Concrete Playground

The Jewish Film Festival is turning 21. Cue the tuxedos, heartfelt, wine-soaked speeches and atmosphere of soon-to-be-oppressive expectancy. You’re all grown up now, ya hear?

Or you could just cue the cinema: 25 films representing the most exciting crop of contemporary Jewish filmmaking, kicking off with a crowd pleaser from Cannes The Names of Love. This bubbly satire sees an Algerian beauty seduce a Jewish-French scientist, only to have all manner of Arab-Jewish, politically incorrect hilarity ensue. Another cross-cultural comedy comes by way of Denmark with Ulrick Gutkin’s autographical documentary Me and That Jewish Thing. The film follows Gutkin and his non-Jewish girlfriend as they negotiate the tricky, religious ramifications of their first-born child.

An intriguing array of modern tales, historical dramas and keen documentaries round out the programme, coming from as far a field as the US and the Netherlands. Or both, in the case of Holy Rollers, which premiered at Sundance and follows a young Hasid Sam (played by The Social Network's Jesse Eisenberg) seeking to earn an extra buck by transporting medicine from Amsterdam to Brooklyn. Alongside this raft of Australian premieres, cinephiles who may have missed seeing the black comedy Nora’s Will at the Spanish Film Festival, or the historical sporting film Berlin ’36 at the German Film Festival, can happily catch up on both here, plus a whole lot more besides.