
Documentary, Short Film, Canadian History, Jewish H...

In remote Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana, volunteer worker Gabrielle Zilkha made a stunning connection with a group of people who had practiced special rites, including circumcision and Kosher dietary laws, for centuries. Only recently had they discovered they were part of a worldwide religion with millions...

In this short film by pioneering neon animator Jack Feldstein, the Nobel Prize winning Yiddish writer Isaac B. Singer recounts his memories... which seem to have a mind of their own.

Directed by Jack Feldstein
United States, 2021
Animation, Documentary, Jewish History, Yiddish Culture
Yiddish (w...