Complete Film Festival 2014 List

SVJFF Opening Night Special Event

On Opening Night we will welcome Rita Jahan Foruz, Israel's most famous female singer. Iranian-born, Rita, as she is universally known, moved to Israel as a child and has lived there ever since. In 2008 she was voted Israel's all-time number one female singer. As the "Wall Street Journal" noted, "Iran and Israel Can Agree on this: Rita Jahan Foruz Totally Rocks." The evening will feature the documentary "Rita Jahan Foruz." Rita will discuss her extraordinary career, take questions from the audience, and possibly offer a song or two. A dessert reception and opportunity to meet Rita will follow.

Learn More

One of the most controversial Polish films ever made, Aftermath is a harrowing mystery-thriller based on the real-life cover-up of a Jewish massacre at the hands of Catholic Poles.

Learn More

A Druze community is scandalized by the return of one of its native sons in Arabani, the first feature ever made by an Israeli-Druze filmmaker.

Learn More

The sudden death of a famed New York playwright looms over an eccentric family struggling with personal catharsis in this richly layered and briskly paced dramedy.

Learn More

Israeli beauty queen Linor Abargil was abducted and raped in Milan, Italy two months before being crowned Miss World in 1998. Ten years later, she's ready to talk about it — and encourage others to speak out. Discussion and program to follow. Presented in collaboration with teen organizations across Silicon Valley.

Learn More

A perky group of fresh-scrubbed young Israelis finds themselves the underdogs in an international singing contest in this musical comedy that celebrates life and love.

Learn More

A daughter digs up her parents' old WWII-era memories, a clandestine love affair, and secrets about her own origins in this time-shifting melodrama.

Learn More

Unexpected complications arise when a young German student travels to Israel to escape her country's tragic past in this provocative and engaging examination of the after-effects of the Holocaust.

Learn More

Sir Patrick Stewart and an impressive cast of Israeli top talent give bravura comic turns in this bank heist caper and coming-of-age tale.

Learn More

In Ida, a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland makes a shocking discovery about her past. 18-year old Anna is preparing to become a nun when the Mother Superior insists she first visit her sole living relative. Her aunt shocks her with the declaration that her real name is Ida and her Jewish parents were murdered during the Nazi occupation.

Learn More

When Igor's mother decides for both of them to migrate from Russia to Israel, he must learn to face many new challenges, just as the baby crane he observed hatching must soon set out on his first migration.

Learn More

Domestic entanglements involving a family of opposites set the stage for a distinctly French mix of romance and pratfalls in the breezy comedy.

Learn More

The amazing true story of Jean-Marie Lustiger, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, who rose to become Archbishop of Paris.

Learn More

As the world's oldest pianist and Holocaust survivor, 109 year-old Alice Herz Sommer shares her views on how to live a long and happy life.

Shown with The Return of the Violin.

Learn More

This award-winning documentary follows a boy born in Israel to a Jewish mother and Palestinian father ... a father who was eventually arrested and convicted for 22 bloody terror attacks inside Israel.

Following the film, Director Nurit Keder will join us via Skype.

Learn More

On a flight home to Chicago for a family wedding, childhood friends Josh and Molly innocently agree to fake a wedding engagement to make Josh's dying father happy. Things quickly get out of hand and a series of events cause them to start planning a phony wedding.

Learn More

Compelling and intimate, Out in the Dark follows a border-crossing relationship between an Israeli lawyer and Palestinian student.

Following the film, Director Michael Mayer will join us in person.

Learn More

When a retired general lies on his deathbed, bitter and alone, his estranged son, an ultra-orthodox Jew, tries to save his soul from hell.

Following the October 25th film, actor Alon Aboutboul will join us in person.

Learn More

This story of survival—of a people and a violin—traces the history of a Stradivarius violin once owned by the founder of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. Stolen twice, it was eventually purchased by celebrated violinist Joshua Bell.

Shown with The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life.

Learn More

This saga of courage and compassion tells the extraordinary true story of a Polish boy who seeks the kindness of others in his solitary struggle to outlast the Nazi occupation and keep his Jewish faith alive.

Learn More

Moises, a Filipino single-dad working as a caregiver in Herzliya, Israel, is forced to hide his children after the Israeli government decides to deport children of immigrant workers.

Learn More

Two businessmen—one Palestinian and one Israeli—struggle to set up a solar energy company. The film explores how they overcome hostility from within their own families and from the people around them.

Learn More

Why are there so many Jewish comedians? This film answers this question with an entertaining portrait of this country's greatest generation of comics.

Join us for a special Closing Night with Guest Speaker Larry King.

Learn More

An inscrutable cool-cat loafer, a hard-boiled gumshoe and a knockout femme fatale get mixed up in a labyrinthine religious conspiracy within the dark heart of Jerusalem, in this fantastical and strange adventure.

Learn More

This dazzling and witty adventure about a 12-year-old boy named Nono uses humor to explore fundamental questions of good and evil.

Learn More