SAN DIEGO — There are fewer movies about the Sephardim than ones about Ashkenazim, and many of those that do exist aren’t available for streaming. Here’s a partial list of some you can stream at home.
Daniel Deronda: Series adapted from George Elliot’s eponymous novel. Hulu.
Every Time We Say Goodbye: American solider convalescing in Mandatory Palestine falls in love with Sephardic woman, much to the dismay of her family. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu.
The Garden of the Finzi Continis: Oscar-winning film about how a wealthy Italian family fails to realize how vulnerable they are to fascist and Nazi anti-Semitic policies.
The Governess: Sephardic woman from London disguises herself as a Protestant to flee an arranged marriage and serve as a governess for Scottish family. Amazon, Vudu.
The Heritage: An Eternity of Love: An Israeli man seeks to regain his ancestor’s house in Spain and discovers its history. He falls in love with a Spanish Gentile woman like one of his female ancestors had done with a Christian man during the Inquisition.
Magic Men: An elderly Israeli man returns to Greece with his son to find the man who saved him during the Holocaust.
The Midnight Orchestra: Son of a famous Moroccan Jewish musician returns there to bury his father and meets the musicians he once played with. Hoopla
The Optimists: Documentary about the rescue of Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust. Amazon.
The Rabbi’s Cat: A whimsical animated film set in Algeria about a rabbi’s speaking cat who converts to Judaism. It shifts from religious debates, Jewish texts brought by a Russian Jew, and a quest to liberate a community of black Jews. Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.
Rescue in Albania: How Albanians saved the majority of Jews in their country during the Holocaust.
Sallah: The classic Israeli comedy about how North African olim were “absorbed” into Israeli society and how they learned to outwit the bureaucracy.
Sefarad: The Jewish community of Oporto funded this docudrama about the exile of Jews from Portugal and the campaign to persuade crypto-Jews to identify themselves and affiliate with the Askenazi community that had established itself in the country by the 1920s. Amazon.
Song of the Sephardi–David Raphael: Sephardic music.
Sons of Liberty. A short biopic from 1939 about the Sephardic financier Haym Solomon who helped fund the Revolutionary War.
Stars: A German soldier falls in love with a Bulgarian Jewish girl he meets while transporting her to a concentration camp.
A Summer in La Goulette: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim girls in Tunisia decide to lose their virginity over the summer, but the Six Day War strains their relationships. Kanopy.
Triumph of the Sprit: A Jewish boxer from Salonika fights to entertain the SS and survive in Auschwitz. Amazon, iTunes, Vudu.
Turn Left at the End of the World: Olim from India and Morocco cling to their British and French traditions in a development town.
The Wedding Song: A Muslim woman and Sephardic Jewish woman who are friends prepare for their marriages amidst the backdrop of the Nazi occupation of Tunisia. Amazon.
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Laurie Baron, Ph.D, is professor emeritus of European History at San Diego State University; a humor columnist (in his own name and in that of his dog Elona), and is an authority on Jewish-themed movies, particularly those dealing with the Holocaust. To see an archive of his stories, please click on his byline at the top of this page. He may be contacted via lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com
Novia Que Te Vea is an excellent movie in Ladino and Spanish with subtitles.