Despite the challenges it faced over the past year, the Miami Jewish Film Festival returns this week with its largest and most ambitious program ever. While much of 2020 has been defined by isolation and social distance, the festival has placed accessibility above all else. The 24th edition includes virtual screenings, drive-ins, and in-person outdoor viewings, allowing for multiple entry points. Moreover, festival organizers have gone great lengths to offer all of this year’s content free of charge, eliminating any barrier to discovering the latest and best contemporary Jewish cinema. With more than 100 films screening over the next two weeks (April 14-29), there s plenty of time to find your favorites.
Slamdance Premiere: 02.12
ISAAC is a film about tension. It’s a theme that grabs you and doesn’t let go, from tensions rising between characters to the tension created in my dorm room as I watched. It bubbles slowly like a boiling pot, and when it boils over, it burns like hell.
Everything in ISAAC centers around one true event: the murder of a Jewish man, Isaac, in the Lietukis Garge massacre in 1941, German-occupied Lithuania. The Nazis have wiped out nearly all Lithuanian Jews, but not without help several thousand Lithuanians assist. This massacre in particular was the product of Nazi-allied Lithuanians.