Film Class: Jews in Italy

Tuesday, October 28 – The Tree of Life
Tuesday, November 18 – Facing Windows (La Finestra di Fronte)
Tuesday, December 16 – Primo

7:00 pm
BJE Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco
(415) 567-3327

Jonathan Schwartz and Howard Freedman screen and lead discussions on three Italian films.

The Tree of Life
Hava Volterra's documentary traces her travels from Los Angeles to Israel and Italy in an attempt to come to terms with the death of her Italian-born father. At the climax of her journey she coaxes her octogenarian aunt to return to Italy for the first time since World War II to offer thanks to the Catholic family that hid the Volterras after the German invasion. Entwined with this story, using stylized puppet animation, she also narrates the history of her ancestors’ role in the Italian Jewish community and in Italian politics and finance.
USA, 2008, 76 minutes, in English, and in Italian and Hebrew, with English subtitles.

Facing Windows (La Finestra di Fronte)
Giovanna, a working class Roman woman, finds that her already strained marriage only worsens when one night her husband brings home a confused old man, a Holocaust survivor. Her annoyance slowly gives way to curiosity and caring as she embarks on a quest to discover the man’s identity and find out where he belongs. As the mystery of the man’s past unravels, and as Giovanna discovers that her longing for a handsome neighbor is reciprocated, she confronts difficult decisions within her own life.
Italy, 2003, 102 minutes, in Italian with English subtitles.

Primo
A filmed performance of Anthony Sher’s astounding one-man show, adapted from Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man. Performing on a spare set with only a few props and music for solo cello, Sher summons the depth of Levi’s humanity and powers of observation as he recounts the experience of Auschwitz using only Primo Levi’s wrenching, understated prose.
Great Britain, 2004, 110 minutes, in English.

Co-sponsored by BJE Jewish Community Library, the Museo ItaloAmericano, and the Judah L. Magnes Museum.