Top 10 Jewish Movies of 2016

The Wandering Review

By Laurie Baron

SAN DIEGO — Since the film awards season is upon us, it is time to announce a list of the films that impressed me the most during 2016.  I always caution my readers that I have all of the Jewish-themed documentary and feature film released last year, including many that will be screened at the upcoming San Diego Jewish Film Festival.

BEST FEATURE FILMS

Baba Joon, Directed by Yuval Delshad (Israel: 2015).         Although premiering in Israel in 2015, Baba Joon did not reach American screens until 2016.  It focuses on an Iranian-Jewish family of turkey farmers in Israel.  Like many stories about the immigrant experience, the plot revolves around the conflict between a son and his father over whether the former must continue in the family business.  The acting is superb. Much of the dialogue is in Farsi. Baba Joon won five Israeli Ophir Awards including the one for best picture.  It was Israel’s nominee for the best foreign language film Oscar in 2016.
*

Denial, Directed by Mick Jackson (UK,USA: 2016).

Based on the trial of Deborah Lipstadt for slandering David Irving as a Holocaust denier, Denial was one of the most substantive courtroom dramas of the year.  Rachel Weisz captures Lipstadt’s indefatigable commitment to the historicity of the Holocaust.  Yielding to her lawyer’s defense strategy, Lipstadt did not testify and deferred to eminent Holocaust scholars to prove how Irving falsified and misinterpreted evidence to substantiate his claim that there was no systematic German policy to eradicate European Jewry.

*

Indignation, Directed by James Schamus (China, USA: 2016).

This adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel depicts the latent anti-Semitism experienced by a Jewish student at a predominantly Christian liberal arts college in the Midwest during the 1950s.  The verbal dueling between the protagonist Marcus and the dean proves more fascinating than the formulaic Roth love story between Marcus and the sexually liberated but psychologically unstable “shiksa” Olivia. Nevertheless, the acting, cinematography, and dialogue are terrific.
*

The People vs. Fritz Bauer, Directed by Lars Kraume (Germany: 2015).

Frankfurt District Attorney Fritz Bauer devoted himself to ferreting out Nazi war criminals.  After tracking down Adolf Eichmann in Argentina, he leaked his information to the Mossad when his West German superiors sabotaged his efforts to bring Eichmann to justice.  Burghart Klaußner’s performance as the eponymous lead who encountered prejudice as a homosexual, Jew, and socialist make this a compelling film.  The People vs. Fritz Bauer won the German Film Awards for best actor, director, picture, and screenplay.  It has been chosen as the centerpiece film for the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
*

Sandstorm, Directed by Elite Zexer (Israel: 2016).

A freethinking daughter falls in love with a boy she met at school and plans to marry him.  Her father insists that she marry a man he has selected for her.  Sounds like Fiddler on the Roof except that the girl is an Israeli Bedouin.  Although the quandary is familiar to Jewish audiences, the culture is not.  Sandstorm garnered 12 Ophir nominations and received the award in six categories including best picture and director.  It was Israel’s nominee for the best foreign language film Oscar this year.  You can watch it on Netflix.

BEST DOCUMENTARIES

The Last Laugh, Ferne Pearlstein (USA: 2016).

To laugh or not the laugh?  That certainly is the question when it comes to joking about the Holocaust.  Does such humor insult the victims and trivialize their ordeal?  The Last Laugh presents comedians and survivors discussing whether there should be limits to invoking the Shoah to be funny.  It trusts members of the audience to decide where that line should be drawn.  The Last Laugh will be screened as part of the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
*

Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (USA: 2016).
Norman Lear pioneered the politically relevant and socially trenchant television sitcom.  Just Another Version of You traces his contributions to this genre with clips from his hit series like All in the Family, Moving On Up, Maude, and The Jeffersons and from interviews of him, actors cast in his programs, and comedians influenced by his productions.  Rather than just mocking the foibles of American society, Lear founded People for the American Way to confront the shortcomings his sitcoms satirized.
*

Rabin in His Own Words, Directed by Erez Laufer (Israel: 2015).

Rarely does a title so accurately reflect the contents of a film.  Yitzhak Rabin speaks for himself through excerpts from letters, interviews, and newsreel footage. This documentary chronicles modern Israeli history from the War of Independence through his tenure as Defense Minister and Prime Minister.  To be sure, the film suffers from a lack of background history and critical assessments of Rabin’s political legacy.  Nevertheless, his forebodings that Jewish settlements in the West Bank would ultimately undermine Israeli democracy and the prospects for peace still ring true.  Rabin in His Own Words will be shown at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.

*

Weiner, Directed by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg (USA: 2016).

Anthony Weiner’s spectacular rise in the House of Representative and sordid fall for sexting are more pathetic than tragic.  His inability to restrain himself from returning to the habits that cost him his congressional seat eclipsed his reputation as a fiery crusader for progressive causes.  Weiner concentrates on his disastrous 2013 campaign for mayor of New where he plummeted from the contrite frontrunner to the humiliated last-place finisher due to new incriminating revelations. The directors had access to the inner debates of his campaign team.
*

Zero Days, Directed by Alex Gibney (USA: 2016).

In 2010 computer malware dubbed Stuxnet caused 2,000 centrifuges to malfunction at the Natanz nuclear enrichment plant in Iran.  It was developed by a joint American-Israeli program begun under George Bush and expanded by Barack Obama to hinder Iran’s development of nuclear weapons and thereby avert an Israeli air strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.  Once the Iranians identified the worm and removed it, they employed a variant of it against Saudi Aramco and American banks. Acclaimed documentarian Alex Gibney recounts the history of this operation and what it portends for the future of cyberwar.

*
Baron is a professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University.  He may be contacted at lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com.