Emma Thompson Film Will Open AJFF
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival for the second consecutive year will open with a Nazi-related drama featuring big Hollywood stars and close with a movie from Israel.
A year after Atom Egoyan’s “Remember” kicked off the 16th festival with Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau, Oscar winner Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson will hit the big screen at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in “Alone in Berlin” on opening night Tuesday, Jan. 24.
They play a husband and wife who resist the Nazi regime by dropping anti-Hitler postcards around the German capital after their son is killed in World War II. Vincent Perez directs the film, based on a novel by Hans Fallada that was inspired by a true story.
Closing night at the Woodruff Arts Center again replaces thrills with fun. Last year, it was Philadelphia chef Michael Solomonov going “In Search of Israeli Cuisine.” This year, it’s the feminist comedy “The Women’s Balcony” on Wednesday, Feb. 15.
Nominated for five Israeli Academy Awards, the film depicts a Jerusalem Sephardic congregation’s struggles over the proper place of women after the balcony collapses during a bar mitzvah party.
The ACCESS-sponsored Young Professionals Night on Saturday, Feb. 11, features a German romantic comedy, “Family Commitments,” about the wedding plans of a Jewish man and an Arab Muslim man, with the complication of a pregnancy blamed on one of them.
The full festival lineup will be announced Friday, Jan. 6. Tickets will go on sale Wednesday, Jan. 18. The AJT’s festival preview section will part of our Jan. 13 issue.
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