Jewish International Film Festival ticket giveaway

Melburnians rejoice! The snap 5-day lockdown is over just in time for the Jewish International Film Festival (JIFF). Screening at Classic Cinemas in Elsternwick and Lido Cinemas in Hawthorn, JIFF will grace the big screen with stars, dramas and sensational true stories. After the tumult of 2020, this year’s festival experience is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the full psychedelic spectrum of great contemporary cinema. Milk Bar interviewed Lindy Tamir, the Director of JIFF, to get her recommendations and goss about the festival. 

In your own words, can you give us a preview of what moviegoers can expect from JIFF?

Moviegoers can expect an in-cinema festival of 52 Australian movie premieres. The feature length films, series and documentaries are from 19 countries. JIFF plays in 7 cinemas nationally for a month from 17 February.

What is the process in finalising a robust and compelling program?

We managed to attend Berlin Film festival in February 2020, and after that Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals online. Over the year, artistic director Eddie Tamir and I viewed 300 films that have Jewish content.   [Once approved] we negotiated and paid the price to secure the best art films.

Looking at this year’s program, it seems that there is a consorted effort to tell distinctly female stories. Can you give us a preview of some of the films that have been chosen?

A lot of that is thanks to Shira Haas (the star of Unorthodox). She features in 3 of our films. Asia, starring Shira, is Israel’s entry for the Best International Film category for the upcoming Academy Awards®. Also included in our `Shira Fest’ are Esua and our super closing-night screening of the first 3 episodes of season 3’s Shisel. We also have a new documentary on Ruth Bader Ginzburg called Ruth – Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words.

Which films do you think will be much-loved by audiences, and which ones may be potentially controversial? And which is your personal favourite?

Much loved will be our French (The End of Love), Italian (Thou Shall not Hate) and German (Persian Lessons) feature films. My personal favourite is an Israeli father-son road-trip movie called Here We Are by director Nir Bergman. It was in official selection at Cannes 2020. Relevant to the world today, is our opening film Incitement, an exhilarating drama about the radicalisation of the murderer of the Israeli prime minister  Rabin by Yigal Amir. It was Israels submission for the 2020 Academy Awards®. Fascinating is the documentary Til Kingdom Come, focusing on the millions of American Evangelicals who prey for the state of Israel.

To celebrate JIFF – and the end of lockdown – Milk Bar is rewarding our faithful winners the chance to win 2 FREE double passes. To enter, all you need do is email ross@milkbarmag.com with the subject line ‘JIFF ticket giveaway’ and tell us which film you’re most excited to see and include your postal address.

Good luck!

Jewish International Film Festival 
Till Sunday 25 April 2021
jiff.com.au