The 3rd Moscow Jewish Film Festival is an annual international film festival, which aims to gather in the program features, documentaries, shorts and animated films on the subject of Jewish culture, history and national identity and contemporary problems. The festival was held in Moscow from 12 to 20 June 2017,[1] at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Documentary Film Center, cinema GUM and KARO 11 cinema Oktyabr.[2][3]
Opening film of the festival was The Bloom of Yesterday directed by Chris Kraus.[4] The film was presented by famous German actor Lars Eidinger.[5] The opening ceremony was held in cinema Oktyabr which gathered about 1,600 spectators.[6]
In addition to film screenings educational program was organized in the framework of the festival, consisting of lectures, discussions and debates. A famous film director and screenwriter Andrei Konchalovsky told about unique personal ideas of paradise and about how they relate to collective past experiences. Nikolay Polissky is a protagonist of the film The storyteller. After Walter Benjamin, a Russian artist, a founder of the Archstoyanie festival and Nikola Lenivets art park discussed with the film’s audience the power of conceptual thinking. Tatyana Tarasova and Yuval Rabin had a conversation about life and tragic death of Yitzhak Rabin.Isabel Gathof is the screenwriter and director of the film Moritz Daniel Oppenheim – The first Jewish painter spoke about why Moritz Oppenheim’s life and art matter today. Naor Meningher is an independent film director, and the author of the short documentary Our Hebrews discussed the phenomenon of small Jewish communities. Arseniy Semenov is a lead actor in the film Song of Songs told about Sholem Aleichem and what was everyday life like for the Jews in the beginning of the 20th century.[20]
As a part of the special event Another Planet. Why do we need a virtual Auschwitz? a film director Amir Yatsiv and film critic Larysa Malyukova discussed the rare genre of the animated documentary. Leila Guchmazova is a ballet critica jury member of the National Theatre Award "Golden Mask" gave a lecture about a famous Israeli Ohad Naharin. Ilya Altman discussed with the audience alternative ways of escape from horrors of the Holocaust.[21]
The 3rd Moscow Jewish Film Festival will open with the screening of The Bloom of Yesterday directed by Chris Kraus. The picture will be presented by Lars Eidinger.[22] The closing ceremony of the 3rd Moscow Jewish Film Festival was held in the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. The jurors have presented awards in each of the four competition categories and one special prize. And also held a special screening of the war drama Kholodnoe tango directed by Pavel Chukhray. The film was presented by actress Yulia Peresild, producer Sabina Eremeeva and cameraman Igor Klebanov.[23]
It was also announced that an award named after Yakov Kaller is going to be established. It will be presented to the best film of the Moscow Jewish Film Festival’s program that was made in Russia. This year, the award went to the film Brutus directed by Konstantin Fam.[24]
