CELEBRATING ISRAELI FILM

Little known fact: There are more film schools per capita in Israel than any other country in the world. It’s understandable, given the given the proud tradition of storytelling in the Jewish community.

From dramas and comedies to documentaries, the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema aims to bring the best of Israeli films to the big screen.

One of the highlights of this year’s festival is the documentary Vishniac, which tells the story of Roman Vishniac, whose photographs documented Jewish life in pre-war Berlin and the shtetls of Eastern Europe before they were wiped out by the Nazis.

“Roman Vishniac is one of those characters … the most famous person you’ve never heard of,” says Cindy Stern, Executive Director of the festival. “In the late 1930s, unbeknownst to him and to most of the people in the communities he photographed and filmed, he captured Jewish life when no one knew the Holocaust was coming.”

Vishniac himself made a harrowing escape from the Nazis, which the film centers on. It’s narrated by his daughter, who him while growing up. The family moved throughout Europe and eventually made its way to the United States.

“He was a real raconteur, a self-promoter, and he liked to bend the truth a bit,” Stern says. “That allowed him to do everything he did.”

The Jewish diaspora is a common theme that runs throughout the festival. This year’s will feature a documentary about the Moroccan Israeli community, and last year’s festival included a documentary about Jewish communities in Ethiopia.

“We try to take a deep dive into subcultures within Israel,” Stern says. “Even Israelis come up to me afterword and tell me they didn’t know about the topic.”

With so many quality films to choose from, curating the festival can be a challenge.

“We really think long and hard about which films to show. Fortunately, the industry in Israel is so prolific and so good and so collaborative that they’re able to produce great films year after year,” Stern says. “That’s why we’re really happy to have Israeli films as our product.”

With such diversity in the country, presenting a broad range of stories and experiences is almost a given.

“It’s a very rich culture and in Israel there are people from 120 different countries,” Stern says. “In a tiny country the size of New Jersey with nine million people, it’s incredibly diverse.”

At the heart of the festival’s mission is a vow to tell stories that cover as broad a spectrum of the Israeli experience as possible.

“We really try to seek out new stories that that our local audience might not have heard,” she explains. “It’s very rewarding to inform people as well as entertain them.”

The festival’s opening night on April 4 will feature an “Israel Repair Fair,” during which representatives from seven local and national Jewish organizations will share how they’re helping Israel rebuild after the October 7 attacks.

“It’s a nod to what’s happening right now because the country and its people are really suffering,” adds Stern.

For more information, visit israelifilmchi.org.